I left the finance systems consultancy world in September 2017, as I had secured a place on the Civil Service Fast Stream. I figured that, now that I’ve “graduated” from the scheme so to speak, I’d put up a post about my experiences on the scheme.

If you are reading this post-2019 intake, current plans are to change the format of the fast stream significantly for 2020 onwards. This might not end up happening, especially since this year has been so politically turbulent with no end in sight!

Operational Research

The term “Operational Researcher” confuses people. It still confuses me. The profession is not nearly defined as the other analytical professions in the Civil Service (Economist, Social Researcher and Statistician). Each analytical profession also has a professional network within the Civil Service, of which the OR one is the Government Operational Research Service. There’s a lot of rich history that I won’t go into here, but at its core, Operational Research is about applying analytical methods to make better decisions. These techniques need not necessarily be numerical, they may include softer skills too. Some techniques include:

• Simulation
• Regression
• Multi-criteria Decision Analysis
• Wargaming
• Constraint Optimization

In my view, Data Science is a related discipline to Operational Research, and most Operational Research roles have scope for developing Data Science techniques. This is how I ended up as a Data Scientist; in the Civil Service, almost everyone with the Data Scientist job title is a Operational Researcher or a Statistician, and my skills in data engineering landed me quite squarely in the burgeoning Government Data Science community.

My Placements

When I joined the scheme I was placed at the Food Standards Agency in an Operational Research role, which I quickly adapted into a Data Science role. I developed visualisation tools for the department, which involved lots of database automation, frontend development with R (using the shiny library), and automated report writing supporting the FSA’s operations and policy endeavours. While there, I developed the Data Science capability in the Analytics Unit after initially proving the value it could add.

I then joined the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, where I was promoted out of the Fast Stream after 7 months. There, I focused more on stakeholder engagement with the increased responsibility of the role, as well as model building and software engineering skills.

The Fast Stream Structure

Most people do not know that there’s significant variation in many of the Fast Streams that the Civil Service offer. So my comments here should be taken as specifically referring to the Operational Research Fast Stream only; as it is unique from all others.

There are essentially two main types of Fast Stream - centralised and non-centralised. Centralised Fast Streams are directly administered by the Cabinet Office, their fast streamers are officially employed by them, and they do not get a choice as to what their placements are. Their pay and learning offers are also standardised across the board. Most fast streams are centralised. Non-centralised fast streamers are employed by the departments at which they are placed, have non-standardised pay, but in most cases have some input as to what their placements are.

My Experiences

The scheme as a whole certainly had some positives and some negatives. The Operational Research Fast Stream is one of the most versatile out of all the Fast Streams; you have full control of your placement length and your placements. I used this to great effect, moving on from the Food Standards Agency when I felt that I had learned as much as I could from that placement (less than the standard 1-1.5 year placement), and moved to a department where I could continue building on my technical skills while engaging more with policy colleagues and line managing other Data Scientists.

Another thing I loved about the scheme was the network with other GFSAs (GORS Fast Stream Analysts). There’s a fantastic community of other OR Fast Streamers I spent a lot of time engaging with, for work stuff and socials too. Lots of my best friends in government belong in that group, and it can’t really be understated how important it is in your early career to have a strong network of your peers for support and to socialise with.

However, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Due to its non-centralised status, the key aspects of being a “fast stream” are largely luck of the draw for your first placement. Particularly, one’s experiences with the following three aspects of this development programme can be poor compared to other fast streamers (and wildly inconsistent between placements within the OR fast stream itself):

• Pay
• Learning & Development Opportunities
• Quality of Work

For instance, analysts who ended up at DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) for their first placement were being paid nearly £10,000 less than analysts at the Home Office until they moved, purely based on differences interdepartmental payscales. This is a raw deal for the DEFRA analysts, but centralised fast streamers are all paid the same wage, and it’s significantly lower than the median pay reward for the Operational Research Fast Stream, so this variation isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Similar disparities in L&D opportunities and interdepartmental support networks also exist. The quality of the roles themselves also have pretty wild variation, but this is inevitable for a fast stream covering such a broad church of a profession like OR.

Ultimately, there isn’t that much of a difference between being a main-stream and fast-stream Operational Researcher, particularly for 1st to 2nd year fast streamers (at which point many opt to leave for main stream SEO-level roles; better pay and more responsibility, but no rotation mechanism). The main benefit I found was the network of other GFSAs, but I was lucky enough to be placed at the Food Standards Agency as my first placement, which had good pay and excellent L&D opportunities.

If I was to do it all over again? I’d say I got a lot out of the Fast Stream, but I wouldn’t stay on it for the expected 4 years. I was lucky enough to get promoted out of the fast stream relatively early; had I stayed on longer than two years, I’d have definitely looked for SEO-level opportunities, which are effectively the same jobs as 3rd/4th year fast streamers, but with a £6,000-10,000 pay increase. This was my experience of the fast stream as it existed between 2011-e.t.a 2020, so many of these problems might have been rectified or mitigated by the Fast Stream Transformation programme.