Forces: Ex-Army
Anthony R - Captain
“I have found that the military provided me with skills that have been immediately transferrable. The ability to manage limited resources to meet multiple and often competing targets has proved invaluable. In addition, the skills I developed in building teams, personnel management, planning and decision making have been used and developed further throughout my role.”
Ex-Captain Anthony
Ross served for eight years as an Infantry soldier in the Army, before
making the decision to leave in April 2013.
Upon
reflection of his time in the military, Anthony says, “The key aspects
of Service life that allowed my successful transition are personnel
management – managing and building teams; time prioritisation – the
ability to deal with significant workloads, and work ethic.”
To
begin his resettlement, Anthony attended a Career Transition Workshop
(CTW) and says, “I found it a useful insight into the available
resettlement courses. It was also good to meet other Service leavers to
get perspective on the range of available options.” Following a
one-to-one meeting with his Career Consultant, Anthony decided to focus
on a career that could utilise his existing management experience, and
made plans to use his resettlement time and vocational training
allowance in order to benefit his future plans for this.
Anthony
first attended an Insight to Management Consultancy workshop, which he
says provided a useful overview of the profession. He then completed an
APMP Project Management course at the RTC in Aldershot, and says, “It
was well taught, well run with good facilities (in Aldershot) and good
value for money. The course provided me with some structure that I have
applied throughout my current employment.”
Now
ready to enter the civilian workplace, Anthony began networking and
applying for jobs, but it was thanks to an introduction from a friend
that he secured his current role as General Manager, Operations for
Cloud2, an IT solutions provider. He says, “The business had a temporary
requirement for a Project Manager due to an illness. I had a couple of
discussions with the Director and started on a work experience basis.”
Anthony
settled into the role quickly, and his responsibilities soon increased:
“My job initially involved the management of a number of projects and
the coordination of the personnel and resources in the business to
deliver these. Over the past year my role has increased to include
responsibility for support activity, development of our core product and
the improvement of our processes.
When
asked about any barriers faced when initially starting the job, Anthony
says: “My primary obstacle was my lack of technical knowledge in the
technology that the business delivers. At times this lack of knowledge
made decision making difficult as the implications where not immediately
clear. However, I found that the Army prepared me very well for this as
I was able to rely on the technical leads for their input to assist the
decision making process."
“I
have found that the military provided me with skills that have been
immediately transferrable. The ability to manage limited resources to
meet multiple and often competing targets has proved invaluable. In
addition, the skills I developed in building teams, personnel
management, planning and decision making have been used and developed
further throughout my role.”
Simon
Hudson, Director of Cloud2, sees countless benefits brought to the
organisation through employing an ex-Service leaver: “Serendipity is a
powerful thing. Losing a key project manager to illness had the
potential to be a disaster; however a chance conversation led us to
Anthony, who started a week after I first spoke to him.
“His
ability to think on his feet, to manage a crazy workload and to flex
according to the dynamic nature of our business meant he made a
difference within days. However his ability to support and motivate the
team, his focus on quality and his ability to see business improvement
needs and anticipate solutions on behalf of the directors soon made him
stand out. In a year he has moved from being an emergency stand in to a
senior manager in our business. A simply outstanding individual and I
would love to have a dozen more like him.”
Anthony
advises other Service leavers to ensure they don’t rule out applying
for jobs with smaller organisations as well as larger, more well-known
companies: “I would recommend that Service leavers shouldn’t focus
solely on trying to secure employment with large consulting firms or in
the financial services industry. From my experience, the challenges and
breadth of opportunities offered in a smaller firm are greater and allow
you to utilise the skill set that has been developed in the Army.”
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