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I work for a small office that does cold-calling for a senator in my state. I took the job initially as a way to put something (anything) on my resume, but now I'm having doubts as to whether or not I should put this internship on my resume. I'm worried I'll hand my application to a member of someone who is opposed to the senator, and he'll look at my application and immediately think less of me.

No, I'm not planning on using this internship to land me a job at another political venue, I merely think the skills that I am generating from being a part of the job would be useful in almost any scenario.

So in short, should I place this internship on my resume in most situations? If so, should I speak differently about the internship when describing it?

duper51
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    As long as your focus is on the actual job and skills, and not the personal political implication, there should be no concern. It is just another job for just another group. Personally, I'd dislike the use of cold-calling as a sales tactic, whether you did it for senators or vacuum cleaners, but I am not a person looking for sales experienced in your résumé. –  Jul 24 '16 at 12:43
  • @nij yeah, definitely not the most glamorous job, but mostly I do other tasks around the office. I'm only cold calling when needed, and simply as a polling method. No sales involved! – duper51 Jul 25 '16 at 08:00
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    Could you perhaps describe it as "cold-calling for a political lobbying company"? That way they don't need to know which side you were lobbying for (which they may well be grateful for). – TonyK Jul 25 '16 at 19:41
  • ... and by doing so, you remove any opportunity for employment discrimination, although you should not expect any. – Mike Robinson Jul 26 '16 at 14:39

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If the experience is relevant to the work you would be applying to then include it. If you learned important skills by working there, then it should be listed. There are other jobs out there that can cause this kind of situation. And to quote pdr's answer to that question:

Treat it as Just Another Job and you'll probably find most other people do too.

Remember interviewing is a two way street. Do you want to work for a company that will base their hiring decisions on someone's political beliefs? Or would you rather work for a company that is interested in the skill set that you bring to the company?

Addendum

In answering this question I did find an interesting article of retaliation based off of political activity which can give some insight on whether or not you are legally protected: https://www.workplacefairness.org/retaliation-political-activity

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