Peter H.
About me
| Peter H. | |
| English and Related Literature | |
| English with Philosophy | |
| Taught Postgraduate | |
| Derwent | |
| 2010 | |
| United Kingdom |
My employment
| Consultant | |
| Crown Agents | |
| United Kingdom | |
| 2013 |
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A day in the life of a Consultant in the United Kingdom
My career history
I worked for an Africa focused risk consulting firm after finishing my masters, then spent 3 months in Ethiopia on the VSO ICS scheme before starting my current job.
Courses taken since graduation
MA Politics, Philosophy and Economics - Politics and Development (University of York)
My advice to students considering work
Look at job adverts for positions you'd like to do in future and see which skills are required. This will allow you to be realistic about your career and how to achieve your ambitions through getting the relevant skills and experience.
International development is exceptionally competitive. I would stress that at the outset. And there are no predefined career paths, very few grad schemes per se. So-called entry level jobs (the DFID grad scheme is the exception) often require years of experience and/or a masters. There are a number of good ways to get early career field experience - the government funded ICS scheme is great and can be done over a university summer. The advice I often hear and I think is pretty accurate is to specialise early if possible and to get technical as early as possible. Languages are of course useful (especially French, African/Asian languages, Portuguese).
My advice about working in my industry
Firstly, international development is exceptionally competitive. I would stress that at the outset. And there are no predefined career paths, very few grad schemes per se. So-called entry level jobs (the DFID grad scheme is the exception) often require years of experience and/or a masters. There are a number of good ways to get early career field experience - the government funded ICS scheme is great and can be done over a university summer. The advice I often hear and I think is pretty accurate is to specialise early if possible and to get technical as early as possible. Languages are of course useful (especially French, African/Asian languages, Portuguese).
Some great advice I was given was to look at jobs for later career professionals, people doing jobs you would like to do in future and to look at the experience required. Then think 'how can I get this experience'. You can answer this in part by looking at the LinkedIn profiles of people who are doing those jobs.
A couple of additional thoughts: there are many routes in. I saw a CV recently for someone who spent 30 years working in bookshops before moving in to the development sector as a textbook procurement specialist. There are many skills needed.
What I do
I work as a consultant and project manager for this international development consulting firm. Specifically we do work for governments (e.g. DFID) and multilateral donors (UN, World Bank etc). I'm in the governance and state building team. In simple terms means we bid for, design and manage projects that help governments in developing countries become more efficient and accountable and with increased capacity to deliver basic services (health, education). We especially work in so-called 'fragile states'. My time is split between bidding for new projects, managing current projects and 'technical delivery' (helping to directly carry out the work).
What I like most
I find my work rewarding - projects have real results, are varied, and I have the opportunity to visit interesting regions.
What I like least
Sometimes travel on short notice is needed and can be a little unpredictable - although this is just a minor issue.
Next steps...
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