Thanks Wigeon (and everyone else who has posted with advice!)
I completely agree about avoiding applying for a G7 role in a PO if it’s my first PO role. I think, as you say, that it would be unlikely I’d get the role. Also, as a G7 is quite senior and a PO role is very pressurised and stressful, it would be very easy to feel out of my depth at that level in a new and fast-paced environment that I hadn’t had previous exposure to.
I’m an EO, and looking to apply for HEO-level roles for my next job.
Starting this thread has got me thinking about my next move and how I could then transfer from that to a PO role. After chatting to colleagues a few months ago on and off about my next move, a few of them said they didn’t think my personality and interests/skills were suited to PO roles (sounds quite blunt when put like that, but I could see where they were coming from).
In terms of skills, for example, I do like being very thorough over work (which is of course very important in fast-paced environments as well as in circumstances where you have more time to do the work), but my colleagues (some of whom have PO experience) explained that I’d have much less time to review documents and submissions in a PO role than in, say, a policy role. I’ve learned to be a lot quicker when doing my work, as I’ve been in my current role for 2 years and have got used to it, but I’m very aware from speaking to colleagues in PO roles that there isn’t really any time allotted in those roles to getting used to the role and you have to hit the ground running and be very high-performing in the role very quickly.
In terms of personality, I’m quite quiet and can find it hard to be assertive. I’ve been working on this a lot since realising I find it hard, but I’m aware being assertive and confident is quite important to demonstrate in a PO role.
As I still would like to work in a PO, but am also aware of the importance of working on the above skills before applying for a PO role, I thought it might be a good idea to apply for a non-PO role (a policy role, for example) as my next move, at HEO-level.
And then, if I apply successfully for that next role, the plan is to then work in that role for a couple of years, to further develop skills in that role that I’d need for a PO role, and then to apply for a sideways move to a PO role at HEO level (rather than on promotion at SEO, which I think would be too much of a challenge, given that PO roles are very stressful anyway). Now, and in my next role, I’m also aiming to get more PO cover under my belt to see if a PO role is really for me and to talk to as many PO colleagues as possible to find out about their experiences. I’ve talked to a few colleagues in POs who seem to have a similar personality to me, which I’ve found really helpful and positive, because I imagine that they’d respond to challenges in a similar way to me, and it’s been useful to have a role model in them who I can be inspired by (although these observations are just from talking to them, rather than from actually seeing how they work in their role on a day-to-day basis).
The main thing in a PO role that I’m nervous about is the pressure and stress. I’ve put together a few strategies I could use whilst in that role (which could be applied to any role, really - even my current one) to hopefully help (I find it massively helpful, personally, if I’m able to prepare for potentially stressful outcomes as much as possible):
Could anyone give any tips please on how they managed not having time to do things like have a normal social life/have time to eat healthily, sleep enough and make time for relaxing/exercise? Those things are obviously all really important to maintain resilience and perspective, but it sounds like PO roles are notorious for not allowing for any work/life balance at all. How did you cope with this? Did you just tell yourself it wouldn’t last forever, and just focus on enjoying the good bits of the role, to cope?
How to cope in stressful situations/ doing daily tasks:
- Deep breathing and concentrating fully in stressful situations (rather than letting myself think of negative outcomes, worries and doubts)
- Tell supervisor as soon as I’ve made a mistake and if I’ve thought of any solutions, so I can show I’ve reported it straightaway
- Practise doing tasks under stressful conditions to get used to this
- Before a situation that I think will be stressful, think about all of the things that I think could go wrong and then think how I can prevent them going wrong or how to minimise the damage
- Presuppose the positive: how can I most easily get this task done?
General approach to work:
- Focus fully at work and on not getting distracted, and don’t think about work when at home/outside of work
- Be proactive in getting supervision/asking for help
- Check anything I’m unsure of with a more senior colleague
- Make a template checklist for different tasks, and check it and tick off various components of each task to make sure I’ve done it correctly
- Don’t rely on memory for everything: put all important dates in email calendar and make notes of everything I need to
- Type emails in without putting anyone's address in the "to" box, to avoid unfinished/ unsuitable emails
- Distinguish between urgent and important, and don’t let important stuff become urgent
Before starting role:
- Do due diligence on the specific minister you might work for
- Contact vacancy holder, and/or someone in post, when applying for role to find out if role would be a good fit for me
General wellbeing:
- Make time for sleeping, relaxing, exercise, eating well
(can anyone give tips on how they managed this despite the long working hours, please?)
- Whenever I need to remind myself of anything work-related or think of anything work-related outside of work, send email to work address so I can deal with it in working hours rather than having it on my mind outside of work
- Think of it as CV glossing, not a ‘forever job’ and set time limit for doing it (e.g. one year, 2 years)
I don’t regret it all, some of my best memories are from PO.