I joined the NI Civil Service in 2010 and spent a number of years as a Project Manager with the Driver & Vehicle Agency and the Department for Social Development (now Department for Communities). In 2016 I took a career change and transferred to a Human Resources role within the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), and I now work as a HR Business Partner within the newly centralised NICSHR.
HR is a collaborative effort, and in reality it means liaising and working with people. In my current role as HR business partner for DAERA, I take an active part in the departments overall business policies and business planning from a HR perspective.
While the Civil Service may be seen as a bureaucratic organisation, it’s about people first and foremost. You need to be able to demonstrate empathy to provide support to colleagues, staff and managers and to ensure that people are treated fairly and considerately. In my role I also need to be able to build strong working relationships with middle and senior business managers in order to act as a trusted advisor.
The Civil Service is made up of over 23,000 individuals from a range of backgrounds, with different skills in different roles across a wide range of professions and disciplines – general service, scientific, technological, legal, IT; from fish farms to forests, from justice to the arts, health to horticulture. Working in the NICS provides a great opportunity to develop your own pathways and to have a real varied career.
It’s a nurturing organisation where fresh opinions are valued and encouraged, so I always advise people to have the courage to speak up, to ask questions to improve your own understanding and learning. A new perspective is greatly valued here.