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This week, we’re launching Public Service Confidential a brand-new workplace advice column for public servants. To kick things off, we asked our expert columnists what advice they would give themselves if they could go back in time to when they started working in the federal public service. Here’s what Yazmine Laroche wrote.
I would give the same advice to myself, as I give to every student contemplating a career in the public service:
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Be open to the many possibilities that working for our country can give you. The federal public service is vast and there are many different types of fascinating work.
Be humble. As talented as you might be, you don’t know everything.
Be open to experimenting. Say “yes” often.
Be curious about the issues you will deal with.
Be curious about other people. You will meet individuals from very different backgrounds, life experiences and perspectives. You will learn from them. They will learn from you.
Bring all of you to the job and don’t knock yourself out trying to fit a stereotype. Different is good. Appreciate difference.
Ask “why.” Ask “why not?” And always remember that you have been given the chance to make a difference in the lives of fellow citizens and to help make this country even better than it is. Very few other careers can offer that.
Are you a public servant with questions about your workplace? Write to us anonymously at PSConfidential@postmedia.com and we’ll pick our favourites to send to an expert columnist. No gripe is too small. No topic is too big.
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