My Journey as an Officer
Hi there! My name is Amrit Dhillon, the current Faculty of Science & Engineering Officer at the University of Manchester Students’ Union. I’d love to tell you a little bit about my journey to becoming an officer, what drove me to run and give you a sneak peek into what the campaigning process was like.
It all started back in November 2024. Looking back now, the different stages of deciding to run in the LeadMCR elections are all a bit of a blur, at one point I’m thinking hmm running to be an officer sounds like it could be cool, then suddenly I’m meeting Gary from the SU about whether running for Lead is the right decision for me, then I’m telling friends and family that I’m thinking to run and then all of a sudden I’m sat in the Engineering Building, it’s 11:55 and I have just 5 minutes left to submit my finalised ideas statement (word of warning, give yourself more time than you think you need to submit your ideas statement if you’re planning to run for an officer role!).
So, what prompted me to actually run?
It was an amalgamation of many different factors. I was an academic rep for my course and honestly, I just really enjoyed the opportunity of being able to represent my cohort. I was presented with the opportunity to get to know department staff better and that was a very fulfilling experience. I had ideas of things that I thought needed to be changed, but at a larger scale than just within the Department of Mechanical Engineering – being an officer, working at a Faculty level would provide me with the opportunities to influence change at a larger scale. We also can’t ignore the fact that being an officer means that you are employed full-time for a whole year, and on a £27k+ salary, I’d say that’s not bad at all!!
Ok, now onto the elections period itself which was such a crazy time. There was just so much to think about and so much to do. Firstly, it was designing my campaign posters – I of course chose a lovely purple theme, and we had to include a photo of me holding up two big old thumbs ups! There was also the case of creating Instagram posts which Canva was my best friend for. Let me tell you, putting posters up is no small feat. I recruited a team of 5 of my friends to help me putting my TWO HUNDRED posters up around campus and we really put these up in Every. Building. Possible. I knew that this canvassing had been a success when I was getting multiple messages from friends telling me that they’d seen my poster in the most random buildings.
The 3.5 day voting period was definitely very intense. It was just a period of me talking constantly to, or perhaps at people about Lead, what the officers are and why they should vote Amrit #1 for FSE officer. Whether that was via lecture shoutouts or more commonly just from approaching random people and asking if they had “two minutes of their time that I could steal”. I had my spiel memorised to a tee and could honestly recite it in my sleep if needed. And of course, during all this I still had uni, my dissertation and my regular societies, and also a coursework deadline to think about (that I did apply for an extension for!). It was a mad rush of speaking to students down to the even final minute where I had to help show a group of students how to find the voting page.
Relief, and a bit of panic, but mostly relief was what I felt when the clock struck 2pm! It was out of my hands and in a few hours, I would find out what the next year of my life would look like.
So, the results. The atmosphere was tense, full of opportunity and just altogether exciting. Can we take a moment to talk about the canapes at the event, specifically the mushroom arancini balls which were to die for! I honestly had no idea how the vote would go, and it was hard to know whether or not the work that I’d done was enough. Could I have spoken to just one more student? Should I have attended one more lecture? Would posting one more thing on Instagram have made the difference? I just had to trust that I had done everything that I could’ve done, which I knew that I had.
“Your Faculty of Science & Engineering Officer is Amrit Dhillon”
What a surreal moment! I went up on stage to formally accept the role and was asked: “what are you excited to change now that you’re an officer” – remember how I said that I could recite my spiel in my sleep? Well apparently, my brain decided to spite me, and I couldn’t find the words so just stood there in silence. My time as an officer has at least helped me with my public speaking! Anyways, results night was crazy and went as well as I could’ve asked – it was a night to celebrate and then go on to start getting ready for my upcoming role!
That was a pretty comprehensive of my journey to being an officer! Honestly that whole experience taught me so much about the importance of balancing various priorities, and an especially important lesson on not comparing myself to others during the entire campaigning period – I had to trust that all the work I put in was enough and lo and behold it was!!
I’m excited to continue to update you all on my time as an officer through this new student stories page and I encourage anyone reading this to also submit their own story. It’s an amazing thing to be able to raise each other up by sharing good news stories like these and any good work that you do in your time at Manchester deserves to be recognised!
