I moved from my job of ten years in the construction industry into the public sector when I became a mum, trying education and health roles which were term time and fit around family, but I just never found the same job satisfaction in these roles, they weren't the right fit for me. A friend of mine worked at HMRC and couldn't speak highly enough of the family friendly and flexible ethos here, I knew this would be a place where I could really develop my skillset and seek out opportunities to further my career. Although my previous roles weren't necessarily what you would automatically think of as suitable experience for a civil service role, they had allowed me to develop the transferable skills and behaviours needed to meet the success profiles in the application process.

My team provide secretariat support to a range of committees within CCG, enabling important business decisions to be made and recorded on a variety of topics from Transformation, to Business Planning, to People initiatives. We support our Director General and Directors and oversee the Governance for decision making in our Business Group. We provide end to end support to chairs and members including maintaining attendee lists, booking meetings, drafting and issuing agendas, writing minutes, allocating and tracking actions and ensuring resources such as presentation slides and reading material are requested, received and distributed on time. I find the role interesting as it has enabled me to gain insight into the decision making processes and structure of the organisation. It suits my skill set, allows me to work flexibly and also provides the right level of challenge for me to improve and develop myself professionally. I joined the team as an Officer in August 2022, gaining promotion to HO and then SO by December 2023. It has been a varied role which has allowed me to both build on & utilise my previous experience of working with people, whilst also stretching myself in areas which I had little prior experience.

I have always been motivated by working towards something, I like change and progression, the opportunity to try something new. My current position consists of a good variety of tasks with ample development opportunities both integral to the role and the chance to become involved in supporting corporate activities. I really enjoy learning and take an interest in what is going on around the organisation, trying to understand the bigger picture.

One thing I've found since being in HMRC is that there is a real motivation for the workforce to reflect the diverse society that we serve. The success profiles often used in recruitment can seem daunting, but actually they allow everyone no matter what kind of previous experience we have, to demonstrate those transferable skills, or behaviours, which can be drawn upon, with the right training, to be successful in a brand new role. So don't let anything make you think you don't have what HMRC need or want, whether that be challenging personal circumstances, health difficulties, or lack of prior experience, the Civil Service is here to support everyone in our society, and so it should be made up of a diverse workforce that can accurately represent everyone.

As a mum I chose to take a drop in pace in terms of my career, dropped to part time hours and tried various different jobs to fit around family, de-prioritising my own ambitions. I found that I quickly became unsatisfied in some of these less challenging roles and needed to get myself back on track. I applied for HMRC and secured a customer services role at AO level which I always intended to be my "foot in the door". As soon as I completed my probation I began taking on every development opportunity and looking at jobs on promotion. I was successful in gaining my first promotion within 8 months, and have gone from AO to SO in just over 2 years, which has felt like such an achievement after spending years making sideways moves and worrying that I couldn't juggle career and family. During this time, and with the support of the HMRC staff networks, I have also been through a substantial personal journey, battling to gain an autism diagnosis for my oldest child before he goes up to high school. My manager, team and everyone I have encountered in the various staff networks have been absolutely amazing, and I don't know if I'd have had the strength to get through that process had I been in a different situation!