Re:Think 3 October, 2025

Reasons not to work at think tanks

We’re recruiting at the moment, which has made me think more than I usually do about careers in think tanks. What are the right motivations for applying to work at a think tank?

Most job adverts seem a bit hollow in their efforts to sell you on a job, and over time they all blur into one. “Challenge... real-world impact... intellectually stimulating...”, I admit that I’ve written some job adverts which sound just like that. In our effort to sound appealing, we gloss over the differentiating bits, and end up all sounding the same. It’s like companies talking about their corporate values – the Enron Corporation, which broke up following one of the largest accounting and bankruptcy scandals in business history, famously listed their values as “integrity, communication, respect and excellence” on the wall of their office.

So I thought I’d do something different, and try being really honest about the wrong reasons to apply to a think tank. Because avoiding the wrong reasons might be easier than looking for the right reasons. In The Big Short, Michael Lewis’ book about the origins of the financial crisis, he explains how one of the investors who took on Wall Street met his wife through Match.com, based on a profile where he described himself as “a medical resident with only one eye, an awkward social manner, and $145,000 in student loans”. For big life decisions, it is best to be up front about things which might be a problem later on.

So here are some good reasons to not work at think tanks:

• You aren’t committed to the ideas the think tank argues for. This should be obvious but it does need saying. If you’re just keen to ‘work at a think tank’ because you think you’d like working at any think tank, then it probably isn’t for you. Particularly if the think tank you’re applying to argues for things which you disagree with – you’re just going to be very frustrated! And conversely, if you really believe in what the organisation stands for, then it’ll be much easier to stay motivated when the job is a hard slog (and all jobs, at times, are).
• You don’t like doing research, or writing about it. If you don’t like doing literature reviews, or combing through government spreadsheets, or trying to road-test some new ideas in prose, then you’re not going to enjoy this job. I really like the Ronnie Coleman observation that “everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but nobody wants to lift no heavy-ass weights”. You have to do the things which lead to really good ideas, ones which you can actually back up. You can’t just expect to have them without that hard graft. “Everybody wants to be a policy wonk, nobody wants to slog through writing a paper.”
• You don’t want to write in public. Think tanks publish things. Think tank researchers write under their own names, publicly, both in shortform (blogs, op-eds, Substacks) and also longform (papers, long reads). We can’t be anonymous. That can be intimidating – you expose yourself to challenge by other people, and you’re on the record as having proposed radical things which some people won’t like (see next point). I love it, it sharpens your writing and makes you a better thinker. But it’s not for everyone.
• You don’t want to say unpopular things. Think tanks shouldn’t be shock-jockeys, and we don’t produce policy clickbait. But we want to change policy. That involves taking on the status quo, and arguing with vested interests. There’s a natural human instinct to try and find common ground, and to not rock the boat too much. But if you always want to avoid disagreement, even at the cost of saying what you think, then this just isn’t for you.
• You don’t read widely. If you don’t read about politics, or policy analysis, then you won’t enjoy a job where you have to do it every day. Particularly if you haven’t read a paper by a think tank, or by the one you’re applying to work at, then you really don’t have a sense of what you’re getting into. Equally, it shouldn’t be the only thing you read. Most people in Westminster spend most of their time just reading the political news, and latest press releases, and it really limits their ability to think creatively. So you should follow your interests in other areas as well, like technology or business or sport – a broad frame of reference helps you have different perspectives on policy. But you need to be a reader.
• You don’t want to argue with people about political issues. Even if you share very similar values to the people you work with, you’re still going to disagree about a lot – and that's a good thing! It’s pretty uncommon in professional jobs these days, but disagreement and discussion are how we make progress. It’s a key part of Westminster’s culture. If you’re uncomfortable with disagreement, you shouldn’t do this.
• You don’t want to be entrepreneurial or a self-starter. This is the sort of thing most people think they want in theory, but don’t actually want in practice. Most think tanks are tiny – a handful of people in a little office, with too much to do and too little time to do it. We don’t have much structure or hierarchy, most of the professional development you’ll get will be by doing things rather than by training and courses. It can be like jumping in the deep end. These jobs aren’t on the rails. You get a high degree of freedom, but it’s on you to use that well.
• You want to make lots of money. Most think tanks are small charities or other kinds of non-profits. As The Economist recently pointed out, think tanks don’t pay big salaries. You can make more money doing most other things.

Now, if you’re still reading, and haven’t been put off by any of these good reasons to not work at a think tank, you might want to consider applying to work with us. We’re hiring for a new Senior Researcher – the deadline is the 15^th of October.

We’re a cross-party public services think tank, based in Westminster. We’re a small team – you’ll be our tenth or eleventh staff member. We want to radically reform public services for the twenty-first century – making them better for the public, and more affordable for taxpayers. We mainly work on fixing a broken NHS, devolving power to local government (and building a new model for it), and reforming the civil service and the other bureaucratic parts of central government.

Just because we aren’t aligned with a party, it doesn’t mean we aren’t political – we deal with intensely political issues about the size and shape of the State, the fairness of what it provides and how it’s paid for, and the vested interests that prevent public services doing a better job. We promote good, practical ideas which are often contrarian in Westminster, but are hugely influential in policy. Like scrapping the public body NHS England, which the Government announced it would do in March, or managing out civil servants who can’t do their jobs, which the Government is now starting to do, or putting more of the UK in the hands of elected Mayors.

If that sounds like you, then come work with us. There’s loads to do, and we’re just getting started.