It's a very very bad flu season this year. If you haven't gotten your vaxx yet (looks at herself*) get it. At minimum it will make your infection less bad.

*(Time got away from me and I'm too chicken shit to mix Covid and Flu vaccines so I got my Covid shot but not my flu . I will tomorrow!)

If you don't get to provide the short policy brief at first, make sure resumes or interview answers stress connections between a skill and a result.

I rewrote the grad school part of my resume to be more blatant about the link to manufacturing for adv. manufacturing and emerging tech policy jobs.

I think it's good to have the 1-2 page brief in your toolkit, but whether an employer asks for or would even take it can vary based on nature of the role and the kind of employer (even w/in gov't, may vary between offices).

A think tank job I applied to wanted like a 5-10 page research paper.

I think 1-2 page briefs are useful for more "generalist" (for lack of a better word) positions. But also some might not even ask for this! For my previous job as a "policy advisor", my only writing sample was answering 2 short questions about relevant background.

Sorry for the delay, it's been a crazy week. I realize this might not sound super helpful, but I think it varies a lot depending on the exact role you're applying to.

For more technical roles that rely on deep subject matter expertise, they may want a longer piece closer to an academic article.

Commenting to remind myself to reply later. Or could message if you prefer