Job Satisfaction at Department of Industry, Science and Resources

Within the Quantum Growth team currently, I am mostly working on grant guidelines and preparing documents to support scientific innovations in quantum.

I do a lot of media research and some research into current sciences.

I am satisfied with most of the work responsibilities I have been given, however the mandatory training programs are often not well-designed. Some are (e.g. the Foundations in Government course) were pitched at a level more appropriate to high school students, and where not an effective use of time. Others, like the Power BI training tried to cram a several day training course into 3 hours and were too condensed to easily follow. Also - I was hired through the STEM grad stream, but there is absolutely no infrastructure or support to actually use the STEM skills that I was ostensibly hired for. This is incredibly disappointing and wasteful.

I preferred my second rotation, but find my current work to be interesting and it's nice to take on a different role in the team

Throughout my graduate program my responsibilities included organising bilateral events, preparing briefing packs and general policy work such as Ministerial Submissions, Question Time Briefs and talking points for ministerial or official events. Additionally, data analysis and report writing can be common depending on your role.

My current responsibilities are within my capabilities and contribute meaningfully to the team. I feel supported to engage with with opportunities which broaden my capabilities and experience.

Day-to day activities: Very satisfied, enjoy the work (when I have time to complete it). Graduate Program: Is not consistent with the Department's requirements (e.g. planning of requirements for graduate year did not consider the Department's requirements. Graduate project was due in the first few weeks after moving to a new team and during a sitting week/senate estimate. EL2's have been very unhappy about the poor planning of these projects and little support offered).

A lot of pretty straight forward draft advice type work

I am a Graduate so my role is to support my supervisor and team achieve policy outcomes. I do a lot of desk top research, inbox monitoring, drafting policy documents and attending team meetings

As a graduate I've had 3 rotations. Each rotation was different. My first rotation was a laboratory based role which varied day to day. The things I were doing consisted of preparing to do tests and analysis in the laboratory, calculating results and writing up reports. Some days I would also be preparing for student engagements and participating in external stakeholder meetings. My second rotation looked into developing promotional material for the laboratory, highlighting new services that we can provide during our stakeholder meetings. My final rotation looked more into how policy and government work within the department. Focusing more on development of useful documents, drafting up documents for managers, and being involved in meetings concerning the work that I was undertaking. During the program I would also sporadically work on the Graduate Major Project that is assigned yearly for graduates to work on an emerging policy area. My tasks consisted of desktop researching, stakeholder engagements, weekly meetings with my project team and reporting writing.