[Career review] “Policy-oriented government jobs” by Richard Batty

After Labour’s landslide victory, Tony Blair rang Alan Milburn to say ‘We haven't got a health policy. Your job is to get us one.’ Milburn ‘was hungry for ideas’ and met with a civil servant: Graham Winyard, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer. ..

Narrated by AI.

---

Outline:

(01:55) Summary

(02:29) Pros

(02:48) Cons

(03:09) Key facts on fit

(03:42) Next steps

(04:03) Get free one-on-one career advice

(04:21) Recommended

(04:30) Review status

(04:36) What this profile is based on

(05:29) What is this career path?

(07:41) How high-impact is it to work in the civil service?

(08:09) The government has a huge impact on the world

(09:02) Civil servants can influence the government

(13:04) But, you need to be better than other (marginal) civil servants

(14:03) So, when is working in the civil service high-impact?

(14:37) Other advantages of working in the civil service

(14:42) You build good all-round career capital, especially for government-related work

(14:50) Knowledge and connections in government and policy

(15:26) Transferable skills

(16:33) Potential to do interesting work relevant to the real world

(16:59) A supportive environment with reasonable hours

(17:35) Downsides of civil service jobs

(17:39) Variable impact that's hard to see

(18:02) Conformist, bureaucratic culture

(18:23) Less flexible career capital than some private sector careers

(19:34) Risk of cuts and less promotion opportunities than some industries

(20:33) Lower salaries than the private sector

(21:42) Is the civil service right for you?

(21:46) What are the basic requirements for getting in?

(22:13) What's the work like day-to-day?

(23:24) Who shouldn't do it?

(23:36) You really hate organisational politics, bureaucracy, and conformity

(24:01) You wouldn't be happy to work on policies you disagree with

(24:50) You're unusually strong in one area of skills, rather than being an all-rounder

(25:14) Should you do something else instead?

(26:14) How to test your fit

(26:19) Talk to civil servants

(26:37) Do an internship

(28:27) What are the best routes in?

(28:31) Should you do a graduate scheme?

(30:05) Which graduate scheme?

(35:06) How do you get in?

(35:10) The application process

(36:23) How to prepare

(37:44) What if you don't get in?

(38:00) How do you excel and have impact once you're in?

(38:30) Take roles that are good for building career capital

(40:02) Look for opportunities to build career capital within your role

(40:09) Actively look for opportunities to expand your role

(40:36) Learn how to influence policy

(40:54) Network inside and outside government

(41:40) Take roles where you can work on pressing problems

(43:32) Multiple problem areas

(44:13) Catastrophic risks

(45:06) AI Risk

(46:06) Biosecurity

(46:40) Nuclear security

(46:56) Factory farming

(47:08) Health in poor countries

(47:22) Have impact within your role

(48:09) Learn good policy-making

(48:32) Try to achieve important goals that policymakers neglect

(49:08) Learn about decision science

(50:05) Learn basic economics

(50:58) Learn basic statistics

(51:15) Get free one-on-one career advice

(51:39) Learn more

The original text contained 27 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
October 5th, 2017

Source:
https://80000hours.org/career-reviews/policy-oriented-civil-service-uk

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

---

Images from the article:

Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.