Job Satisfaction at Policy Futures Graduate Program (Queensland Government)

My day-to-day responsibilities include attending meetings, preparing ministerial briefs and speeches, organising events, and program preparation/management.

In my current placement, my day-to-day responsibilities include research and policy development related activities.

Varied tasks and types of projects

A typical day for me in Regional Development is reading the news and catching up on updates from regional staff networks. Working on whatever policy/service issue I am currently focusing on, speaking with colleagues and providing updates on solutions I am looking into.

My role as a graduate policy officer does not involve much responsibility as everyone around me has a lot more experience in the space. My day-to-day changes as it is dependent on what government processes are occurring, and whether my team is involved with Cabinet for that week. I often have to reply to constituents who write into the Premier about my area's topics. I also monitor the media to see if there is anything relevant to my area.

Analysing and improving of existing policy

Strategic Policy and Legislation. DP's, CBN's - A great variety and very interesting and cognitively engaging.

As a graduate my role is quite varied, I do lots of different thing, lots of different types of writing, but largely I am not given things which are overly difficult and sometimes feel I am writing for a purpose that is not aligned with what I think I should be saying

Very little responsibility, and hard to see the outcome or impact of work

In my current rotation (In the Department of Energy and Climate), work has included helping to write ministerial briefings, attending meetings with industry stakeholders or other departments, and helping develop policy and regulation

Since I was in a traditional research team, I would mostly work on project type work day-to-day. I more did little tasks to assist in a larger project which may take short periods of time (e.g. transcript cleaning, short research tasks, creating timelines/flowcharts, editing reports) or slightly larger projects which I would work on by myself or with another team member (reading reports and writing summaries/findings/recommendations, researching and analysing data)

I have a combination of training and on the job experience. This includes briefs, discussion papers. I have the opportunity to work on these papers with the support of my supervisor.

I am in charge of providing departmental responses to social justice issues. I provide responses through discussion papers, cabinet briefing notes, and ministerial briefing notes. There is also a lot of engagement with internal and external experts and stakeholders to gather relevant information to provide a succinct and evidence-based viewpoint.

I would usually work on regulation changes and legislation changes and also correspondence over email.

Day-to-day responsibilities can vary greatly depending on where you are placed for your rotation. My placement involved a variety of policy related work.

In my current placement, my day-to-day activities can vary depending on what the team is working on. Right now, I am preparing a presentation, and speakers notes for my manager to present. Last week I was creating a digital survey for a data component of our project. The week before that I was writing correspondence!

My work varies widely week-to-week. I've been exposed to a wide range of tasks and responsibilities such as briefs, impact analysis, interjurisdictional comparison, correspondence etc. I've been supported to take the lead of my own pieces of work from early in the graduate program. The work of my current team has a direct impact on people's lives, and it is fulfilling to be involved in such meaningful work so early on in my career.

I've had opportunities to experience a range of different tasks from minutes, briefing notes, speechwriting, policy analysis, and research

Day-to-day basis, I need to keep up with the media about various issues and so the first thing I do is read the news brief provided by the media team. Weekly basis, I check my calendar on Mondays to make sure I have prepared for the upcoming meetings for that week and check it again on Friday just to get a mental note of what is expected in the coming week. Generally, I do research on the latest policies and strategies relevant to the topic I am working on. Synthesise large amount of information and identify the key messages. Furthermore, based on the theoretical knowledge, I would review submissions received from the partners/stakeholders and provide sound comments/inputs. I also do data analysis from time to time based on the needs and try to provide policy implications.

Day-to-day responsibilities vary greatly. Sometimes I am given projects to work on autonomously so it's my responsibility to structure my daily tasks. Typically, I check my emails in the morning, including a morning media summary email of the news headlines. I scan these for anything particular relevant or worth reporting back to my team. Sometimes I am given projects to work on autonomously so it's my responsibility to structure my daily tasks. However, when I'm working on a project or a Cabinet Submission with a team, I usually attend a morning check-in meeting with the team to outline our daily responsibilities. Then I action these tasks throughout the day while intermittently attending meetings. Some tasks include drafting briefings, speaking notes, Cabinet Submissions, conducting data audits, and reviewing documents.