Before Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling worked as a researcher at Amnesty International.
Rowling joined the organization’s London office after working in other roles, including bilingual secretary and research assistant. At Amnesty International, she researched human-rights issues and wrote reports connected with the organization’s campaigns and investigations.
This job is sometimes simplified as “secretary” because Rowling had earlier worked as a bilingual secretary, but her Amnesty role was research-focused. The experience also exposed her to accounts of conflict and political persecution, subjects that later appeared in darker forms in the Harry Potter books.
Rowling’s career before publication was varied. She studied French and Classics, worked in London, moved to Portugal, taught English, and later returned to the United Kingdom. The Amnesty position therefore formed one part of a longer pre-publication career rather than being her only job before writing fiction.