[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.