My work experience with Bobby Dean 

by Jody Trowbridge

I had very high hopes for this work experience placement going in and yet my expectations have still been exceeded. It was a great balance between actual work and teaching. Every single member of the team took on their role in the work experience with enthusiasm and a genuine passion for what they did. Perhaps it could have been slightly more challenging in terms of the work being given, maybe slightly less creative tasks and harder criticism, but that's really more of a preference than actual feedback. I whole heartedly could not choose a favourite part of the week as every part was as genuinely interesting and worthwhile as the other.

I got the most takeaway and experience probably from the personal casework activities with Sarah as I was clearly taught and broken down step by step how she would perform her role.
No team member ever seemed burdened by the presence of work experience students and I was treated as if I was a member of the office myself. There were no questions they weren't willing to answer and every conversation was answered with, to my best knowledge, genuine honesty.

Having a timetable given to me at the beginning of the week and also the conversation over the phone the week prior with Julie demonstrated the effort the team had gone through to make this placement possible. I had every role of the office shown to me and covered. The only real piece of feedback I could give is that the placement wasn't long enough.

On Monday I was talked through the plan for the week, then began with a diary session with Julie. Then I had a session with Matthew about the communications side of the office which was far more extensive and branched further than I had originally thought. I ended the day by having a small 30/45 minute conversation with Bobby about essentially anything we wanted.

Tuesday was dedicated to personal casework with Sarah, probably the most engaging of the tasks I would have to say. We were given some examples of personal casework, told how to approach it then compared real responses versus my own and that lasted for essentially the entirety of the day.

Wednesday, Hermione ran through her role as Parliamentary researcher which I have to say I am extremely envious of. After which we took a tour around Parliament, and whilst it was not my first time it was just as exciting being shown all the areas out of member access, and all the weird and wacky fun facts. Then I came up with my own ideas for a potential Private Members Bill.

Thursday, my last day, I ran through the policy and campaign side of casework with Chante, it really revealed to me just how often and the sheer quantity of requests the office receives and in turn, im impressed with the way they manage to keep up and my day finished with a final catch up and conversation with Bobby.

Bobby himself was incredibly honest and available to have conversations with me and did not treat me as if I was a school child pestering him with questions about life in Parliament, instead he genuinely wanted to share his experiences and clearly has a passion for what he does.
 

Although the Liberal Democrats are unlikely to get my vote anytime soon due to both my age and political preference, I have a real gratitude and positive outlook towards all those in the Carshalton and Wallington office and will not be upset in any capacity if they win again in the next general election. I wish the team and Bobby all the best in all future endeavours and want to say a massive thank you to all who helped organise and facilitate my placement this week. It's been a really fantastic opportunity and one which will certainly resonate with me.