Resettlement success
Forces: RAF
John S - Wing Commander
“Talk to colleagues who have left the Service, thoroughly research your subject before interview, smile and be confident. Try to learn from rejection and adapt your style.”
Ex-Wing Commander John Sneller left the RAF in March 2001, having served
for 27 years as an Engineer in the Tornado Project Team.
Upon
reflection of his time in the military, John says, “The key aspects of
Service life that allowed my successful transition are personnel
management – managing and building teams; engineering, contract
negotiation and time priorisation.”
To begin his resettlement,
John attended a CTP Career Transition Workshop (CTW) mentioning that it
was good to network with other Service leavers also going through the
same thing, and to gain a perspective on the range of available options.
During the workshop, John personally highlights how useful it was to
write a CV tailored for the civilian world of work.
Now ready to
enter civilian life, John undertook a Civilian Work Attachment (CWA)
with IBM as an IT Migration Project Manager, which “helped introduce me
to commercial life and how to manage civilians.”
John applied for
the role of Head of Aviation at Jane’s by IHS Markit. After two
interviews focusing on publishing and aviation he was offered the job.
John
settled into the role quickly, and his responsibilities soon increased.
His experience in engineering and man-management helped him succeed in
this job, “I deal with global developments every day, so my background
from the military is really useful to the business.”
John advises
Service leavers to “talk to colleagues who have left the Service,
thoroughly research your subject before interview, smile and be
confident. Try to learn from rejection and adapt your style.”
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