Originally Posted by gina

It depends on what you mean by “dirty play”. If you mean is it can only succeed in the career ladder by defrauding people, then the answer is no. There is no need to commit fraud to succeed as a HR specialist.

But if you mean things like corporate politics, saying the right thing to the right people, building your patronage, playing stakeholders against one another, massaging presentations, then that goes without saying. This is after all a competitive field dealing with mostly senior managers, just hard work without knowing how to play the corporate game won’t get you far. As for relationship with peers & stakeholders there is always a subtle element of cooperation and antagonism that you need to carefully manage.

Once again, like I mention if you are not prepared to go all out, the administrative route is more suitable for you. By the way the PSD policy side is a hunting ground for future AOs, that is definitely not a place to be a “good” guy, you will get eaten up alive. Based solely on your self-description, a stat board or normal ministry career is probably more suitable for you.