Working in the public service can help fresh graduates with their attention to detail but isn’t appealing to those who are more ambitious, according to a former junior public servant.
Hannah Ferguson had two stints in the Queensland Public Service: first at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions as a legal transcriber then at the Office of the Health Ombuds as an intake and triage officer.
Now founder and CEO of media start-up Cheek Media Co, Ferguson told The Mandarin the work culture of the public service was a big drawcard for her.
“It’s very much an expectation of grads in private [law] firms that you just work long hours for very little money,” she said as she was weighing her options while studying law.
“That was what drew me to the public sector: one, the work was going to be more interesting and challenging and, two, the entitlements were better.”
Her time at the Queensland DPP happened when she was finishing her law degree, giving her the flexibility to work three days a week. After a year and a half, she worked at the Health ombud for about six months before leaving the public service to work in project management at a charity.
A skill Ferguson said she developed during her time was attention to detail, as she felt she was very accountable for the work she produced.
“When I was taking health complaints from people at the Health ombud, I needed to be able to recall and record very complex health information and incidents that occurred with health practitioners.
“As a 22-year-old, that was really intense job to be able to pay attention to detail and record information accurately because that was vital for the entire investigation process.”
Ferguson added she felt there was a “stigma” around going into the public sector given the pay disparity between it and the private sector.
“But for me, I didn’t even know if I wanted to pursue law,” she said. “So this was a way to do it that was interesting subject matter.”
However, when it came to staying in the public service, Ferguson felt limited.
“In the first few years of your career, [public service roles] are quite limiting in what you’re allowed to do,” she said.
“The benefit of that is you can go home on time, but the detriment is that you don’t learn as much in the first couple of years out of uni because your role description is quite refined.”
She added that her time in the public service helped her decide what she wants from work, due to how process-driven it is.
“It’s good for refining skills but when you’ve got people who are passionate and ambitious, it’s a bit limiting in how fast you can move and how much knowledge you can develop early on.”
Ferguson still recommends the public service as a good place for people at the start of their careers.
“It is one of the very few places where there’s pay transparency and clear role definition,” she said.
“I think it’s one of the few places where you are actually paid for your time accordingly and you get to go home on time.”
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