TRANSFERABLE MILITARY SKILLS
Neil left the Royal Marines in 2015 and said his biggest achievement was becoming a Troop Sergeant at a fighting unit. He said the biggest challenge he faced during his military career was working in a wide-range of diverse environments, which included the arctic, the jungle, working offshore, the Middle East and the tropics.
Neil said he acquired a number of key skills and experience during his Service that he believes are of value to civilian companies. The key attributes he gained being strong management and leadership skills. He explained: “As a Sergeant, I was expected to run and plan full training programmes. Even as a Corporal I was organising training, taking teams away and then executing that training. As a landing craft operator I was running small exercises off-shore, running ranges, organising and running training and validating people for deployment and operations.”
CHALLENGES OF TRANSITIONING OUT OF THE MILITARY
On leaving, Neil was initially interested in pursuing finance roles but then began looking at project management roles as he believed his skills-set would suit those type of jobs. So during his resettlement period, he completed PRINCE2 Foundation and APMP project management courses. Neil found work as a lead instructor and then attended the FDM Ex Forces advanced program which involved training in IT Project Management.
Neil offers this advice to others thinking about leaving the Forces - or who are beginning the resettlement process: “Really decide what you want to do. Another thing that I was advised was, if you can, get a mentor. Even if they don’t get you a job, they can give you advice on various industries, tell you what industry articles you need to read. They can take you along to events so you can meet people and network, which is really beneficial as getting your face seen will help you get a job.”