CTP Success: Supporting Gareth Hanna on his resettlement journey
Category: Success Stories
Publish date: 01/12/2020
Gareth Hanna left the RAF as a Sergeant in 2019 after serving for over 23 years. Following a long and fulfilling military career, Gareth decided that it was time to embark on a new journey, and decided to engage in resettlement support with the Career Transition Partnership (CTP).
Resettlement
Once registered with the CTP, Gareth attended a 3-day Career Transition Workshop (CTW), which is where he got to meet Jackie, his CTP Career Consultant:
"Some of the questions I heard other attendees ask were pretty useful, as they were often questions I hadn’t thought of myself. The interview lessons and exercises were also helpful, as was the opportunity to work on my CV.
Jackie was very good and helped me greatly with CV layout and content – so I thank her for that."
Gareth also attended several CTP Employment Fairs, and made use of the CTP website and its resources:
"I attended several Employment Fairs and used the educational videos available on the CTP website. I also used MyPlan, which was great in helping me identify the areas I needed to brush up and focus on in order to make myself more attractive to employers."
Successful Outcome
Gareth is now a Test Operations Inspector for Rolls Royce PLC, where he’s responsible for checking the quality and performance of each engine before certifying it for distribution to the customers.
While he was able to quickly settle into his new role, Gareth does mention facing some challenges:
"Coming from being a Sergeant to a frontline producer was difficult at times, especially as I no longer had any of the managerial responsibilities I enjoyed when working in the military."
But as his closing words of advice to fellow Service leavers, Gareth goes on to say:
Advice
"Be patient, especially in this particularly difficult time. Try and adjust to the civilian way of life. Some things will be similar to what you’re used to while others will vary greatly – and you may have to bite your tongue at times!
But overall, civilian life and work has been very good to me."