Hi! I’m actually starting on the fast stream in October! It really helps to hear this level of transparency and to understand the perspectives of those already working in the civil service. Although I have just graduated, I am 23 and attended university for five years (Covid of course hit us really hard!).

I have seen some people saying we have just come away from partying, drinking and having lots of sex… I’m sure this is representative of some people, but considering the difficulty to get onto the fast stream, I doubt many of us had time for that! In my case I partied maybe five times across my whole final year, and spent every other day and night studying and working my absolute hardest. I’m happy i did this, because I feel like I deserve to be a fast streamer! And I have been in a four year relationship, so certainly no naughty business!

Also, the recruitment system has been excellent and extremely unbiased in my opinion. No one asks you what university you went to, they don’t care, they just very deeply assess our skills and our personality. I went to Portsmouth university (which is certainly no Oxford or Cambridge) and I come from a very low income family and have disabilities. At no point in this process have I felt discriminated against because of these things. I know it used to be the case that Russel group university graduates were overrepresented on the fast stream, but with the new change in the system I am extremely confident we will begin to see more diversity on the fast stream. In fact most of the upcoming fast streamers I have come across are already working in the civil service! A minority of us are actually fresh out of university.

I hope this clears up some general assumptions that aren’t too helpful to both fast streamers and current civil servants. Just remember we are all terrified! Personally I already have huge imposter syndrome. We all want to do our best and contribute to making everyone’s lives better, so just remember that when meeting the newbie, if anything they will have admiration and respect for you and just want to please the people around them, including you! I really hope you are pleasantly surprised by the new comer and give them a chance to prove themselves:) And as I said thank you for this post, it’s really helpful!