My career story: Margot Shatz
Job title and department or organisation
Margot is Joint Head of Inclusive Travel at the Department for Transport (DfT). Her role matches the role of Senior Principal Research Officer on the Analysis Function Career Framework.
Grade
Margot works at Grade 6 level.
Profession and entry route
Margot is a member of the Government Social Research (GSR) profession.
She entered the Civil Service at Senior Executive Officer (SEO) grade through mainstream profession recruitment.
Margot’s career story
I graduated in 2001 with a BA (Hons) in International History and Politics and then went on to do to a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Relations. My first proper job was in advertising at Ogilvy after completing some work experience placements in PR and advertising agencies. I joined as Team Secretary and worked my way up to Account Executive, managing international advertising campaigns. Here, I developed an interest in insight, so I then joined IPSOS as a Research Executive working as a Qualitative Researcher. I worked up to become Senior Research Executive predominantly working for commercial clients, in the retail, fast moving consumer goods, and media sectors. In 2008 I moved to Australia and spent 9 months in Sydney. I worked for two research agencies doing mostly qualitative research with some mixed methods. I then enrolled on a course in Jewish Studies in Sweden as I wanted to learn more about my faith. Through this I was able to conduct my own research into Jewish identity which prompted me to explore PhD and master’s opportunities when I returned to London.
On my return, I joined the Money Advice Service (now called the Money and Pensions Service). It was my first public sector job and I worked for the in-house research team. In 2012 I took voluntary redundancy and briefly returned to the commercial sector working for research agency Nunwood, before joining the Department for Transport (DfT) as a Senior Executive Officer (SEO) in the Social Research and Evaluation Team. That year I also I started working toward my MSc in Social Research which I completed part-time alongside my career. Coming into DfT at SEO level allowed me to learn about the Civil Service, and the difference in expectations between market and social research. It was a varied role covering primary research to inform the first Roads Investment Strategy, an evidence-based review of business travel behaviour. In 2014, I gained promotion to Grade 7 in that team.
In 2015 my director, who was Chief Analyst, created a new Grade 6 role to support her in running the Analysis and Strategy Directorate. My director encouraged me to apply but I was reluctant due to my level of experience at the time, but I applied anyway and was successful! I had to sit a Grade 6 badging board separately to maintain my GSR accreditation. The team I managed was multi-disciplinary, including both analysts and generalists specialising in finance, HR, and business support. A big focus of the role included raising the profile of analysis, so I ran events and encouraged collaboration and communication across analytical professions within the department. The role also involved leading a small team of economists, which was a big learning curve for me. Whilst I worked to my director, I also had a dotted line to the Grade 5 Head of Transport Appraisal and Strategic Modelling and was part of the division’s management team. It gave me good exposure to a much wider range of analytical disciplines and different ways of thinking which I found invaluable.
Next, I moved to the Cabinet Office on temporary promotion to Grade 5 in the National Leadership Centre (now called the Leadership College for Government). This was a new unit focussed on strengthening leadership skills and cross-systems working at the most senior levels across Public Service in England. I was responsible for strategy and insights, including building an evidence base on cross-systems working and leadership development, as well as evaluating our work programme. At the end of the temporary promotion, and following a restructure of our team, I dropped back to Grade 6 to lead our research team. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, my team had to develop a survey at pace, aimed at understanding the impact of the pandemic on public services and their leaders. It was sent to our Network twice weekly, and we used the findings to produce weekly briefing papers for COBRA. Thankfully we could draw on the help of other analysts in the Cabinet Office to support us.
In September 2020, I returned to DfT, joining the Local and Regional Travel Analysis division. This was a multi-disciplinary role, managing economists, social researchers, and transport modellers. We initially supported several COVID-19 response projects, looking at the impact of lockdowns on local transport use and the financial stability of operators. The job evolved as we came out of the pandemic and returned to business-as-usual activities. I also supported the growth of Social Research across the division, encouraging a greater presence of social researchers and evaluation work which has been highly valued.
