Leaving the Armed Forces and Getting a Job , livre ebook

About the Author
After attending grammar school in Sheffield, Michael Sykes joined the Royal Navy as a junior radio operator. Following sea-service in HMS Ark Royal, he joined the Submarine Service. He was commissioned and left the Royal Navy in his mid-thirties. His last RN appointment, as a Lt Cdr in the 2nd Submarine Squadron, included work on the privatisation arrangements for the Royal Dockyard, Plymouth.
His first civilian job was Personnel Director of Bupa Health Services and he was closely involved in the company’s rapid expansion and recruitment of personnel. He was made an Executive Director in the same company, with direct responsibility for the management of medical centres and was then asked to join the National Health Service as a Regional Executive Director, with particular responsibilities for implementing NHS reforms.
He returned to the private sector to join Unilabs UK as the Managing Director and then Chairman before deciding to travel and work abroad with his wife, teaching English and business. He started and owned a language school and translation agency in Slovenia and was asked by Cambridge University to become an English language examiner. In recent years, he was also the Chairman of an anti-piracy maritime security company and became a published author.
He has spoken at many conferences on management subjects, been interviewed by the BBC and had several articles printed in various papers and journals. He has three children, one of whom was in the armed forces. Members of his extended family are still in the armed forces. His home is in South Hampshire.


Dedication
To my wife Cathy for her stalwart and continued support and encouragement.
Michael Sykes
Leaving the Armed Forces and Getting a Job




Copyright Information
Copyright © Michael Sykes (2019)
The right of Michael Sykes to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781788784931 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528944465 (E-Book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ


Acknowledgements
To the many service personnel, of all forces and all ranks, I have been privileged to work with and meet over many years and learnt so much from them.


Chapter 1: What This Book Is About – What It Can Offer You
Practical Advice and Improving Your Luck
Sometimes, it is not until you look back after a major event has occurred in your life that you realise just how little you knew at that time, how unprepared you were for that event and how lucky you were to get through it safe and well.
That certainly was the case for me when I left the armed forces (the Royal Navy in my case) for a new civilian life. I now know I was lucky and landed on my feet with an interesting second career and satisfactory rewards. I had luck. We all need some luck, but I want you to have more than just luck to help you make a successful transition from the armed forces to civilian life. I want you to increase your chances of success in finding the best job for you and give your ‘luck’ a bit of a boost.
That is what this book is about. It is about advising you on how to be as well prepared as possible during the fairly long process of leaving the armed forces and getting a civilian job. I want you to be as streetwise as you can be about what you will face; in addition, I want to make sure you receive the best practical advice to help you achieve what you want.
It is also worth pointing out that much of this advice for armed forces personnel could also be useful to personnel of other ‘forces’, such as members of the police force seeking alternative employment.
You must keep things in perspective when preparing for your discharge from the armed forces. Leaving is not as great a hurdle as some people in the forces think or say it is. Not at all! But this change in your life can certainly be a challenging and stressful time, especially if you have responsibilities (family, mortgage, for example) and there are some peculiarities and differences between life in the services and civilian life and work that need to be faced, understood and preparations made to give you the best possible opportunities.
This book gives practical advice on: preparing yourself for leaving the services finding job vacancies suitable for you getting a job settling into that new job as smoothly as possible
In addition, there is a chapter on setting up your own business and being self-employed. (This is also something I have experienced.)
Everything you will read in this book is based on reality and practical experience, written by someone who has been through the process and knows many other people that have also been through the transition as well as people that are presently going through the process. It is not theoretical, desktop advice but is from my own experiences. These include leaving the services and finding a job; in turn, becoming a recruiter of people, including service personnel; and finally being directly involved with the recruitment and management of ex-service personnel. This unusual set of experiences can now be used for your benefit.
In the Royal Navy I passed through all the non-officer ranks (except warrant officer) to eventually become a Lt. Commander. I voluntarily left the forces when I was 37 years old – earlier than is usual – and went into a very large commercial organisation where I worked in their Personnel department (later called Human Resources) during a time of huge change and economic growth, both in the UK and in that particular company. Because of my job I, consequently, interviewed many people for different jobs, including significant numbers of armed forces personnel of various ranks and from different forces. From there, I went into the state sector, then back to the private sector, then started up my own business abroad. For all that time, members of my family were, and are, in the armed forces: this keeps me in touch with events. Finally, I was Chairman of a maritime security company (anti-piracy), which employs hundreds of ex-forces personnel (from different services and all ranks).
The reason I give you all this personal detail is because it shows I have the experience relevant to writing this book and provides credibility. As they say, “Been there, done that and got the T - shirt.” Now, I want to pass on what I have learnt and observed and want you to have the maximum advantage to move into civilian life successfully.
When I left the Royal Navy it was a step into the unknown. I had never worked in civilian life, having joined the forces directly from school when I was very young. However, I thought I was quite well prepared when I decided to leave because I had qualifications; I had done some management training, worked alongside civilians in certain jobs and attended a resettlement course. I felt fairly confident.
It was only later that I realised I was also very lucky. By pure chance, I left the services in the middle of one of the largest economic booms (‘upturns’) the UK has experienced in modern times. This undoubtedly helped me find a job as it meant there were many more job vacancies than in times of recession or slow growth. So I was accidentally in the right place at the right time; I had not factored in the economic circumstances when I was making plans to leave. However, a lot of life is about luck, including getting a job. I had worked out some strategies to target jobs and spent a lot of time on my curriculum vitae (CV or personal résumé) and my applications, so I wasn’t entirely green. But it was later, when I was on the other side of the fence and recruiting, that I realised how much better job-seeking could be done by service personnel and what was essential to help people from the armed forces get a job.
Many people believe you cannot do anything about luck; you either have it, or you don’t. I don’t accept this; rather, I believe you can increase your chances of success, or the probability of success, by good preparation, knowledge and actions. In fact, I’m sure of this. That is what this book is about. It is about helping to increase the probabilities of finding and getting the sort of job you want when you leave. It is to help you prepare yourself and prompt you to take the necessary actions, well in time, so as to have the best chance of success.
What, you may ask, can this book offer that you can’t get from your Resettlement Office, courses you can attend, or people you already know in civilian life? The answer to that is a lot of useful and practical information; otherwise, I wouldn’t bother writing it. What I hope will be useful is practical experience in the forces, general management, personnel management and owning a business. And, of course, recruiting people.
Realistic advice was greatly lacking when I left the forces and, from my continuing contacts with the services, I understand the help and advice available is still limited. The advice given to service personnel is normally from people who are still in the services, who have left in the last couple of years, or who are personnel specialists or career advice specialists with no previous service