Huge congratulations to Asmajan Noori on securing an internship with the Civil Service. We caught up with her after her internship to discuss how she had enjoyed it, what she had learnt and what tips she had for other Bright Network members.
Why did you apply to the Civil Service?
Previously, I have worked for a London Local Authority and I really enjoyed it. I found it really rewarding to be working with communities and to be able to see the impact that your work was having. Having worked in a public service before I knew that the Civil Service was for me and was the logical next step up from working at a Local Authority.
I applied to work for The Treasury because that department was most closely linked to my degree and I knew my economics knowledge would come in handy.
What was the application process like?
Initially, I had to fill out a short application form before completing an untimed situational judgement test. The Civil Service then sent me an application form with a few competency-based questions to answer. The final stage was a simple phone interview filled with competency-based questions.
What did you do on the internship?
The internship started on the 16th July and was 8 weeks long. A lot of the time we spent working in our separate teams and departments working on various different policies. However, what I thought was a nice touch was the group projects the Civil Service gave us interns to work on. We didn’t often see each other because we worked in different areas but the group projects gave us a nice opportunity to catch up with each other and work with other interns. We were separated into groups of 7 or 8 and asked to raise money for a charity of our own choice. It was a good initiative that gave us all an actual project which we had complete control over. In some ways it was a good test to see how we could handle being autonomous and in other ways it was a nice way to concretise relationships between the interns.
Throughout the internship we were encouraged to live a really healthy and sociable lifestyle, the work-life balance was fantastic because we weren’t being slogged to death till late every night. The senior staff were actually quite happy for us to work from home once they felt we had a handle on the work we were doing. In addition, the Civil Service put on loads of economic and commercial awareness seminars for us. It was fantastic for our education as I felt that they were not only teaching us about the job but were actively trying to educate us further and develop our skills as individuals. The internship was fantastic and I’m definitely looking to continue onto their graduate scheme.
What three tips would you give to your fellow Bright Network members?
- Take time to really think about what you want to do. It means you’ll apply to a job that makes you happy and you’ll come across in interviews as genuinely excited about the job you’re applying to.
- Try to relax during the application process, preparing properly for your interviews will make this much easier.
- Applying to jobs can be tough but try not to get demotivated.
