I didn’t watch The Real Housewives of DC the night before last, but it may have been playing in the background while I was trying to fall asleep. Besides hearing people Obama name drop often enough that you could make a college drinking game out of watching the show, I also noticed that lobbying was mentioned multiple times. I don’t really get how lobbying works, but I know that anyone (or I should say any entity) with a political agenda pretty much has to participate. For every interest there is a lobbying group, and some are far more powerful than others. Often this power goes against the public interest. U.S. PIRG is a non-profit federation of state Public Interest Research Groups that “stands up to powerful special interests on behalf of the American public, working to win concrete results for our health and our well-being.” They’re headquartered in Boston, MA; however, they have a Federal Advocacy Office in Washington, DC and state chapters all across the country. Oddly enough U.S. PIRG and its affiliates have chosen to fight lobbying and special interests by being a lobbying group. I understand that they’re fighting for the public interest, but that’s still a special interest, right?

Enter PIRG-atory

U.S. PIRG and the state PIRGs are focused on a number of issues. These include Consumer Protection, Financial Security, Reforming Health Care, Toxics & Public Health, Transportation Solutions, Elections & Government Reform, Tax and Budget Policy, and Affordable Higher Education. I don’t think that anyone would disagree with the fact that these are all important issues. That’s why U.S. PIRG and the state PIRGs have built “a strong network of researchers, advocates, organizers and students in state capitols across the country.” To get a sense for what this network of people are working on, you should take a look at U.S. PIRG’s recent accomplishments. You’ll see things like holding elected officials to higher ethical standards, closing contractor loopholes, and promoting young voter participation. If these sound like things that you’d like to be a part of, then check out U.S. PIRG’s Jobs page. They actually do a really nice job with their Career site, so it should be easy for you to find out about all of their opportunities. They have Campus Organizer, Citizen Outreach, and Fellowship positions for recent grads, and there are plenty of other options all across the country. U.S. PIRG is hiring more than 100 entry level people this year, and you can get a feel for the types of positions that they’re hiring for by checking out the staff profiles.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• USPIRG.org
• Jobs at U.S. PIRG
• About U.S. PIRG
• U.S. PIRG’s Staff
• U.S. PIRG’s Reports
• U.S. PIRG’s Issues
• About State PIRGs
• U.S. PIRG News
• U.S. PIRG’s Results

What do you think of U.S. PIRG’s work?

We've identified U.S. PIRG as having career opportunities in the following categories:

• advocacy
• all employers
• fellowship programs
• Massachusetts
• nationwide
• non-profit
• public policy
• Washington DC

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One response to “U.S. PIRG”

1. Willy Franzen says:

   August 31, 2010 at 2:33 pm

   Got the following e-mail from a reader:

   I saw this email and had previously thought about working there. I just wanted to make you aware that U.S. PIRG has a bad reputation as a place to work. You can see more about it here

   http://www.angelfire.com/indie/fundislying/FundIsLying.html

   There are also lawsuits against the fund because it broke labor laws. Just thought you should know about it if anyone asks you more about it.

   So make sure you do your due diligence on U.S. PIRG.

   Reply