Think Tanks!

Mariamawlia·Feb 01, 2022

Posted in:Advice Personal Growth Career Growth

Does anyone have any experience with think tanks? I would love love to join one! 😍🙏

BrianaBrownell·Feb 01, 2022

I do, I've worked with a number of think tanks. When you say "join" what do you mean? Lots of them have events that you could become involved with. As far as doing some of the actual work with them, like doing the research, they tend to have a network of folks they tap into for those through senior fellows at universities and people working in other areas of industry. I've gotten involved in the research side basically by having been connected with either the executive director or a senior fellow.

Mariamawlia·Feb 01, 2022

Hi Briana! Thanks so much for your detailed reply :) yes I’d love to work full time at a think tank or a research center that focuses on global issues. I come from an academic background (PhD) in plant genetics, but I’d prefer to move into a more dynamic and applied field that is more forward thinking and has a much better suited work style to my own with creative problem solving. Would really appreciate any other input you might have and how you’d think I can get connected to do some part-time work even just to gain experience and training!

BrianaBrownell·Feb 01, 2022

Typically you'd have some kind of experience in policy, although there's a wide range of different kinds of think tanks out there. If you're trying to do something related to your degree you could have a look at what groups are doing work in your niche. Make sure you read their research mandate to see if they fund the kinds of projects you'd want to be involved with. For part time work, once you find a few organizations that resonate with you, you could reach out to see if they have any openings for research assistants - My first contract with a think tank was as a research assistant to a lead author, and I was responsible for supporting her as she wrote the paper. The other place you could gain experience in global issues is with the many UN agencies. They hire just a ton of people for all kinds of development and policy work. Eg: https://www.fao.org/employment/vacancies/en/ https://careers.un.org/lbw/home.aspx

Mariamawlia·Feb 02, 2022

Awesome!! Thank you so so much Briana, this is so useful! :) I also found that the few think tanks that I looked at require on-site availability, which is another tricky issue, because I’m currently in Cape Town and would need a sponsorship for a work visa if I would move to Europe or the US. Hence why it’s not been easy to apply for internships at some of these tanks. However, I can still dig deeper and find ones that do cater for remote work more likely than sponsorship.