Career advice from a policy and program director

What’s the best advice you ever received? What tips did you wish you knew earlier? How did this help you on your career journey?

We’ve spoken to members of the Apolitical community to share their top pieces of career advice with us. In this article, an anonymous civil servant explains why it’s important to focus on what you can learn from mistakes in their role as a policy and program director.

Your first piece of advice:

Don't try to hide your mistakes. Own them and say what you're doing to fix them. If you don't know how to fix it, ask for help. If you own it, people remember your integrity. If you fix it, they remember your problem-solving. If you ask for help, they remember your humility. But if you try to hide it and get found out, they remember your deceit.

Your second piece of advice:

When you make a mistake, don't promise that it will never happen again, that's not usually something we can control. Focus on what you can learn.

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