Case studies: Statistical officer: Kate Palmer

Kate studied BSc Psychology at the University of Wales, Cardiff before going on to complete an MRes in Gerontology at Kings College, London. She now works for the Government Statistical Service (GSS).

After my Masters degree, I applied for a job within the GSS and was successful. I joined the Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA) Prices Indices department of the Ministry of Defence in January 2006 as a Band D analyst working in DASA Health Information. In September 2007, I was promoted to C2 within the same department and worked at that grade in two different roles until March 2012 when I was promoted to C1 within DASA Price Indices.

Whilst having a statistics background helps to secure a job within the GSS, I found that many of the GSS statisticians in DASA actually had a social science degree with an element of statistics and therefore I found that having studied psychology helped as I had a background of not only analysing data, but also of appropriate dissemination to a wide and varied audience. I felt that, whilst my Masters degree did not necessarily secure me my job (the psychology degree would have been sufficient), having a higher level of education definitely made me a stronger competitor for promotion and indeed I was promoted much quicker than my counterparts in DASA.

Currently, I am responsible for producing Defence Inflation estimates and therefore my typical working day at the moment is centred on that. I analyse defence expenditure data from 2010/11 and 2011/12 and estimate inflation experienced by the department. I line manage one member of staff and so a proportion of my day is spent supporting them with their continued development. As I have only been in my current role for a few months, I have been focused on learning about the new topic area of economic statistics.

I currently enjoy the challenge that working in a new team brings. I loved my old job but felt that I had got to the point where I was no longer learning new things and it was getting increasingly difficult to complete my annual CPD log. However, I am now working with new data, producing new reports and getting to work with a variety of new customers. 

I would strongly recommend a career within the GSS - you get continued professional development support, and should you choose, you also get the opportunity to move around different government departments within the GSS, which is an added bonus. A background in statistics or social sciences will provide you with a stepping stone into the GSS and there are roles that suit all levels of expertise/interest. You could go into a job that is heavily centred on topics such as economic statistics, health statistics, analysis of historical data to produce historical trend analysis, or analysis of historical data to produce forecasts. The GSS really has a lot to offer to newly qualified graduates.