Climbing the Career Ladder

Finding work on civvy street is essential when preparing to leave the Armed Forces. An expert speaks to Advance providing her top advice, to help you on the road to civvy employment.

When looking for a job after leaving the Armed Forces, there’s a lot to consider: how do your skills translate to the civilian workplace? What type of roles are you well-suited towards? And even, where do you get started?

Though it can be daunting to think about your professional life after the military, there’s plenty of support on hand to help you into a civilian career.

RFEA – The Forces Employment Charity is just one organisation helping veterans on the road to civvy employment. With dedicated advisors, the charity can provide support including job matching, training advice, CV and interview tips, as well as expert industry knowledge, to help you get a foot in the door with one of their employers.

“Some of the biggest challenges that veterans face when looking for civilian employment is recognising their own worth and their transferable skills, because it may be second nature in the military,” explains Kate Hughes, regional employment advisor at the RFEA.

CV

The key to any job application is a concise, well-organised CV. Your CV is the first impression an employer gets of you, so it’s vital that you take the time and effort to make it specific to individual applications.

“Your CV has to be tailored each time,” Kate advises. “It’s a personal profile and overview. Bullet points are great because an employer can glance at that quickly in terms of shortlisting. Tell the employer not only what you do, but how you achieve your tasks: that’s what the employer is looking for.”

Alongside your CV, an employer may ask for a cover letter: this is your opportunity to really sell yourself, and demonstrate why you deserve an interview. It’s also a chance to showcase a bit of your personality, which can help you progress to the next level of the application.

INTERVIEW

Preparing for a job interview can be nerve wracking, particularly if you’ve never done one before, but experts are always available to provide you with the advice you need for a successful meeting with a prospective employer.

“A lot of people think they can’t prepare for an interview, but there’s so much you can do,” says Kate. “There will always be a question about why you want the role and what you can bring to the workplace. I always tell my clients to prepare those answers, because if you can nail those first questions, it helps you to build confidence in the interview from the outset.”

As part of your preparation, it can be a good idea to look at your military experience and try to translate the jargon into terms that civilian employers will be able to understand. The Career Transition Partnership (CTP) – the official Ministry of Defence provider of Armed Forces resettlement – recommends translating sergeant to team leader, officer to manager, and soldiers or sailors to staff or employees. This will enable you to speak clearly at your interview, without any confusion or unnecessary additional stress when you’re already under pressure.

Regardless of whether you’re offered the role or not, interviews are great experience and each one you attend is helping you get closer to the right job for you.

Remember that being ex-military is an advantage where you can offer more to a company than most civilians can

SKILLS

Service leavers have numerous transferable skills – assets that employers want in their workforce.

“Veterans have strong communication skills as well as being able to identify a problem and pass that up the chain of command,” says Kate. “Shifting priorities and being able to deal with complaints can be used in many organisations. All of that will build up to making sure the organisation can achieve their goals, and these skills can be taken into any industry.”

From teamwork and problem solving, to resilience and leadership, the skills you’ve gained in the Armed Forces are assets, and should be demonstrated as such throughout the job search.

So, if you’ve found the right role for you and want some help applying, or are just at the start of your job hunt, don’t worry – there’s support available every step of the way. You’ll be climbing back onto the career ladder in no time.