Career Exploration

Political science majors graduate with excellent analytical, research, and writing skills. These are some of the most important and marketable skills in today’s job market.

A major in political science, work experience, internships, and your personal skills and talents prepare you for careers in many fields. Employment opportunities for political science graduates include careers in government, nonprofits, international organizations, politics and political campaigns, business, education, the media, the military and the legal fields.

Although an advanced degree widens your employment options and allows for greater flexibility in salary negotiations and career advancement, many political science graduates secure positions with only a bachelor's degree.

Interested in connecting with political science alumni who might be doing work that interests you? Be sure to use the online UMN Alumni Associations Maroon & Gold Network to find good matches. You are able to simply search using Political Science.

Do you want to learn more about where our Political Science majors land after graduation? Check out the CLA Alumni Outcomes resource. This pulls from surveys given to graduating seniors. Keep in mind that we receive only about a 40% response rate. If you are a graduating senior, be sure to fill this out to bring more accuracy to the resource! 

Some career paths for political science graduates include:

• Analyst
• Attorney
• Business Professional
• Campaign Manager
• College Professor
• Elected Official
• Field Organizer
• Foreign Service Officer
• Government Relations Manager
• Human Rights Advocate
• Judge
• Legislative Assistant
• Lobbyist
• Military
• Reporter
• Teacher
• Writer
• Veterans Services

Undergraduate Brandon Haugrud speaks about the strengths of a political science major and how it has set him up for success.