GORS Career Stories - Jonathan

Read about Jonathan's journey in GORS in his own words.

My main motivation to join the Civil Service and GORS in particular was that it presented an exciting opportunity to apply what I had learnt at University; giving me the chance to tackle important and complex real world problems, striving to make a positive difference. Becoming a member of the GORS community would also put me in a position to specialise in a technical area that I find fascinating.

I completed a year-long general analytical placement in the Department of Health as part of my Maths degree. This gave me a taste of working in the Civil Service and helped me recognise that Operational Research as a profession was a good fit for me. During my final year of University, I applied for the GORS Fast Stream and Mainstream. I didn’t make it through the Fast Stream Assessment Centre, but I passed the Mainstream interview.

I joined the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) as an OR in September 2018, working in the Statistical Project Delivery team in Justice Statistics. This team was effectively an internal consultancy and the role gave me the opportunity to work on a variety of projects ranging from implementing the automation of statistical publications to organising and running department-wide training in the R language.  I worked at the MoJ for just over a year before moving on promotion to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) where I am currently working in the National Buildings Model (NBM) team. At first I wasn’t sure how regularly commuting in to London would work out, however utilising flexible working, working from home and the technology available made my routine adaptable and allowed me to fit work around my other priorities, helping maintain my work life balance whilst in both roles.