Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

SambangIE is a seminar held by the Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Gadjah Mada(FEB UGM). In this series, SambangIE discusses getting to know the Alumni of Economics, one of the new series issued by the Economics Laboratory of FEB UGM to introduce students to various professions that can be taken after graduating. Especially to prepare careers and skill sets that must be built to prepare for the labor market, in the next few years the labor market is more competitive and requires more skills. Therefore, on Friday (23/04) SambangIE raised the theme "Getting to Know the Alumni of Economics # 1: the Profession of Policy Advocacy". On this occasion, various insights will be spoiled from the scope of advocacy and policy practitioners. The moderator who guided this event was Gumilang Aryo Sahadewo, Ph.D., Lecturer in Economics Department, FEB UGM. The speakers who will discuss the topic of the seminar are Muhammad Syarif Hidayatullah as Senior Policy Analyst at Indonesia Services Dialogue (ISD), Alvin Adisasmita as Senior Program Manager at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Australia, and Gerginto Pakpahan as Government Relations at Online Pajak. The three speakers were the 2005 FEB UGM Alumni of Economics.

Discussing the definition of a job as a Policy Advocate, Alvin said that within the scope of his work, it is helping the Australian government provide donors to Indonesia.

“The donor, in this case is technical assistance. Well, this technical assistance has to be managed, to manage, view, monitor, evaluate and design the program, "he said.

According to him, there are challenges for policy advocates when helping the government, one of which is the translation of strategic policies into day-to-day implementation, how Australia sees Indonesia in a global political order and its translation into daily programs. The next challenge is regarding discussions with the Government of Indonesia. According to Alvin, the Indonesian government has "its own language" and it is necessary to understand the language the government wants to convey.

When asked about motivation, Alvin revealed that the motivation for a career as a Senior Program Manager is the suitability of the field he is engaged in.

"Talking about foreign aid, there are various kinds, what I applied happened to be closely related to me, namely economy governance, where I used to work in the government and as a research associate at P2EB FEB UGM, it was quite helpful to become a good program manager," he said.

According to Alvin, the skill set needed to be learned to become a policy advocate is to become a policy entrepreneur, to be able to read patterns, symptoms, and opportunities. In addition, it is necessary to be able to build a network, and from that network what can be endeavored to achieve an agenda or policy.

"By studying in economics, I learned from various economic literature, that the accumulation of knowledge can be implemented in daily activities, both in entrepreneurial policies and day-to-day work," he added.

The next session was a presentation by Syarif who convey about the job description of a policy analyst in the Indonesia Services Dialogue (ISD).

"ISD is an association. When we talk about policy, we generally think that it is the government's job, it was formed by the government and approved by the DPR. But this has an impact on society and the business world. therefore the business world needs to come together to form an association to submit any objections or disagreements to various government policies, this is where the policy analyst comes into play. "

Broadly speaking, the Policy Analyst has the role of representing the association of the business world in analyzing government policy, where the analysis will be used again to speak to the government.

"For example, there was a policy we previously advocated for service exports subject to 10% VAT, even though Indonesia at that time wanted to encourage exports because there was a quite large deficit in service exports, we advocated that VAT was made at 0%, positive or not from the growth sector, sector competitiveness. government services, until now the service sector VAT has been set at 0%, ”said Syarif giving an example.

According to Syarif, working in a Business Association like ISD is something interesting, because it opens his perspective on the business world and thinks about policies made by the government.

"After seeing it from a private perspective, it turns out that the policy has an adverse impact on the business world. We can access how much impact it has on the business world. Second, the challenge is how we communicate this to the government, that the adverse impact needs to change its policy, "he said.

According to Syarif, there are three focus on self-development skill sets that need to be honed, namely basic skills, soft skills, and technical skills.

"First, basic skills, are reading skills, especially in my job. I am required to read and understand the reading efficiently and deliver the reading to the people who are reading it," he said. The second is soft skills, communication and networking skills. Then regarding technical skills, according to him, understanding economics and the ability to write will be very helpful, because the job field in the Policy Analyst will be given work on writing questions, such as writing opinion articles, reports, and so on.

The last session was a presentation by Georginto, who started a discussion about his career background in the startup world. "When I was (working) in private, (and) as a civil servant, there was a look hole discussion between the government and the private sector, there was a link that did not connect. I entered at startup now is a product of corregulating where the Ministry of Finance, through the DJP, gave tax Liaison private sector, so that the private sector can operate such as mini-DJP, can collect taxes, provide advice on taxation systems outside the existing system, that's what makes me interested in entering this startup, "said Georginto.

When asked about the required skill set, Georginto said that the skill set is important, but what is more important is the "umbrella". He gave an example that in Economics, students learn evaluation, projection, and narrative about it. This skill set can be used in various work sectors, including in Non-Government Organizations, Consulting Groups, or in private sector. What is important, according to him, is the ability to evaluate, project and narrate correctly.

To hone the skill set, according to Georginto, there is one thing that must be implemented, for any kind of work, the most important thing is how to handle rejection well.

"It's very often when we are from college or work, when we can't handle rejection well, we can't discuss, communicate, build networking, can't read and write well, that's why the key is how to handle rejection well. ", He concluded.

Reportage: Sony Budiarso / Kirana Lalita Pristy