My 1st Gig: Katelyn Hanley Semelbauer’s Crash-Course in Politics, Persistence, and Finding the Work You’re Built For
Finding Power, Pressure, and Purpose in a First Job
Every career has a proving ground. For Katelyn Hanley Semelbauer, it was a five-person political consulting shop in downtown Chicago—circa the 2008 financial crisis—where the phones never stopped, the stakes were high, and the lessons were unforgettable.
“Part-Time Assistant” → “Maybe…an Intern?” → “Actually, Full-Time.”
Fresh out of what she jokingly calls “the Harvard of the Midwest,” (aka Albion College) Katelyn landed in Chicago as a part-time assistant at a tiny consulting firm. Within days, her boss suggested “making her an intern” because she wasn’t “up to speed” yet. Instead of panicking, Katelyn paused.
“I said, ‘Let me think about it and I’ll let you know.’ I couldn’t afford an internship. I called back: ‘That won’t work.’”
After a beat, the boss called again with a full-time offer on the table. Whiplash? Absolutely. But it was the first of many moments where Katelyn’s calm pushback and clarity about her needs shaped a better outcome.
What a Political Consulting Firm Actually Does (When You’re 22 and Learning on the Fly)
Katelyn’s crash course included…well, everything:
Field & events: running fundraising events, coordinating schedules, and answering a constantly buzzing phone.
Strategy sessions: sitting with candidates to map precinct targets and plan ground games.
Door work: knocking (a lot), plus the grind of petition signatures, including quality checks to flag invalids, a shadowy cottage industry in big-city politics.
Comms & mail: drafting campaign mail, wrangling post offices from Cairo, Illinois to Chicagoland to get pieces out the door—on impossible timelines.
It was Chicago politics in a moment of maximum volatility: a city obsessed with itself, a national economy teetering, and an insurgent “outsider” mood reshaping elections.
Illinois, the “Special Boy” of Politics
Katelyn learned quickly that Chicago ≠ Springfield. In Illinois, being a Chicago alderman or Cook County commissioner can be more prestigious—and more powerful—than a seat in the state legislature. It’s a world where the municipal is mighty, local races are brutal, and every neighborhood has its own political weather system.
The Pawnshop Owner Who Won
Three years in, Katelyn’s boss took a call that sounded like a prank: a South Side pawnbroker wanted to run for governor. The firm’s counter-pitch? Run for lieutenant governor—in Illinois, the LG ran on a separate primary ballot, then joined the gubernatorial nominee later. Lower profile. Less competition. More runway for an outsider message.
They made a bold media call: get ahead of the story.
“We called a top Sun-Times political reporter: ‘Here’s the candidate. He’s a pawnbroker. Not a politician.’”
The first piece was skeptical. The campaign leaned into it anyway. Mail went out. Earned media trickled in. The outsider mood of 2010 did the rest.
Then, the unthinkable: they won.
Katelyn celebrated—then realized she’d been so buried in logistics she forgot to vote. (“Please let him win by more than one vote,” she laughed.)
When the Cameras Arrive (and Don’t Leave)
The morning after the upset, the press descended. Phones rang off the hook. Chicago Tonight wanted the candidate on air. Meanwhile, background issues—more than anyone understood—began to surface. The interview went sideways. Calls mounted for the candidate to step down. It was a masterclass in velocity, scrutiny, and reputational risk.
“Reporters were camped outside our office. One station was screaming at me on the phone, live. I was 25, suddenly a ‘senior consultant,’ and there was nothing I could do but keep triaging.”
Amid the chaos, Katelyn held onto a vital counterweight: public servants doing the right thing. She remembers a Cook County commissioner who cast the deciding vote against a wildly popular tax repeal—because the funding sustained a clinic in a low-income community.
“She said, ‘This might cost me my next election, but I can’t shut down their health center.’ She won anyway. That kind of courage stuck with me.”
When ‘High Stakes’ Turns into ‘Harmful’
Eventually, the chaos wasn’t just adrenaline—it was unsustainable. Katelyn was learning, growing, and earning responsibility. She was also losing hair from stress.
“I knew I needed to figure something else out. I wanted a life. I wanted to do work I could be proud of and actually sleep.”
Leaving a first job, especially a formative one, hurts. But it was the right move. Katelyn pivoted to university advancement, where her instincts for stewarding relationships, crafting narratives, and aligning strategy with impact found a healthier home.
Today, she’s Executive Associate for University Development at Grand Valley State University, and she loves it.
The Last Word
Katelyn’s first gig wasn’t tidy. It was real. It was Chicago. It gave her a front-row seat to power, pressure, failure, and integrity—and the confidence to choose a career that fuels her, not drains her.
“I wouldn’t be where I am without that job. And I knew when it was time to go. Both can be true.”
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