My name is Dawn Butler and I work in HMRC. I applied, through Civil Service Local North East, for a Job Shadowing opportunity in a Job Centre in the North East. I went to Job shadow an Employer Adviser at the DWP Killingworth Jobcentreplus office.
My adviser was really helpful and sent me a work itinerary the day before I attended. My day started with my adviser explaining his role and our plans for the day. In the morning we saw a group of people who were setting up a new business and wanted to discuss their requirements for staff they employed for the business and any other advice and information my adviser could offer. This meeting was followed by a visit to a company to discuss future opportunities for unemployed people to gain work experience through placements and apprenticeships to help them back in to work.
We had time for a quick lunch followed by another visit out of the office to a dog walking company who wanted to sign up to have a young unemployed person for work experience, to extend to a possible apprenticeship after the trial period.
This was a very interesting and fast paced experience, and I thought my adviser went above and beyond to help clients and unemployed people. If I had the opportunity to work alongside him in this role again I would jump at the chance without any hesitation.
I learnt that customer service is so important in whatever office you are in and I think sometimes we lose sight of this when we are dealing with letters and are not in a face to face environment. I have learnt that you can get a lot of job satisfaction from going above and beyond in your daily work and providing the best service to customers, whether it is face to face contact, by letter or by telephone.
If you are interested in shadowing colleagues in a different department please look at the Learning and Development Opportunities page for your local area