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What are your main responsibilities?

My main responsibilities include responding to government consultations on a range of topics such as planning reform and transport policy; providing responses for the Development Management Team on tourist planning applications; drafting and delivering strategic documents such as the fourth Rights of Way Improvement Plan, the Climate Emergency Response Plan and the Strategic Walking and Cycling Delivery Plan; managing the consultation process for various documents in the Council such as the Trees Supplementary Planning Document. 

How has your Philosophy degree and your time at the University of ºù«Ӱҵ helped you in your career?

I could not have achieved my successful career progression without my postgraduate degree and the support I received from the University of ºù«Ӱҵ. My degree has enabled me to develop my confidence about my own abilities, and enhance my writing and qualitative data analysis skills. It taught me how to think and write in a way which I had never done before, with such precision, determination and belief in my own research and scrutiny of such. My postgraduate degree has also given me a great understanding of the global phenomena which shape society; this has been pivotal in my current role in terms of grasping the tangible effects of government policy on local authorities.

What is your greatest achievement to date?

Writing my postgraduate thesis: "Can violent uncivil disobedience ever be justified" during lockdown (Covid-19). I researched and drafted my thesis independently and thoroughly enjoyed the whole process. I am so proud of the standard of work I produced.

What career advice would you give to a student interested in studying Philosophy?

Believe in yourself and what you can bring to a company or organisation. Philosophy gives you such a unique understanding of what it means to develop a certain argument or belief, applying such analytical behaviour to the 'real' world with tangible scenarios. These skills that you develop as part of your degree and the modules you choose are invaluable to any workplace. So be confident with the knowledge and skills you have gained and utilise these wherever possible.  

What argument or view first got you excited about philosophy?

Do we have the moral right to break the law through acts of civil disobedience?