In 2017, every member of the Harvard Institute of Politics’ Executive Team went straight into public service after graduating. Three joined political campaigns, and the fourth went to work in the New York City Mayor’s office.

Seven years later, none did. All four members of the Executive Team in 2024, the most recent whose members have all graduated, took private-sector jobs or internships, including at a venture capital fund and at consulting giant McKinsey & Company.

The contrast reflects a broader shift among the IOP’s top student leaders. From 2016 to 2020, 58 percent of Executive Team members began their careers in public service. Among those who served from 2021 to 2025, roughly 19 percent did, according to a Crimson analysis of the career paths of more than 200 current and former members of the IOP’s Student Advisory Committee.

The trend is less pronounced across the rest of the committee, where students have continued to enter government and nonprofit work at varying rates each year. But political campaigns, which were a popular first destination for IOP leaders, have nearly disappeared from recent graduates’ early career paths.

The findings raise questions about how effectively the IOP, founded in 1966 to inspire students to enter careers in politics and public service, is executing its mandate. Across nearly 20 interviews, current and former IOP leaders pointed to the appeal of lucrative private-sector jobs and uncertainty about how to break into public service as factors driving students towards private-sector work.

Thomas A. Tait ’26, a former IOP Policy Program co-chair who now works at a whistleblower-defense nonprofit, said the IOP’s commitment to public service is genuine, but questioned how effectively it is achieving its goals.

“I think that the IOP does its best to uphold that mission, but I don’t know that it’s successful,” he said. “I think it’s very well-meaning.”

A Different Path after Graduation

Of the 218 students who served on SAC from 2016 to 2025, The Crimson identified postgraduation destinations for 194. Seventy-one, or about 37 percent, entered the private sector, compared with 58, or about 30 percent, who took jobs in government, political campaigns, or nonprofits. Another 65, or around 33 percent, went to graduate school, fellowships, or academia.

Consulting firms were particularly popular. McKinsey, Bain & Company, and Boston Consulting Group alone accounted for 15 of the 71 private-sector jobs.

The divide was especially sharp among the IOP’s Executive Team, the four students who lead SAC and oversee its programming alongside full-time members of the IOP staff.

Of the 19 students who served on the Executive Team between 2016 and 2020, 11 began in public service. Among the 16 Executive Team members from 2021 through 2025 who have graduated, just three did. Eight entered the private sector, while five pursued further education.

The broader committee showed a more complicated pattern.

Among the 94 SAC members whose first jobs could be identified and who served from 2016 to 2020, 39 members, or roughly 41 percent, went directly into the private sector. Among the 100 members with known destinations from 2021 to 2025, 32 did, or 32 percent.

Nearly all of the decline in public service, however, came from political campaigns.

Ten members from the period between 2016 and 2020 went directly into political campaigns or party organizations, compared with just two from the 2021 to 2025 period. Government jobs, by contrast, varied with no clear pattern across the decade, accounting for roughly 14 percent of first destinations.

Some of the IOP’s private-sector connections have extended into its student programming. In 2024, the IOP’s Governance Lab, a student-run incubator for government and technology startups, partnered with Harvard-affiliated venture capital firm XFund. The partnership reserved up to three spots in Xfund’s $100,000 startup competition for Governance Lab ventures. Then-IOP President Pratyush “Prat” Mallick ’25 helped lead the partnership, before joining the fund upon graduating.

Some alumni said that entering the private sector was less a way to get out of politics than a way to gain experience before deciding whether to return.

“Politics is a little bit of a bubble,” said Theo J. Harper ’25, a 2023 SAC member who entered strategy consulting shortly after graduation. “I kind of wanted to get out of that and be in a position where I got some private sector experience, whilst being able to go back into that world if I wanted to.”

The Private-Sector Advantage

For many former IOP leaders, the appeal of the private sector is rooted in the financial and professional certainty it offers.

“It’s kind of blunt, but a lot of those private sector opportunities are definitely more lucrative, and I think very abundant for Harvard students,” said Carter G. Demaray ’25, the IOP’s 2023 treasurer and a campaign organizing director.

But salary is only part of the divide.

