What’s your story?
Before joining the House of Commons on the Graduate Development Programme I was quite interested in Parliament and their work. I joined my local youth Parliament and the United Kingdom youth Parliament. In 2017 I had the opportunity to come to the House and debate in the chamber, which was my first interaction with the House. I studied Politics and Sociology at the University of Warwick. I wanted to get a wide range of experiences at Uni so I joined Warwick Hip Hop Society and organised club nights, so it wasn't just about Politics!
How have you found working at UK Parliament as a graduate?
I joined the programme in October 2017 and my role here has been quite varied (which is one of the great things about the programme). In my first role, I was clerk of Public petitions, which meant that I was essentially supporting members of Parliament and external stakeholders draft petitions.
There was a lot of support and on the job training from the start so you can become comfortable and confident to do your role. My role now is in the select committee, so I’m the second clerk to the select committee on Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It's really fun!
One of the coolest parts of my role is waking up to your enquiry being on the front page. Sometimes it's easy to forget that the select committee role is really important to the news cycle. Being able to have worked on things which are developing in the news, which allows you to meet and work with some really interesting people and work with really interesting and intelligent people.
How did you find the application process?
One thing that’s great about the assessment process is that it is very much reflective of what you'll be doing on the job. I really enjoyed that it was asking me to do the things that are relevant to what I’m currently doing, like looking through a brief, checking whether the information given is impartial, using none convoluted language and I think that the tasks that are given are not restrictive, they just allow you show the skills that you have.
What advice would you give to someone applying to the programme?
I think the main thing is to let your personality shine through. Something I had in the back of my mind was that there was only one type of clerk, but there are so many! I think having a range of experiences helps you. Just make sure that on your application you feel that you're able to present an array of skills that you've learnt at University -don't be scared of putting down what you've done, ie running club nights - as in my case this showed my event planning skills and abilities and manage issues.
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