My name's Olivia Bartlett and I studied a Bachelor of Liberal Studies from the University of Sydney and also a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Newcastle.

I chose to work for DAFF because I felt that the issues that DAFF dealt with were amongst the most important dealt with by the Australian Government, and I felt that my skills, my background and my knowledge would enable me to help on both a local level as well as an international level.

There have been many things that I've enjoyed about the DAFF Graduate Program. 

In particular, I have enjoyed making some truly wonderful friends from all over Australia, and I believe that these people will be lifelong friends for me. 

I've also had some great opportunities to travel and to see how DAFF performs its functions in different parts of the country. 

In particular, I got to go to Cairns and Darwin to meet regional AQIS staff and I've also had the chance to go to Kempsey to the national saleyard operators conference, which was a really interesting and new opportunity for me. 

I would describe the DAFF culture as incredibly inclusive and incredibly welcoming. 

I've found throughout my time here that any time I've had a question or been unsure about something, people have always been entirely available to me to ask questions, and people have gone out of their way to help me and to point me in the right direction when I've needed that sort of assistance.

What I like most about living in Canberra is that I'm able to live on my small farm, which is 30 minutes out of Canberra. And I can live with my horses and my dogs and my cats and my chooks and it still only takes me 30 minutes to get to work each day.

DAFF provides a lot of opportunities to meet new grads. In particular, in our first few weeks at DAFF, we go on a leadership camp to Thredbo and I felt that this was a really fantastic way to meet new grads. We had a few days of training, but we also had dinner together, we stayed in the same accommodation, and we also had opportunities to go to the pub afterwards, which is a very good way to meet new people.

My biggest surprise, I found, working at DAFF is the media coverage that is given to the issues that I work with every single day. I find it really exciting to come into work and to work on something which I then see on the local news, on the national news or on the international news.

This makes me feel incredibly proud of what I do. 

I found this year to be so fulfilling and really challenging in a lot of ways, but I felt that I've become a much better person, both professionally and personally,from the grad year.