Kevin L. Ballen ’22, the IOP’s 2021 vice president, said consulting firms and other private employers benefit from established recruiting pipelines that allow students to secure jobs well before graduating.

“The pipelines are so clear for the private sector,” Ballen said.

Public service, he added, is “just a more last minute type of job opportunity.”

“Most nonprofits don’t have budget to hire people far in advance,” he said.

The same financial divide influences experiences students have before graduating. Many public-service internships offer little or no pay, meaning that students are left searching for outside funding.

Alexa C. Jordan ’22, a former SAC member, said an IOP funded internship made public service work financially possible for her.

“Many public service internships are completely unfunded,” Jordan said. “I don’t come from lots of money, so that means that I can’t afford to have no income at all.”

Tait similarly credited the IOP’s paid Director’s Internship program with helping him secure an opportunity at the Government Accountability Project, where he now works. If he had not received that funding, he said, he would not have been able to afford to take the position.

But Tait also questioned how effectively the IOP prepares students for public-service careers.

“What really ends up happening is that people are building a resume,” Tait said. “What they’re missing the mark on is that you need to build actual skills that make you employable to these organizations, which was all something I learned outside of the IOP.”

Other alumni credited the IOP with directly launching their public-service careers.

Ballen said the IOP’s network helped him land his first job in the Biden administration. He later became a speechwriter and deputy chief of staff at the National Economic Council before enrolling at Harvard Law School.

“Talking to my peers that have graduated, both that went into public service or didn’t go into public service, so many of them point back to the IOP as meaningful, formative,” he said.

More Than a First Job

IOP Director Betsy Fischer Martin cautioned against interpreting students’ first jobs as a sound-proof way to gauge their commitment to public service.

In a statement, she wrote that “where someone works at 22” does not necessarily reflect where their career will ultimately lead.

“Public service is rarely a straight line,” Fischer Martin wrote.

The Crimson’s analysis found considerable movement between sectors among earlier SAC members.

Of the 32 members from 2016 to 2020 who began their careers in public service, 14 later held private-sector jobs. Twelve of the 39 who initially entered the private sector subsequently worked in the public sector, including roles in government, campaigns, or nonprofits.

Still, private-sector careers tended to persist over time. Thirty of those 39 members held private-sector jobs in their most recent positions that were recorded, after excluding periods in which they attended further schooling.

Political campaigns and nonprofits, meanwhile, often served as routes into government. Six of the 10 earlier members who began on campaigns, and five of the seven who started at nonprofits, later worked in government.

Joseph L. Choe ’17, a former chair of the IOP’s Citizenship Tutoring program, went on to law school and joined a private law firm specializing in international litigation. He said his work with the IOP continues to inform his pro bono legal representation of asylum seekers.

“On the side, I do a lot of pro bono work, specifically with asylum seekers, and that was actually something that if I trace it back, a lot of my inspiration for doing that type of work comes from my time chairing Citizenship Tutoring,” Choe said.

Fischer Martin, a former executive producer of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” who took the reins at the IOP in August, has similarly argued for a broader definition of public service.

“It doesn’t have to be running for office,” she told The Crimson in September. “It can be working in the private sector, but being involved in your community, being involved in your child’s education, being involved in voting — that’s part of a healthy democracy.”

Her early changes have included pairing resident fellows with student-run IOP programs to bring students into closer contact with experienced practitioners.

And despite the shift in graduates’ career paths, many current IOP members are still pursuing public-service opportunities.

Of the 32 Class of 2027 SAC members, The Crimson identified summer internships for 19. Thirteen worked in government or nonprofits, including five in the federal government, of which three worked on Capitol Hill.

But none, however, was on a political campaign.

Jordan said the IOP’s success should ultimately be measured by more than where IOP members head after leaving Harvard.

“I think that the IOP, if it doesn’t achieve its full mission of inspiring everyone to go into public service, at the minimum, it helps to educate and inspire young people to lead lives in line with democratic values,” she said.

—Staff writer Jen L. Phan can be reached at [email protected] and Signal at jenphan.74. Follow her on X at @jenllphan.

—Staff writer Mirei S. Saneyoshi can be reached at [email protected] and Signal at mireisaneyoshi.09. Follow her on X at @mireisaneyoshi.