Many of my recent posts have been all about the different holidays I've been on since finishing my PhD. I'm sure many of you are wondering though....what is this girl doing with her life now that she's done with education? Well, I'm writing this post to fill you in on just that, as well as to recapitulate what I've been up to since the beginning of 2014....
Shortly before Christmas, boyfriend got offered a job with the civil service, starting in March, so we knew that we'd be moving down to London shortly after the holidays. Until then I had been planning to hand in my thesis around the deadline, and was taking it nice and easy. Once these plans settled into place though, I realised that not only would I have to finish my thesis a bit earlier, but I would have to pack up my life in Preston, find somewhere to move to in London (that we could afford) and start applying for jobs. Scary stuff!!
So...step at a time. I stopped spending half my day at the gym and on coffee breaks, and got my thesis sorted. No problem. We came down to London on a two day house hunting extravaganza, and we were extremely lucky to find this incredible house that we're now living in. The downside was that it was unfurnished and we had to move within ten days. Ok...so we sorted it. Then started the weeks of searching for and buying furniture, spending afternoons in the pub using the free internet until we could get ours sorted, and studying for my viva. And applying for jobs of course. Toss in there a hen do in Amsterdam, a trip to Preston for my mock viva and evenings out with London friends, and I was a busy busy girl.
I made a bit of extra money tutoring math once a week, which I probably should have gotten more into. In March I had my viva, and after many many hours came out pretty happy with minor corrections. These corrections had to be done of course - another time consuming job. Oh yes, and I buggered off to Vietnam with my mother in the interim, and visited Malta too. And of course there's the three hours a week I spend swimming.
Quite a few of the places I applied to called me back for interview, and I spent hours practising answers to competency questions, researching companies and filling out more application forms. My primary focus was to get a job as an analyst in the civil service, and I came very close to getting a job in the mainstream government operational research group in May. In retrospect, I'm glad that didn't happen, because something better came along...
That would be the fast stream operational research group. The fast stream is dedicated to recruiting the future leaders of the civil service, focussed on different work areas. These include economics, statistics, diplomacy, HR, etc, and, quite recently, operational research. What's operational research you ask? Check it out...I won't bore you with the details.
Getting into the fast stream is extremely difficult, and a very long process. After you get through initial online verbal and numerical reasoning tests, you fill out an application form and if they like you enough, you get invited to a half day assessment centre, where they assess your analytical skills through a series of exercises. If you make it through that, there's another full day assessment centre, where they test your leadership and management skills. Then, if you pass that and you get through the security checks, they offer you a job. Which I'm very happy to say that they did!!! Whew!!
So what happens next? Well, my days of sitting around watching Pretty Little Liars and spending hours at the local pool are over. I'm starting as a Fast Stream Analyst at the Department for Work and Pensions, and cannot wait to get stuck in! I won't be there for more than 18 months at the most - they move fast streamers around every year to give us the full experience, until we move up to managerial positions...but hey, I'm looking forward to every moment!!!
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