The Next Big Step

Having completed my Honors in Government and International Relations last year, the next step in my academic career was always going to be a crucial one.

As someone who’s interested in politics and how government works, I’d been primarily focused on bureaucrat policy creation, looking at why bureaucracies operate the way they do, as well as why some policies get suggested at certain points in time and not at others. But I still felt I was lacking a fairly large piece of the puzzle. That’s why I signed up for the Master of Management degree.

There are a lot of people working in government who have political science or policy degrees. They’re very much aware of how the science behind decision-making works. But there aren’t many people within the government sector who have an idea of how to actually implement what they’ve researched. I think that zone of intersection between the public and private sectors is an extremely important area, and I believe that combining my interest in policy creation with a strong understanding of business will prove to be highly beneficial.

I’m currently halfway through the degree and I feel it’s definitely providing me with the tools I’ll need to apply my policy knowledge in a practical sense. For example, I’ve really enjoyed learning how financial markets and businesses operate, and think that a project we worked on with accounting and consultancy firm Deloitte (we had to come up with an innovative business model idea and sell it to them) has been a definite highlight.

When it’s all over, ideally I’d love to get into some sort of lobbying position, which would be a great example of that intersection between public and private. I’m also interested in the management consultancy side of things, or possibly approaching my career path from the governmental side via a ministerial advisory role. I really can’t wait to see how it all plays out.