Job Satisfaction at Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C)

I work on a wide range of activities each day. These include creating policies, providing input or comments on Cabinet submissions, allocating grants and funding, creating programs, creating briefings for Ministers and the Prime Ministers, along with administrative tasks. The Department also regularly hosts seminars and training activities that staff are able to attend in order to upskill.

As a Graduate, I have moved between several different teams and different roles. Work can involve classic policy formation (drafting briefs, liaising with stakeholders, meeting with other agencies), or more critical thinking type roles. The work has been varied and interesting.

Straightforward, routine, but sadly don't have to think much. Hungry for more.

Contributing to government policy in Indigenous Affairs, i.e. work for the dole programs, answering correspondence, writing policy submissions

There is room for improvement and I am learning the system.

My role has focused on implementing the Place Based approach to the GWA offices. It has involved presenting training workshops, meeting stakeholders, and understanding and mapping community stakeholders and assets.

The role and day-to-day responsibilities will vary significantly throughout rotations within the Department, some areas are quite process-heavy whereas others require graduates to be reactive and quick to pivot.

This has varied depending what area I was in as a graduate. In one area with very little work available I would have rated my satisfaction as 1 or 2. In my current position where I actually have work to do and feel like I'm making a meaningful contribution to the team I would rate it a 9. Hence my compromised rating of 7.

I am a policy officer, shadowing a line department. This means producing a lot of written product (mostly briefing material).

Entry level work - different forms of briefing for different Ministers, correspondence, stakeholder engagement, policy development, budgets.