Ballast Research – Consulting Fellow (January 2020)

Job Description

Atlantic Media Fellowship
Atlantic Media offers highly ambitious recent college graduates a unique full-time opportunity to participate in our Fellowship Program. The Program is a structured, year-long, paid fellowship for top-tier talent committed to careers in media.

Atlantic Media Academy
Additionally, all Atlantic Media Fellows participate in the Atlantic Media Academy, a comprehensive curriculum providing a 360-degree view of the modern media industry covering the editorial, operational, and economic sides of both magazine and digital journalism today.

Ballast Research (a division of National Journal) is a fast-paced, growing, and collaborative research and consulting firm based in Washington, DC. We work with government affairs professionals at the state and federal levels to help them understand how policymakers perceive of their advocacy efforts, and how they can improve those efforts.

The Ballast Research Fellowship allows for exposure to a variety of projects, research methods, and stakeholders (including Fortune 500 clients and policymakers). Fellows will participate fully in the work and culture of the team. As an analytics-first company, we have experienced tremendous growth, and our Fellows have been key contributors. Each year we look forward to our new class of Fellows, who add a fresh perspective and new ideas to our company initiatives.

The Fellowship opening is an immediate hire that will run through December 2020.

We are recruiting candidates to join our rapidly growing firm as Consulting Fellows. Each consulting
fellow will learn and apply the following professional skills:

• Data-Based Consulting : Report creation and analysis based on proprietary research and data on the effectiveness of federal and state advocacy.
• Account Support : Work on project teams that serve “brand name” clients with data-based consulting, custom follow-up projects and implementation guidance.
• System-Wide Contribution : Play a supportive role across formalized and ad-hoc teams to enhance an internal culture of support, feedback, and creating new opportunities.

Fellows will have shared responsibility for the following areas of our engagements:

• Client Knowledge : Develop an understanding of the unique needs of clients in the government affairs space.
• Policymaker Interviews : Shadow and analyze qualitative data from peer-to-peer conversations with state and federal policymakers.
• Quantitative Benchmarking : Analyze a rich data set of peer and industry benchmarking data, including longitudinal and demographic breakdowns, to surface key trends, insights, and actionable recommendations to inform a client’s advocacy strategy.
• Relationship Support : Contribute to fostering genuine, authentic, and enduring relationships with colleague clients that extend beyond immediate needs and commercial interests.
• Innovation : Opportunities to contribute new ideas, ways to serve client needs, process improvements, and program-wide

The ideal candidate possesses the following attributes:

• Dedication to client service : Above all, we serve clients wherever they need our support.
• Tolerance for ambiguity : As a dynamic and growing client service firm, we are best when we can, through some trial and error, accept the ambiguity of client needs and channel those needs to specific services.
• Entrepreneurial drive : We are inspired by disruption, driven by innovation, and skeptical of the status quo. We are always seeking to improve and to grow.
• Deep intellectual curiosity : We are looking for the best ideas and the best minds to generate them.
• Strong analytical background : We have enjoyed success finding graduates in fields such as economics, pre-law, and liberal arts studies with “extreme talent” interested in research, consulting, and close client service.

Atlantic Media Values – at Least by Aspiration:

• Force of Ideas: At the center of Atlantic Media work are the ideas within our writing. We believe that ideas – to the good and not – have consequence. Our highest work is bringing rigor, insight, intellectual honesty, to that ultimate purpose of separating the bad from the good, and giving voice to the latter.
• Spirit of Generosity: Atlantic Media seeks in its ranks a spirit of generosity – a natural disposition in each colleague toward service and selfless conduct. Atlantic Media writing should be cut from the same cloth – critical on the merits but informed by charity and forbearance in measuring motive and personal character.

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Atlantic Media is an equal opportunity employer of minorities, women, veterans, and those with disabilities.