Forces: Ex-Army
Stephen A - Major
“There is no such thing as a perfect scenario, so work out what is in your favour and exploit the opportunities. Network, network, network. Most of all, enjoy yourself, it is infectious”.
Ex-Major Stephen A left the Army in March 2014, having served for
13 years as an Infantry Officer specialising in Defence Intelligence and
HR. With an eye on his future civilian career, Stephen had undertaken a
part-time and self-funded Masters Degree in Conflict, Security and
Development at Kings College London, whilst still serving.
Stephen
says, “My main reason for leaving the Army was to pursue opportunities
that had presented themselves following my degree at Kings College
London. These opportunities were in Humanitarianism, and I am now
continuing that journey in my new career with IBM and also with the
Military Stabilisation Support Group in the Army Reserve.”
Of his
military experience, Stephen says, “I gained a good deal of operational
experience in Intelligence. This was not perhaps the classical
confidential type of intelligence but more about population security.
Beyond operational experience, much of the officer education has been
useful in my understanding of International Relations.”
With a
few ideas in mind for his civilian career, Stephen attended a Career
Transition Workshop at RRC Northolt, and says, “It was a great
self-reflexive time to appreciate my accomplishments and identify areas
for improvement, then get them recorded into a CV. Around this time I
received a great bit of advice about the “British Disease” from a very
successful businessman. He said that the British seem to be too bashful
in discussing our accomplishments, whereas we should be more proud in
talking about what we have achieved. He has had a long and successful
career! This advice and the great coaching from the CTW meant I created a
CV that was more compelling and relevant to a non-military audience."
Stephen
also used some of his GRT to complete an Advanced Management
Achievement course, which is a specialised programme designed for
officers moving into management and executive careers. He says that this
has been useful to learn the language of business, one that is just as
complicated as military speak!
Armed with a civilian CV, Stephen
soon found that networking was the key to finding employment in the
civilian workplace, through what he describes as the “beer and coffee”
method.
“This is about meeting as many
people as possible, not so much for directly seeking employment, but
more for sharing ideas and experiences." He says, "People
know that employment is what you are seeking, but they don't want to
feel any pressure if there are no jobs available."
"There
is a lot of good will for “the ex-Army guy”, which is very reassuring.
People were very willing to give an hour of their time for either a
coffee (daytime) or beer (evening). The key is to have a story to tell
and an idea to follow, the more people you meet and share the idea with,
the sharper your pitch will become. The trick is to always follow up
with something. This might be sending an email with a link to a website
relevant to the meeting, a referral for the person you have met, or to
make contact with a person they mentioned”. The success of this method
was demonstrated when Stephen was invited for an interview with IBM
after networking with some IBMers. He describes this as "a great
compliment from an impressive organisation". Following the interview, he
was offered a job and now works for IBM in Cyber Security.
The
role involves selling cyber-security systems to the MOD and Central
Government and Stephen has found that much of his military experience
working on large projects has been useful in preparing him for the role.
He says, “training for a defence acquisition job has been useful to
understand business management, and this has been complemented with the
Advanced Management Achievement Course.”Alongside this role, Stephen
continues to work with the Military Stabilisation Support Group in the
Army Reserve and also finds time to do some private consulting in
Humanitarian work.
When asked what advice he would give to other
Service leavers, Stephen says, “there is no such thing as a perfect
scenario, so work out what is in your favour and exploit the
opportunities. Network, network, network. Most of all, enjoy yourself,
it is infectious”.
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