Industries we serve
Policy, Research & Media
Think tanks, research firms, government programmes and communications teams — where the work is turning evidence into something a decision-maker will actually read.
What this sector screens for
Humanities and social science graduates can write an essay and cannot write a two-page brief, clean a survey data set or pitch a story to an editor. Those are the tests at interview.
Roles we prepare for
- Research associate
- Policy analyst
- Programme associate
- Communications executive
- Content and media associate
Disciplines that place here
- Public Policy, Research and Communications
- Social Development and Community Practice
- Finance, Banking and Business Analytics
- Data Analytics and Digital Technology
At a glance
- 5
Entry roles
Titles this sector's track is written against.
- 4
Feeder disciplines
Degrees that place into this sector.
- 4
Track modules
Domain modules built for this sector alone.
- 5
Pipeline stages
Screen, Gap Map, Develop, Validate, Place.
The hiring bar
What you are expected
to do unsupervised.
Not the job description. The four things a team quietly assumes a new graduate can already handle, and notices immediately when they cannot.
01
Write the brief, not the essay
The finding first, the evidence second and the recommendation clearly marked — on two pages a busy official will finish.
02
Work with the data
Clean a survey data set, run the basic analysis and make a chart that answers a question rather than decorating a page.
03
Check before you claim
Trace every figure to its source and say how sure you are. One wrong number in a published brief costs the whole organisation.
04
Say it to different audiences
The same finding for a senior official, a journalist and a community meeting, each in the form that audience needs.
Syllabus versus shortlist
Two different
reading lists.
The degree is not wrong. It is answering a different question from the one you will be asked across the table.
- What the degree gives you: Long essays with a word minimum.
- What the shortlist asks for: A two-page brief with a hard maximum, and a reader who stops after the first paragraph.
- What the degree gives you: A literature review written for a grade.
- What the shortlist asks for: A research summary a programme team will use to decide where the money goes.
- What the degree gives you: Statistics as a paper you passed.
- What the shortlist asks for: A survey of two thousand households and a question about what it actually shows.
- What the degree gives you: Media theory.
- What the shortlist asks for: A press release, a deadline and an editor who owes you nothing.
The domain track
Written against
this sector only.
Four modules, specified by practitioners in this sector and re-reviewed on a fixed cycle. Your gap report decides the order you meet them in.
01
Policy writing
Briefs, memos, reports and opinion pieces, edited hard until the argument is clear and the length is right.
02
Research methods and data
Survey design, sampling, interviews and basic statistics, with the analysis done in Excel and a statistics package on real data sets.
03
Monitoring and evaluation
Logframes, indicators, baseline and endline studies, and the reports government departments and funders ask for.
04
Communications and media
Press releases, social media, stakeholder communication and how to work with journalists rather than around them.
The language of the room
Words you are assumed
to already have.
An interviewer will not define these before using them. The track puts you inside the vocabulary rather than handing you a glossary to memorise.
Research
- Literature review
- Sampling
- Survey instrument
- Regression
- Qualitative coding
- Triangulation
Policy and programmes
- Policy brief
- Logframe
- Theory of change
- M&E
- Indicator
- Stakeholder mapping
Communications
- Press release
- Op-ed
- Messaging
- Media list
- Content calendar
- Engagement metrics
Where these roles sit
Same sector,
four different rooms.
The bar is the sector's, but what each kind of employer leans on hardest is not the same. Knowing which one you are sitting in front of is half the preparation.
Think tanks and research institutes
Organisations that publish research and advise government, where junior staff do much of the data and drafting work.
Government programmes and consultancies
Teams supporting central and state departments on scheme design, monitoring and evaluation.
Research and survey firms
Firms running surveys and studies for clients, where fieldwork quality and clean data are the product.
Communications and media teams
Newsrooms, PR agencies and the in-house communications teams of companies and non-profits.
Sector questions
Asked before
anyone applies.
What the sector expects
Do I need a master's degree for policy work?
Many research associate and programme roles take graduates, though some organisations prefer a master's. The track covers the writing and data skills that decide shortlists either way, and your gap report is honest about what your target organisations ask for.
Is this only for political science graduates?
No. Sociology, economics, journalism and mass communication graduates all place here, and data graduates into research and evaluation roles. The shared modules are the same; the depth follows your gap report.
Are these jobs only in Delhi?
Many are, but not all. State governments, research firms and communications teams hire across the country, and more research roles are now remote or hybrid.
How the track runs
Will my writing actually be edited?
Yes. Written work is edited line by line and returned, and you rewrite it. The mock interview includes a writing test, because most organisations in this sector set one.
I want to work in communications, not research.
Say so at the Screen stage. Communications roles lean on writing for different audiences and on media work, and your sequence is built from that target.
How current is the content?
The owning subject matter expert re-reviews each module on a fixed cycle. A module nobody has revisited in two years is withdrawn rather than reissued.
Policy, Research & Media
Get the gap report
for this sector.
The Screen stage measures you against what this sector actually specifies, not against a generic benchmark.