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Old 29-09-2014, 11:32 PM
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Ah. Nice to meet someone who have had more or less the same experience. Agree with what is said here - both about the learning curve, and also about getting to work with amazing, committed and intelligent folks.

For me, I've too moved on to a more functional role but still work very closely with those in Policy. Knowing their set of rationale/concerns makes working really does empower those down the stream (i.e. execution).

Deadlines are deadlines. Some are realistic, and some are ridiculous. 3/4 AM OT tends to be seasonal, but working at home until 9/10 PM is rather normal. That was so for me back then, at least.

All in all, you need to be comfortable with writing. Copious amounts of writing. And I think this is the third time I said this now, but you would definitely need to be comfortable with your paper being discussed (in some cases, torn apart). The bright side of all these is, as the other contributor shared, you learn a LOT in Policy. I am not sure where else one can learn as much but then again I could be biased, since I started out in Policy and all.

Hope this helps you, as well as all others who are or may be considering a career in Policy.
Your paragraphs reminded me of the good old times I had at IR policy and research - plenty of writing and re-writing for various reasons - some stupid, some worthy. It was extremely fast paced and we work over weekends. Fortunately, I had a bunch of wonderful colleagues. When times were okay, we enjoyed life together. When times were bad, we roughed it out together. It was this strong sense of camaraderie that kept me going. However, as life would have it, 5 years into policy formulation, I stumbled upon a certain train of thoughts - if I were to be a Head, I would be re-writing the papers that my officers submitted; if I were to be a DD, I would be be re-writing the papers that my Heads submitted, etc.

The question of whether I could keep writing on similar issues for the long haul kept echoing in my mind. Not long after, I realised that I could not do the same thing over and over. I quitted, took a pay cut, and did random writing/teaching work offshore.

The funny thing is that 10 years later, when I want to settle down and hence considering applying back to CS/PS, I kind of miss the good old days that I had, and wondered what would life had been, had I stayed on? Most of my friends left. The last one remaining had become the DD that I had imagined earlier. (He's terribly disgruntled now) I really wonder if I should rejoin CS/PS. This forum has been very useful in answering my questions on how has CS/PS changed over the years. I think I may have found my answer.

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