Alex’s story: From detective to LBS scholar
Growing up in the UK, the public narrative was very much focused on public safety in London, which is what initially drew me towards policing. I had been working a desk job as a journalist for a little while, but I wanted to do something a bit more meaningful, so I joined the police in 2016. I started off as a uniformed officer taking 999 calls. I was based in Hackney, and after a couple of years, I took the exams to become a detective.
I’d always wanted to be a detective because it’s a bit more of a strategic role and I wanted to work on the most serious cases. I started off in Hackney with a unit that dealt with a lot of violent crimes. I also worked in a safeguarding unit in Tower Hamlets, which is a very different side to policing because a lot of the time it’s not so much trying to put someone behind bars as it is protecting people and working out what you can do to stop someone being at risk.
After my stint in safeguarding, I started working in digital investigations. This is the cutting-edge area of policing. It’s kind of like cat and mouse with the criminals whether we can keep up technologically with all the new things that are going on.
One of the frustrations were the social media companies themselves who were not really doing anything to stop problematic content in the first place. I realised I could potentially have more of an impact working for a social media company rather than for the police unit itself. I felt as though I was picking up the pieces when things go wrong and that I couldn’t change things on a fundamental level, so I decided to leave the police.
I saw studying at LBS as the best way to move from the public sector into the private sector.
“I chose the MBA in order to upskill in areas such as accounting and business strategy; things I had not previously had much experience with.”
My scholarship has been absolutely phenomenal and has allowed me to study here.
My favourite class so far has been the core strategy class. I loved it; it’s the core part of business and it’s fascinating examining key decisions. I did a negotiating and bargaining class this term, and that was a lot of fun as well. One of the questions we were asked at the start of the class was, “Have you had much experience negotiating?” I thought: “I’ve interviewed a lot of people in the police before, it’s a negotiation.” But a police interview is a different sort of negotiation, the power dynamics are completely different as you’re not on an equal footing.
After graduating, my plan is to get some private sector experience. Ideally, I’d like to work for a big tech company and steer my way into a role that deals with security and online risk, but from the other side. Ultimately, I feel as though I could have a greater impact in a tech role rather than working on these issues on a case-by-case basis.
