When I moved from Pakistan, I was told by many that the only jobs I can get is working in a shop as graduate careers aren't for us. The fact that I didn't take their word made such a difference. Self-belief is the first part of the equation and once you have that, top it up with doing your research and acting on it as actions make the most difference. There is a lot of material available for applications and what it takes to be a civil servant at HMRC. Have some time to read and understand it before applying. Lastly, overthinking is not your friend, so my advice is to do your thinking but DO NOT over think and take actions to make a plunge!

No matter what job I've done over the years there has always been people impacted by it. Whether I was sorting out a customers Tax, National Insurance record, developing new IT systems, or delivering new policies or even opening new buildings its people that have been affected at the end of it. Its easy to forget when wrapped up in the day to day activities of your job, that I have made life better for a huge amount of people over the years but in tiny bite size chunks

Something that has helped me to move up in my career at HMRC is taking on new tasks from working on additional projects for the HO's in Customs to training new starters to the business. I actually wrote and delivered a training package for new starters when I was AO in Customs, I felt this not only increased my skillset but it also helped me to make sure that anyone starting in the same role as me learnt the job from the perspective of an AO. I have also taken on projects where I have led a group of people, for example, clearing an email inbox where we had a large number of emails. I delegated colleagues to cover particular time slots, making sure that the emails that had been waiting the longest for a response were dealt with first.