Having worked in the public sector myself for several years I would like to share some experiences for those looking at venturing into a career in this direction.

As it has been highlighted in the news just recently, public sector jobs tend to carry on average a 17% higher salary than those in the private sector, but what is more than often emphasised in this type of work is that ‘we are not in it for the money’.  This therefore means that more emphasis is put on issues such as ‘work-life balance’, ‘equality and diversity’, ‘training and development’,  ‘equal opportunities’, to name a few of the areas that time and money are spent on.  These issues are key to future business development in the private sector, and the public sector are at the forefront at developing ‘good practice models’.

Having just recently moved out of the public sector I have taken this knowledge and experience with me and am now developing a social business to help private and public sector organisations develop means of addressing these issues.  I have taken a huge leap of faith and decided to become self-employed for the very first time.  I feel my value will be helping both the private and public sector in addressing all areas of workforce development.  To start with I am looking to recruit people who are interested in moving into the public sector, or indeed are ‘moving around’ the public sector.  This is where a word of warning must be issued for those ‘moving into’ the public sector.  For a start, a number of jobs are only part-time, due to the ever increasing popularity of ‘job share’.  This may not suit everyone.  The other point to remember is that people’s jobs are often only on a temporary contract basis.  The nature of working in many areas of the public sector is that the government may only fund certain projects or specific areas for a set amount of time.  You therefore tend to get a ‘hub’ of people who move from job to job on 18 month or 3 year contracts.  If people don’t move they may spend the last 12 months of their post seeking additional funding to basically keep them in post on whatever project they may be running.  You can therefore imagine that this type of work isn’t for those who like a fast paced life, as securing your own job in the public sector field can often require endless form filling to apply for funds, research and never ending meetings to discuss contracts.

Realistically though these days it appears that people don’t often stay in post at one particular job for more than 3 years at a time anyway, and the pluses of working in the public sector, even if just for a set amount of time certainly in my experience outweigh the cons.  As mentioned above there is the amount of resource into developing the workforce, and the development of transferable skills which at a future date can be taken into other sectors.

One of the other benefits at looking at the public sector as a career option is that there are a wide variety of vacancies available.  Administrators, project managers, finance directors, marketing specialist etc etc.  Organisations are moving towards being more business like in their approach to delivery, therefore a wider variety of skills are required.

Issued by MatchPoint UK Ltd contact Deborah Siswick  07738 131464

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