Go work for institutions
After several years of working within political marketing in Slovakia, I wanted to experience the different market and take a different aproach in the ,,industry“.
At one point, the natural destination for everyone from Europe with a politics background is Brussels. It's a great experience and a must to understand the whole system, hands-on, properly.However, after some time working in the Eurobubble, the more I knew about it, the less interested in the actual policy environment I was.
Given the scope of the institutional processes, legislation procedures, number of stakeholders and the nature of bureaucracy, one can quickly find the system pretty overwhelming, ineffective and limited. I was frustrated.
The final nail on the head was hit during my conversation with a serial entrepreneur from the Benelux area as we were having a friendly interview-kind-of conversation. At one point, when when we’re discussing money, he said:,,If you want to earn a huge salary, then go work for the institutions.“At the moment, I not only felt the unfairness, I reassured myself and my decision. This Western-European paradigm, when choosing to be bureaucrat is the safest and most-effective way on how to be secured in life is clearly insane - almost anyone could be trained to work within the machinery. It’s not only the easiest way, it’s pretty effective and rational one – why strive with entrepreneurship, when you can have a much more than a decent level of life at a lower risk?
I decided I don’t want to be a part of this market deformation, neither think-tanks, non-profits or lobbyists. Btw, if you have the aspiration to change things, and don’t want to be a part of ,,EU policy pundits“, go for parliament at national level, stand for the people that voted for you.
When aiming higher, then try to compete for the executive positions within the EU Commission. And, most importantly, try to experience the agenda you want to advocate from the bottom up. What’s your experience? Have you ever been involved in some kind of political effort?
Picture: ,,Berlaymonster" sketched by me ;D