Sarah Mitchell

Project Manager
Business Systems and Integration

I'd been in my previous job for thirteen years, working in IT project management for a department store. Last year I decided I needed a change. When I started looking, I realised the only place I wanted to work was the Met. That stems from my experiences as a volunteer many years ago. I was only photocopying and things like that but it was great because I got to meet so many different people and they had so many interesting things to say. In the back of my mind I always thought I'd like to work for the police but not as a police officer because that's not where my skills lie. So when I was looking for a new job, I simply looked at the Met website until a Project Manager vacancy came up. I immediately applied for it and got it, which was great.

I work in the Directorate of Information and I'm responsible for delivering a project to replace the criminal intelligence system that the Met currently uses. Its aim is to improve intelligence sharing across the whole of the Met and I've been working on it since I joined. It's a big challenge because the two systems are very different but it's been really exciting seeing it rolled out across the different boroughs. I like helping to deliver something that will improve the different areas in terms of their intelligence sharing; it makes me feel that I'm making a contribution and that gives me real job satisfaction.

The team I work with are fabulous - lots of very like-minded and enthusiastic people who want to do a good job. It's great because I'm the sort of person who wants to get in there, get on with it and get the job done. Everyone was really keen to help me settle in, too. I hadn't experienced quite that level of helpfulness before so it was really nice.

It's different being in the public sector because it's not commercially driven. In the private sector it's all about turning a profit; with the Met it's actually about delivering a good service to London. I think that the perception that the public sector plays catch up to the private sector might be true in some cases but not here. The Met is really pushing forward. That's in all areas - technically, in its processes and in giving people opportunities to progress.

Now that I've finished my probationary period, my manager has encouraged me to move towards the next level. It's great to have people encouraging you to move on and develop yourself. So if you join at one level it doesn't mean that you'll stay at that level forever, there's certainly a path to progress along. There are also lots of opportunities to move around and work in different areas within the DoI.

It's definitely met my expectations; I've enjoyed every second since I've joined because it's just so interesting and challenging. It's the type of job where you're buzzing about what you've got to do. I just didn't feel that in my previous job. I think because the job satisfaction is so much more here, you're keen to deliver the goods. It's also vital that you deliver the goods and that makes it so much more meaningful. There's not been a moment where I've regretted my decision of leaving my previous company.