On-the-Job Training (OJT)
Developing expertise and a résumé while conducting research and completing your degree
Diane Baldwin/RAND
On-the-Job Training (OJT)
The RAND School is the only U.S. policy school based inside a public policy research institute. Through on-the-job training (OJT), our M.Phil. and Ph.D. students gain substantive, real-world research experience while earning their degree — and often get paid for it.
OJT is a degree requirement.
- Ph.D. students complete 200 days
- M.Phil. students complete 100 days
Three Ways to Earn OJT
Most students earn the majority of their OJT working on active RAND research projects. The pathways below give you flexibility to shape an experience that fits your interests and career goals.
RAND Research Projects (The Primary Pathway)
You'll join multidisciplinary RAND research teams working on funded projects for federal agencies, foundations, and other clients. Over the course of your degree, you'll typically work across multiple teams, methods, and policy areas—building a portfolio of real client deliverables and a network of mentors across the institution.
Recent projects students have worked on:
- Beyond Incarceration: How Breaking Barriers Is Building Pathways to Housing and Employment in Los Angeles | RAND
- Health Care Access and Quality for New York Veterans: Implications of Expanding Community Care Eligibility | RAND
- Building the Knowledge and Skills the U.S. Air Force Needs for Strategic Competition with China: Sharpening the Sword and Burnishing the Shield | RAND
- What State Education Agency Leaders Want from Federal Technical Assistance | RAND
Policy Analysis Practicum
A structured course-based experience where small student teams tackle a real policy problem from start to finish. Recent and upcoming practica include
- nonprofit client engagements—student teams partner with a nonprofit organization on a topic of the client's choosing, leading the research process end-to-end
- trillion-dollar problems—faculty-led exploration of major systemic challenges, with student research identifying promising reforms, risks, and change agents.
Approved External Experiential Opportunity
With school approval, you can earn OJT through a substantive research, analysis, or teaching role outside RAND. Recent examples include
- teaching at another university
- policy analysis and modeling for a nonprofit organization
- conducting interviews and qualitative data analysis for a small business.
What You Graduate With
By the time you finish your degree, you'll have extensive applied research experience, a portfolio of work for real clients, multiple mentors across RAND, and exposure to the policy areas and methods that define the field.
Who's Here to Help You on Your OJT Journey
Jeanne Ringel, director of On-the-Job Training Jeanne is also associate dean for academic affairs and a professor of policy analysis at the RAND School. A senior economist whose research spans health policy, veterans' health, and vaccination policy, she earned her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland.
Jeanne Ringel
OJT Brokers work with the OJT Director, RAND School Students, RAND researchers, and RAND's research divisions to help students navigate the organization and find projects across social and economic well-being, health care, education and labor, and national and homeland security and defense.
Mo Ahmadi
Hye Min Park
Shannon Walsh
Frequently Asked Questions
Sometimes—but not always. RAND's project work depends on what's active at any given time, and a perfect topical match isn't guaranteed.
Think of OJT as a growing portfolio. You'll join some projects for the topic, others to build a specific skill, work with a particular team, or learn about a new kind of client. Students who stay open to that range graduate with a research portfolio that opens doors.
Check out some projects to which students have recently contributed.
Students get structured support from day one. Throughout your first year, you’ll participate in an OJT Workshop covering how to navigate RAND’s internal market—approaching researchers, building a network, contributing well to projects, and growing as a research professional.
Beyond the workshop, you can:
- meet one-on-one with the Director of OJT
- connect with OJT Brokers, who help students identify opportunities across RAND’s research divisions
- join peer advising sessions
- apply to opportunities circulated to students.
These same skills serve you long after graduation.
Across all three OJT pathways—RAND research projects, the policy analysis practicum, and approved external opportunities—students build the full range of skills a policy researcher needs:
| Research | Communication | Professional Skills |
|---|---|---|
Proposal development Literature reviews Quantitative and qualitative data gathering, management and analysis |
Writing for different audiences Presentations Publications Interviews |
Collaborating Time management Project management Interpersonal relations Client relations |
Each pathway develops these skills in a different setting. RAND projects bring you onto multidisciplinary teams working for real clients. The practicum lets small student teams take a problem from start to finish, sometimes for an external client and sometimes alongside faculty exploring a challenging policy problem. External opportunities let you apply your skills in a different organizational context.
OJT is first and foremost a learning experience. M.Phil. students complete 100 days of OJT over two years and may work more.
Compensation varies by pathway.
- RAND research projects—students are paid for their work, which can help offset tuition and living expenses. Taxes are deducted from gross pay.
- Policy analysis practicum—taken as part of coursework; not separately compensated
- Approved external opportunities—typically compensated, depending on the role
Some restrictions apply to international students; see the final question below.
OJT is first and foremost a learning experience—and over the years of the Ph.D. program, it’s also a significant source of funding. Most students work well beyond the 200-day requirement, and OJT earnings can help cover tuition and living expenses.
Compensation varies by pathway.
- RAND research projects—students are paid for their work, which is where most of their OJT compensation comes from
- Policy analysis practicum—taken as part of coursework; not separately compensated
- Approved external opportunities—typically compensated, depending on the role
Some restrictions apply to international students; see the final question below.
For many Ph.D. students, dissertation ideas grow directly out of OJT. In your first two or three years, project work exposes you to research areas, methods, datasets, and senior researchers—any of which can shape a dissertation topic or lead to a committee member.
Sometimes, especially with grant-funded work, a project leads directly to a dissertation. More often, OJT is where the ideas and relationships start.
International students bring valuable perspectives, regional expertise, and language skills to RAND research, and they're a strong part of the OJT program. Two limitations to be aware of.
- National security work. There are limits on international students working on national security related topics, and some national and homeland security projects require a U.S. security clearance available only to U.S. citizens. In limited cases, projects can carve out work for international students.
- F-1 visa work hours. F-1 students may work up to 20 hours per week when classes are in session. The limit doesn't apply during winter and spring breaks or summer (mid-June through September). Curricular Practical Training can lift the in-session limit, subject to certain conditions.