Shifting into politics can be daunting, but having a business background can help ease the transition from the private to the public sector.

John Hoeven ’81 was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, following 10 years of service as North Dakota’s governor. Rodneyse Bichotte ’03 was sworn in this year to represent New York State’s 42nd Assembly District, becoming the first Haitian-American elected to state office from New York City. Both left careers in private banking to enter politics.

What’s the biggest difference between working in the public and private sectors?

Hoeven: You have to be open-minded in the public sector, more so than in the business world. In the public sector, you work for everybody — I have to be open and inclusive and very careful to listen to everyone’s input so I can represent them to the best of my abilities.

Bichotte: When you’re in corporate America, you answer to your boss. In politics, you answer to the people who voted for you. I’d prefer to be at the mercy of people who voted for me. Wall Street is very structured, and you have to be promoted to climb the ladder. When I came into politics, people did tell me to wait my turn, but I’ve learned that leadership in this field is not given — you have to take it.

How have you applied your work experience to your political career?
H: A lot of the skills are applicable, particularly for someone like me who brought a business focus to my job as governor and senator. I use a lot of those skills in the public sector, whether it’s campaigning or being able to budget. You have to understand the importance of finance to build a climate that encourages business investment and job growth.

B: My presentation skills — like being able to create a story through PowerPoint — are probably much more advanced than the elected official without a business or corporate background. I don’t know if most elected officials know how to crunch numbers, but that lets me synthesize the issues faster. Corporate America really helped me on the road to being a better, more effective, results-oriented leader and politician.

What advice do you have for businesspeople looking to move into politics?
H: It’s like a job interview: You have to put forward your ideas and be very open about what you’re going to do for the people you work for. Tell them what you want to do on their behalf and be very lucid in terms of the feedback.

B: Start getting engaged in local organizations like a community or school board. Those are the people on the ground who know the issues. I would also encourage folks to join a local campaign to see the nuts and bolts of running one. When you win, it looks very pretty and people think it was easy, but most people can’t do this ... it’s tedious and time-consuming.

Interviews condensed and edited for clarity.

JOHN HOEVEN ’81 U.S. SENATOR, NORTH DAKOTA Before getting into politics, Hoeven was a commercial banker, serving as president of a North Dakota bank for seven years. HOEVEN ON MOVING FROM THE CORPORATE WORLD TO THE PUBLIC SECTOR: "I wanted to help build a better business climate and focus on growing our economy and job creation."		RODNEYSE BICHOTTE ’03 STATE ASSEMBLYWOMAN, NEW YORK Before politics, Bichotte worked in corporate and investment banking on Wall Street for companies including J.P. Morgan Securities and Bank of America Securities. BICHOTTE ON MOVING FROM THE CORPORATE WORLD TO THE PUBLIC SECTOR: "Once I found that helping people and providing service to the community was fulfilling, I didn’t want to go back to Wall Street."