My role as a digital business analyst

My background

Before I joined the CPS all my previous roles had been outside the public sector. I started my career at 17 years old working as an IT support apprentice at a local secondary school. I'd completed a second apprenticeship at Unilever by 21, working as a business analyst apprentice, which is where I first started on my business analyst journey. I then worked for 18 months at Iceland (the frozen retailer, not the country!) as a junior business analyst and joined the CPS in 2022. 

I always had ambitions of working in the civil service. When I saw the CPS were advertising, I put in an application. I find the work of the CPS extremely interesting, especially after doing jury duty a couple of years ago. I hoped that I could make a positive contribution to society, however small, through my work. I knew this was the role for me at the interview when I heard about the flexible working policies and the career development opportunities available.

My typical day

My role involves understanding the challenges faced by teams throughout the CPS. I then work with a multidisciplinary agile development team to build new IT solutions to resolve these challenges and provide stakeholders with a multitude of benefits. Since joining CPS I’ve led on creating a process to manage how we deal with requests for enhancing existing live business applications. We currently support about 30 within a relatively small team and I’m responsible for progressing these requests as they come in. I'm also running the discovery stage on a process that will hopefully lead to new solutions that bring improvements to the CPS.

My inspiration

Working at the CPS is such a privilege. Although I’ve only been here for under a year, I can see how the work we do every day as an organisation positively contributes to the criminal justice system.

The thing I most enjoy about my job is seeing the smiles on colleagues' faces when a new piece of functionality makes their work life easier.

Another great part about working at the CPS is the culture - everyone is so supportive and wants the best for each other. I’ve never personally received so much positive praise in my life as I have since joining! The best thing about working in a digital role is that 'every day is a school day' - I’m always learning something new.

My biggest learning

Go for it! Prepare for the interview by reading up on the Civil Service success profiles. And perhaps get a friend or family member to ask you potential questions and practice answering.

If you're successful and get the job, be patient with yourself. Like any job, it takes time to understand your team, the work and the culture - but everyone is happy to help and support you on your journey.