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Top Insider Advice
Once established the keep your options open. The department and Civil Service are vast, work is varied and options are unlimited. Look for opportunities to expand your knowledge, experience and contacts.
Career path
Situational Awareness Officer
HMRC
Started 12/2020 to PresentCompany
What do you like about your job and the company?
Two days rarely the same. From dealing with IT incidents impacting across the Department to meetings across the Civil Service, the work is vast and different.
Greatest achievements
Using secondments and experience-gaining opportunities to broaden my knowledge & gain valuable work experiences from across the Civil Service to achieve promotion.
Sue
Operational Lead
Top Insider Advice
I have been very lucky in that I have almost always been given a role (or applied for one) that I have enjoyed in HMRC (or earlier departments). If you show that you are keen to learn and willing to listen, then you will find that opportunities will present themselves to you and you will progress in your career. When I was told that I would have to undertake taxes training in 2005, I was horrified. Having been trained in National Insurance and done various management roles, I thought that tax would be just too hard for me and that I wouldn't pass the exams. However, I committed wholeheartedly to the training programme. I studied hard and passed all the exams first time - even though my daughter was still a baby so I was constantly exhausted as well as having to travel to London once a week for 18 months for my tutorials!
Sandra
Tax Investigator
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I've been a Civil Servant for 34 years, starting as an AO in what was DHSS, processing benefit claims. This was a real baptism of fire, dealing with desperate people and desperate situations and exposed me to parts of the population that were a long way from my life. I learned good people skills from this and a real focus on how important good customer service is-doing what you say you will and still having to deliver even when things are difficult or unpopular. This gave me a good grounding for moving onto National Insurance in a compliance role for business and individuals. HMRC merged in 1999 with NI and that was the start of my accidental career. I'm proud to have worked my way up from the bottom as I believe it made me who I am. Whilst no against direct entrance programmes, gaining experience within different grades and roles creates a rounded person.
Mads B
Compliance Caseworker
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