Tell us a bit about you?
I grew up in Norway, in the forest that surrounds Oslo. I do miss the snow, but I also love how green the grass is here in winter. Now I live in south Edinburgh and enjoy gardening, as well as (until recently) historical re-enactment sword fighting up at Craigmillar Castle on a Saturday.
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Did you study after leaving school?
My mother is from the UK, so I came over for university to see if I wanted to live here. I completed a degree in archaeology and anthropology, and a master’s in anthropological research methods, in England before moving to Edinburgh for my PhD in social anthropology.
The practice of going to live in a village for a year is a key feature of traditional social anthropological PhD fieldwork. For me, this took place in the Indian Himalayas and was a life-changing experience, gathering grass and leafy branches to feed dairy buffalo, stepping outside my own culture in terms of some values — for example different ideas about gender, literacy and marriage — and then returning to Scotland to discover what life here looks like from the outside.
This has been useful in my subsequent career, allowing me to picture how things could be different.
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What and where was your first significant job?
My first full-time jobs were two postdoctoral positions before I had worked out how to leave academia. During that time, I applied for a Scottish Government position but was unsuccessful. I then got an elected position as Editor-in-Chief of a feminist radio station in Oslo. Transferable skills from social science to media include interviewing skills and ethics, although broadcasting rather than anonymising voices took some getting used to.
As part of that role, I trained new journalists and was the port of call for any escalated issues. Missing research work, I moved back to Edinburgh and got a job in the charity sector as an Evaluation Manager, where I worked for three years.
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When did you join the Scottish Government and what was the role?
I joined the Scottish Government in spring 2024 as a Social Research Officer in Transport Scotland. As a Social Researcher in the Scottish Government, you support a policy team or teams with whatever they require on the data side.
This might be advice, sourcing data, carrying out research, or commissioning research if there is a gap in the evidence.
As is typical for most areas, I worked alongside economists and statisticians, as well as transport planners who provide their expertise in this area.
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What first attracted you to working at government or in the public sector?
In 2014, I completed a three-month internship with the Scottish Government, which helped me understand what working in government might be like. Compared to academia, I was attracted by the work-life balance, the sense of being part of something that might matter to people, and the team-working aspect.
Having led an organisation, I found the idea of putting my skills to work in support of someone else’s agenda restful. I was also attracted by the opportunity to work across several topic areas, something that particularly appealed to me compared to working in a charity.
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What does a typical day look like for you?
I check my emails and Teams messages first thing. Then there might be some preparation required for a meeting, whether that is thinking around a topic or simply being clear in my mind about the purpose of the meeting and ensuring I have any documents or notes required.
My diary is a mix of meetings and time set aside for tasks. Examples of these tasks include analysis of open-text responses from a consultation, designing questions for a survey, and quality assurance of work completed by another team member.
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What do you like most about your current job?
I like that I have gone from the most qualitative type of social researcher there is, carrying out ethnographic fieldwork, to the other extreme, working on questions for Scotland’s Census 2031, surrounded by statisticians. It is exciting to be working on questions that will be sent to every adult in Scotland.
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What is your working pattern?
I have a standard 9–5 working pattern with an hour for lunch, which gives me the opportunity to eat and get outside in the middle of the day.
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What do you think is the best thing about working at Scottish Government?
Feeling like I am part of something bigger than myself, working alongside colleagues who are also working towards that goal and who care about things like data quality and serving the people of Scotland.
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Do you feel the Scottish Government is an inclusive environment for disabled employees?
About four months ago, I found out I have POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome), which impacts my working life because I am unable to sit at a desk for more than a few minutes at a time. I have found my manager and the Scottish Government supportive in helping me work out reasonable adjustments. I work lying down now, which works well for me, and adaptive equipment is currently being purchased.
From the other perspective, when, as a new line manager, I was inducting the person I line manage on their first day, it was important to me to find a suitable private moment to ask whether they had, or needed, an employee passport. This is optional but useful because it means staff do not have to explain the same requirements to each new manager. It also allows any adjustments to be put in place as early as possible.
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Have you used any employee benefits whilst working at Scottish Government?
Yes, I have used my employee volunteering time to volunteer with MCR Pathways, where you mentor a care-experienced young person.
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What career advice would you give your younger self?
When I was unsure which direction to take career-wise, a mentor asked: “Do you want money, do you want power, or do you want nice colleagues?” Because there is no job with all three. Along with geography – are you open to moving, or do you have a reason or interest in being in a particular place? – reflecting on these questions was really useful for me.
Otherwise, I think the phrase “what’s for you won’t go by you” is helpful. Had I been successful in 2017 and joined the Scottish Government at that time, I would have missed out on the third sector experiences and skills I gained there.