Friday 27 March 2020
Last October Olivia Podmore joined Crest on secondment from the Civil Service Fast Stream, where she works in the Government Statistical Service. During her time at Crest she specialised in data analysis and automation techniques, and using quantitative methods to support evidence-based policy-making.
I had the privilege of working at Crest Advisory for six months as a secondment from the Civil Service Fast Stream. During my time at Crest, I worked with brilliant colleagues on interesting projects.
I joined Crest from the Civil Service, where I’d worked for two years as a statistician - in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and the Department for International Trade. After working in two large government departments, it was really interesting to have a change of pace and experience working in a small consultancy. I was able to get to know all of my colleagues really well, and contribute to a variety of different projects.
One project I worked on involved forthcoming research on Swift and Certain Justice. Using my skills in statistical modelling, I explored the relationships between police response and crime outcomes, and was able to contribute to the conclusions of the project. In a different project, I leveraged my experience in R programming to create a RShiny tool analysing and visualising different types of crime trends.
I learned a lot during my time at Crest, and not just about the crime and justice system. The team were great at introducing me to the various themes of their work, explaining acronyms, and sharing tips on where to find the most comprehensive crime data. I also learned about different ways of working and was very impressed with the constant communication within the business. The team used many different ways and systems to keep in touch; meaning that the crossover between projects was high and knowledge transfer was embedded.
This week I said my goodbyes to the team whilst working from home in London (due to the coronavirus COVID-19). It’s the first time I’ve ever attended my own virtual leaving do!
After six months of working and learning at Crest, I’ll be returning to the Department for International Trade with a broader set of skills and ideas. When COVID-19 permits, I’ll apply them to my role overseas at the British Embassy in Singapore. For now, I’ll be using them remotely from London.
