Working at HMRC initially appealed to me because I liked the idea of working for government and the training looked good. I’ve been here nearly a year now, starting with a ten week period of mainly classroom-type training.
I wasn’t completely confident I could do the job but the training gave me the basics. It was followed by opportunities to learn from experienced and knowledgeable advisers who have done the job themselves, and to put my learning into practice in a live working environment.
At the moment, I’m an Assistant Officer in the Manchester Contact Centre, advising customers on their tax affairs. I also help to ensure customers aren’t being ‘emergency taxed’ by sending the correct codes to employers. I help customers fill in their returns and keep taxpayers’ records up to date.
It’s really satisfying to be able to help customers to sort out their tax affairs, and there’s lots of variety in the daily enquiries and tasks I deal with. I also enjoy being able to build on my existing knowledge to ensure the advice I give is consistently accurate. Even after training, you’re never completely on your own – there’s always someone available to give support. There are also various ongoing job opportunities and the ability to develop your career into various other roles such as floorwalker, team leader and technical adviser.
It’s a pleasant, relaxed working environment and there’s a good degree of flexibility: you can build up flexi-time for extra holiday time and early finishes. It’s a real challenge at first learning a completely new subject. I would admit that my initial perception of thinking was ‘taxes’ were complex, however I now find it all much easier to grasp as my knowledge has grown and I’ve settled in quickly and easily with my manager’s continuous support.
