Ambassador Ellie - Transcript

My name's Ellie, and I'm Senior Strategic Finance Advisor at the Treasury. I joined the Government Finance Function when I was 18.

I hadn't long left full-time education, and I joined the Treasury on a level three finance apprenticeship, so I was learning about invoicing, receipting, purchase to pay, that side of finance.

When I first joined, my biggest worry was probably making mistakes. It's money, it's real numbers. I thought if I do something wrong, there's no coming back from it. You have the support, you have the mechanism, and my manager told me in my first few weeks that there's nothing that they can't fix. So that was the most assuring thing, and I've carried that throughout my career to date.

Yeah, there's lots of learning opportunities. So one platform that I have loved during my time in the Government Finance Function is a mentor scheme. It was a fixed-term mentor relationship for 12 months, but I continue to work with my mentor now. So she has been incredible. A guide when I'm feeling slightly stuck, when I'm feeling challenged by something, or even when I want to know what life is like at the top, perhaps. What might my life look like if I choose to take a senior path in 20 or so years, but also, what struggles and experiences did she have in her first few years that I could relate to and where she could support me through that?

I'd recommend joining the Government Finance Function on an apprenticeship because you get opportunities which are so different to any other opportunity you'd get day-to-day.

I spent a couple of years in the Ministry of Justice and worked on a spending review, so it was an opportunity to bid for funding in really crucial areas of the justice system, and I could directly see the impact of that.

Also in my time at Treasury, there's been some quite niche opportunities. One of my roles, I was playing the Prime Minister. Not everyone can go home and say that every day.

Civil Service applications can feel big, and they can feel scary. Something I've always been recommended, particularly with the written element of the application, is to follow the STAR method, so your Situation, your Task, your Action, and the Result, and that helps you write a really complete answer.

When I tell people a little bit about my job, they always say, "Wow, that sounds really interesting. I can't believe you're doing this." And I think people feel like it's quite out of reach, but it really is accessible to be able to do something like that, too. Yeah, I feel really trusted and empowered in my role.

I think that is what makes me quite set on having a longer-term career in Government Finance Function. There's opportunities. It feels important. It feels like I'm doing something meaningful, and that gives you a purpose when you go to work every day.