Past public service graduates pass on advice to newcomers in 2023

For Sian Sykes, now a project officer at Services Australia, it was the connections she made which distinguished her graduate year in 2022.

"I was straight into the Enterprise Transformation Office as my first rotation, dealing with strategy around transformation in the agency, working on a little bit of everything there, which was really, really interesting," she said.

Ms Sykes then took part in the agency's Indigenous and Multicultural placement in Sydney.

"It's basically a three month placement that grads can apply to either with remote services in Indigenous communities, or with community work, mostly in culturally and linguistically diverse communities, but in the community broadly, as well.

"I think it's really cool that the agency values its grads having that sort of context and knowledge as well, not just the corporate side of things."

Beyond her work, it's the support of peers which has carried her through, Ms Sykes said.

"You already have this whole infrastructure around the grad program, and around for grads themselves, that transition was quite smooth.

"The connections and the friendships that I've made with other grads have been the highlight of the whole experience," she said.

Her advice for future grads: "Don't think about it, just jump in."

"Especially while you're a grad in both professional and social capacities," she said, urging newcomers not to shy away from asking questions and making the most of opportunities.

Matthew Choy moved from Sydney to become a graduate for the Department of Finance at the beginning of 2021.

"Looking back over my graduate year and my recent years in the department and the public service, I can't believe the journey that I have embarked on so far here in Canberra," he said.

"I'm very thankful for the opportunities and experiences that came my way as well as the many friends, colleagues and people who've guided me in this early stage of my professional career and life here in Canberra."

Often APS graduate programs have a series of rotations, giving young professionals the chance to test the waters in different parts of the department.

"In my graduate program I completed two six month internships in the ICT vision of the department. The first as a solutions analyst to support our architecture team with strategic work in relation to our department's ICT strategy," Mr Choy said.

"For example supporting works and designs on how the department can transition it's IT system to cloud based technologies.

"The second experience or rotation was a support officer in assisting the team to look after the infrastructure and compliance of our central budget management system."

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Mr Choy was also deployed to Services Australia during his graduate year to support processing emergency welfare payments during the height of COVID-19 and natural disasters which he described as a highlight.

Jehru Harris from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has almost finished his graduate year and described it as a great opportunity.

"I think coming in, I really didn't have any expectations ... from some recent job postings you can sort of maybe guess, like sometimes they will say very prescriptively what they're looking for you to do," he said.

"The grad program didn't really have that, like it had some very broad areas but I think that's a good thing."

Mr Harris said he had the opportunity to meet people within his program who had a variety of skill sets, which made the program rewarding.

"I have good relationships with other grads, I think something that is a positive as well is usually sometimes social sort of grouping with other grads," he said.

Beyond the graduate program, Ethal Askander became a cadet at a department, providing him the opportunity to gain work experience while completing his studies.

"It was a really good experience, my cadetship is in IT so I got experience in different areas of IT," he said.

"That exposure is really valuable.

"I know a lot of people will go into the cadetship as a way to launch their career ... it's amazing to have this on my resume while I'm still studying."

Mr Askander is studying a bachelor of software engineering at the Australian National University and said it was amazing to have the opportunity.

"I get a lot of mentoring as the young person, you get a lot of mentoring from your teammates, a lot of people are very friendly and happy to help you," he said.

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