Sarah Kennelly, Administrative Officer & Developer, Dept of Education and Skills

What are your daily tasks?

I write code and develop applications. I discuss with the business users within our department on what software applications to deliver them to help do their business.

What skills do you need to be successful?

IT specific skills, coding and javascript. You need to be able to collaborate with a team. The ability to manage people and workloads is really valuable.

What’s the best thing about your job?

Working on a project and seeing it come to life and be used within the department. To take an idea and make it concrete is really rewarding.

What’s the toughest part of your job?

I do a lot of things outside the specific definition of my role, which can be a challenge. You jump between roles and need to quickly learn how to do those jobs. It gives you the ability to change direction if you want to.

Is a career in the public sector different to what people often think?

The outside perception is of an unchanging, monotonous object but it is quite dynamic. We’re working on different and exciting projects all the time. It’s not monotonous at all.