Just in time for some stimulus dough comes a continuing ed program for lobbyists. Sponsored by LobbyingJobs.com, a job board we didn’t even know existed (but should have guessed would), the WebEx courses already available offer a best-practices workshop, one on using video for advocacy and a third on negotiating.
“Specialized lobbying training is not easy to come by,” says John Foreman, founder of Lobbyingjobs.com. “There aren’t many Lobbying 101 courses being offered by colleges or universities and many people who become lobbyists come from other industries or have worked in government.”
Foreman launched LobbyingJobs last year saying in a press release, “Being niched in this dynamic profession, we are able to offer tools, services, and informational content geared specifically to members of the lobbying industry.”
Besides the courses with the intriguing titles, what struck us about LobbyingJobs.com are the jobs. There is apparently no shortage of them in this industry. Almost 30 positions are listed on the site, a number that may not seem large when compared to openings for, say, accountants, but we are talking lobbyists here. There are several openings for work with unions, not surprisingly. But then there’s a director of government affairs opening with the New York Botanical Garden. Even the Sisters of the Good Shepherd are advertising.
A quick check of Monster and CareerBuilder, incidentally, show more than 100 jobs listed between them, and that’s using the most obvious keywords. Here’s the topper: salaries typically begin in the $80s and rise quickly into the six figures.
Evidently, business is good at LobbyingJobs.com. There’s now a lobbyingjobs.co.uk and a Lobbyingfirms, not to mention an entire list of state sites just waiting for the lobbying job market to grow even bigger.
Now that you know, are you ready to become a lobbyist? You could check out some of the sites here from Google or wait until LobbyingJobs offers a course.