Political Scientists build social perceptiveness, judgment and decision making and complex problem solving skills that carry over to other work. Below are 25 careers ranked by how closely their skills match, with pay from BLS May 2025. The closest match is Law Teachers, Postsecondary (88%).
Updated October 2026 · Data: O*NET 31.0 and BLS OEWS May 2025 · How we match careers
Skills you enjoy
Pick the skills you want to keep using. The list re-ranks.
Pay for the broader BLS group “Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health”
Extra educationNone
Compared with Political Scientists, median $142,080. Skill match is our estimate (0–99) from O*NET 31.0 skills, knowledge, work activities and interests, adjusted for preparation and big pay drops. Pay: BLS OEWS May 2025, national median.
Your transferable skills
How important each skill is in work as political scientists (O*NET importance, scale 1–5).
Social Perceptiveness3.75
Judgment and Decision Making3.62
Complex Problem Solving3.62
Instructing3.50
Systems Evaluation3.12
Systems Analysis3.00
Skills to learn
The gaps that show up most often across your top 10 matches.
Management of Personnel Resources
Instructing
Programming
Management of Financial Resources
Free and low-cost training: use the CareerOneStop training finder below.
Your top 3 moves, up close
A concrete first step, the skills to add, and the hard parts of each job, from O*NET 31.0 education, training and work context data.
Most common education: First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession. (46% of workers).
A certification can help.
On-the-job training: none or short demonstration.
Skills to add
Instructing · Management of Personnel Resources · Judgment and Decision Making
Is this right for you?
No work-context factor stands out as unusually hard in O*NET data.
Former political scientists can get free career counseling, job search help and, if you qualify, help paying for training through American Job Centers, which are funded by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Links go to CareerOneStop, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Questions former political scientists ask
What jobs can former political scientists do?
The closest matches are Law Teachers, Postsecondary (88% skill match, median $128,500), Economics Teachers, Postsecondary (81% skill match, median $123,920) and Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary (78% skill match, median $98,070), based on O*NET 31.0 data and BLS May 2025 pay.
Which political scientist career changes pay more?
Among the 25 matches, 5 pay more than political scientists at the median. The biggest increases: Chief Executives (+51%, $213,990), Natural Sciences Managers (+18%, $167,220) and Human Resources Managers (+5%, $149,280).
Do former political scientists need another degree?
25 of the 25 matches usually need no more education than you have now, based on O*NET Job Zones.
How is the skill match calculated?
We compare the importance of skills, knowledge, work activities and interests in O*NET 31.0 for your job and every other career, then adjust for extra preparation and big pay drops. The full method is on our Methodology page.
Sources. Skills, tasks and education: O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0. Pay: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Data Sources & Licenses