Forces: Army
Tom S - LCpl
“Believe in yourself and the talent you possess. Don’t take the first job opportunity that is thrown at you if it’s not 100 per cent right for you. Do not pigeon hole yourself upon your rank or age as a good senior manager will hire you upon your talent, experience and transferable skills to the company.”
Background
Former Lance Corporal Tom Sinclair left the
Army in October 2017, having served for nine years. During his service,
he worked as a Communications Systems Operator (3SR) and gained basic
cryptography awareness as well as a Network Security qualification. Tom
said that one of the highlights of his military career was ‘serving with
the Airbourne forces’.
Resettlement
To kickstart his
resettlement, Tom attended a Career Transition Workshop (CTW) at RRC
Tidworth, and said that, “It was nice to gain insight into how my
military skills transferred into civilian terminology and I found it
interesting to hear from other Service leavers about why they were
leaving the military and their plans on what they were going to do
next.” Tom made full use of his Career Consultant throughout his
resettlement period commenting that, “Elly was extremely helpful, she
was able to answer all my questions and gave me valuable advice when
needed.”
Tom took advantage of his Enhanced Learning Credits
(ELCs) to complete the CompTIA Network and Security+ course with CTP; an
ideal course for anyone looking to progress their career in IT. Tom
also enrolled on IT specific courses as part of his new job training,
and is currently working towards his Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), EC
Council Digital Forensics and Investigation handle, and Certified
Informations Systems Security Professional (CISSP) qualifications.
Finally,
using some of his Graduated Resettlement Time (GRT), Tom completed a
Civilian Work Attachment (CWA) via the Barclays AFTER Programme. He
spent two weeks in a Project Manager role for Barclays, gaining valuable
experience working in a non-military environment.
Outcome
Tom
now works as an Operations Cyber Security Manager for Sopra Steria, a
trusted company who deliver successful transformation programmes to
businesses. The role involves advising on all aspects of IT security
(physical, procedural and technical), and monitoring compliance of the
service for customer standards and policies. Additionally, Tom provides
Provision Security Awareness training to staff, oversight of the
security clearance processes, manages security aspects of change,
facilitates and assists with any security tests, and manages identified
remedial actions.
Regarding how his military skills transfer
into his new role, Tom explains that “The confidence I gained during the
military has helped me liaise and engage with senior VPs, such as
directors and PMs. The ability to problem solve in a pragmatic and
methodical approach also goes along way within a corporate setting.”
When
settling into civilian life, Tom faced obstacles in understanding the
corporate language whilst adapting to a completely new role, but
realised that by asking questions and keeping in touch with his Career
Consultant he could overcome these challenges.
Thanks to his
existing experience and the help of the CTP, Tom settled into his new
role easily. His final words for other Service leavers are, “Believe in
yourself and the talent you possess. Don’t take the first job
opportunity that is thrown at you if it’s not 100 per cent right for
you. Do not pigeon hole yourself upon your rank or age as a good senior
manager will hire you upon your talent, experience and transferable
skills to the company.”
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