In early 2023, I decided to go part time, and in April I moved into a new Grade 6 job share as Joint Head of Inclusive Travel, which is my current role. I work 34 hours a week, with 24 hours on the policy side and 10 hours in my analytical role. Being in a job share, we have had to build trust quickly to make it work as we must be each other on the days we are not working, which can be challenging but seems to be working. It was important for me to retain the analysis side of my work, even though the role itself is more policy focused, so that I can retain my GSR badging. It also allows me to champion and make the case for analysis within my division and bring an analytical approach to our policy work.
The flowchart shows Margot’s career progression from university to her current role as Joint Head of Inclusive Travel. It shows the step-by-step journey Margot has taken to achieve her current grade and experience. Enlarge the flowchart.
As part of the government’s anti-social behaviour action plan DfT have committed £2.5 million funding to roll out transport safety officers, an initiative developed by Transport for West Midlands, to other areas in England. We want to see how effective the intervention is at reducing low level nuisance and anti-social behaviour on different types of transport systems in different geographic areas. This project sees policy, delivery, and analysis come together as we take a data-based approach to location selection and are taking steps to build evaluation into pilot design.
I want to continue working in a job that I enjoy. I did aspire to move to a Senior Civil Service (SCS) role, but having thrown my hat in the ring a few times, and following changes in my personal circumstances I have decided to pull back from that for now and think about sideways development opportunities instead. There seem to be fewer SCS roles available within the GSR profession, so I might consider a non-analytical SCS role in future. Either way, social research and analysis will always be in my heart. If I can influence and I am doing useful work, the grade isn’t important. Although I do enjoy team management, strategy, and leadership so I wouldn’t rule out SCS in future.
I have two things I am equally proud of.
I am proud of the work my team and I delivered when I was leading the Chief Analyst’s Office from 2015 to 2019. We produced the department’s first strategy for the analyst community, based on five pillars each of which had a SCS sponsor and small working group. Through this we were able to build analytical capability and capacity throughout the department and create a sense of community across analytical professions and teams. We held events to bring together the community and facilitate collaboration. We instituted an annual awards ceremony to celebrate and recognise the great work being delivered. We provided more opportunities for analysts to hear from the Chief Analyst, Heads of Profession, and other SCS analysts. We also raised the visibility of analytical work, holding a day-long conference to showcase our work to the rest of the department. You cannot underestimate the impact and importance of community in both building morale and leveraging the wide variety of talent we have in the analysis function.
More recently I am proud of growing the GSR capability in my department. I doubled the size of my team from 3 to 6 social researchers in less than a year. Not only did this enable us to deliver a high volume of work, it also helped us to grow our influence and impact, and grow demand for both evaluation and social research. Our Grade 5 has noted the positive difference having such a strong cohort of social researchers has made to the quality of work produced by the division, and its approach to work. As one of the biggest social research teams in the department we’ve been able to share ideas and experience, look for efficiencies to improve ways of working, and build our own capability and that of the wider department.
When I took on my first Grade 6 role, I lost my experienced Grade 7 Economist within the first three months. This was my first time managing a team of Economists. They ran the team; they had the expertise I could draw on whilst I got up to speed with the role. We also had a new cohort of Assistant Economists within the team who needed additional support. I had to help brand new people come into the department and pick up their role whilst also learning on the job myself. It was a big challenge but also an opportunity to get into the detail and understand their work. I had to get up to speed quickly the department’s approach to assessing Value for Money and assuring business cases, and model assurance to support my team and deliver. I had to constantly ask questions and provide critical challenge, requiring the team to explain things to me in lay terms. As a result, I gained invaluable experience and also helped the team to become more adept at explaining complex analytical concepts to non-technical audiences.
Margot’s advice
Don’t be too hasty in your career progression as you cannot cheat experience and you need to be able to draw on that experience as you get more senior. It is your experience that helps you respond to challenges.
Take roles that challenge you but that you enjoy and get as much exposure as you can to other professions to help you progress. Don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone – it can feel risky but it has led to some of my best career experiences and can help you work out the things that are most important to you in a role.
This career story was published on Tuesday 1 August 2023.