GES Summer Student Review

The role is to be useful. On a day to day basis, this means creating economic analysis in Excel models for ongoing projects, reviewing colleague's models, writing economic descriptions and consulting with subject experts about assumptions being used.

I have spent time learning R using the Defra DataCamp license. My Excel skills have greatly improved through greater experience. I have also developed my broader professional skills (office etiquette, how to collaborate effectively in a team etc).

Yes. My team made sure to involve me in active projects and I was responsible for large parts of the economic modelling for high profile projects. I was allowed to liaise with other members of Defra about which assumptions to use for modelling and to encourage them to provide more information to the economics team.

Plenty. Given the involvement with active and important projects, I received sometimes hourly feedback and direction about my work - this was very reassuring as I knew whether I was producing good output in a timely manner. My line manager was very supportive in my professional development and ensuring that I felt included in the office.

In general, the culture was supportive, calm and clear. It tended to be very respectful of the prescribed working hours and had a great community feeling at lunch (when meeting are not meant to be organised). However, the general atmosphere was a bit laid back outside of my direct team - it sometimes felt like some members of the Department were clock watching. WFH is very prevalent which can make the offices feel very quiet on Monday/Friday and hurts the culture if you like to work from the office.

I very much enjoyed my placement. I met a wonderful set of people who I hope to keep in contact with. I developed my technical skills. I gained much greater confidence in my own abilities. I found the work very rewarding and impactful.

No

It can be very laidback and the pay is far far too low (most friends are fellow Economics students interested in working in London so have much better prospects in the private sector). The current recruitment freeze massively limits development (there is now essentially a backlog of competent employees who have not been promoted, crowding out future opportunities even if the freeze is lifted). If somebody said to me they were interested in joining the CS, I would seriously advise them against it. It can be a good option if you are independently wealthy or are looking for something to do whilst raising young children (you could then benefit fully from the WFH, flexible working and laidback atmosphere) but not for the vast majority of people. It only recruits because of the immense goodwill and sense of duty its staff have towards the institution and general public (in my opinion).