Career transition support

Navigating a Career Change

What is it like to apply for a job outside of the Defence Force?

Commander Andrew McMillan has been a Warfare Officer for 32 years. He’s had an interesting career that’s taken its own path, with roles such as Aide de Camp to the Governor General, Peacekeeping in Bosnia, Commanding Officer of the Operational Diving Team, Naval Advisor London and Director of the Institute for Leader Development. His thoughts had been turning towards life beyond the Navy – thoughts that were keeping him awake at night. Thoughts like: “We get so many valuable skills and wonderful experiences, at some point we need to capitalise on them while they remain current”. In his fourth leadership development role, it was his choice of work on his mind, not the process to get there. He figured he’d knock up a CV and would walk into an interview without too much effort.

Today, Mr McMillan works for the Public Service Commission’s Fale, a team working to support the strengthening of 16 Pacific Island nations’ Public Service Commissions. He didn’t just “walk in” to the role. In fact, he had applied for three positions the previous year, and got nowhere. “I was a bit rattled,” he says. “I wasn’t even shortlisted. I thought, something had gone wrong.” He got the tip for the PSC job from the Chief People Officer, and he wanted to get this one right. He went to the NZDF Transition Team.

Established in November 2019, the team provides Career Transition coaches to help Regular Force personnel navigate the move from military to civilian life. They offer workshops, webinars, transition seminars and one-to-one coaching for personalised planning and preparation. CDR McMillan went to his coach, Tania. She wasn’t impressed with his CV. She was even less impressed with his personal email address with a ‘69’ in it. “She told me the content was okay, but told me to imagine an overworked HR person, going through CVs, just looking for an excuse to put mine in the bin. She told me to get a professional email address, and that we needed to get my current role onto the first page.” With a revamped CV, CDR McMillan found himself shortlisted. They wanted to interview him. “I had to run back to Tania for coaching on interview techniques. I hadn’t been on that side of the table since I was 19 at the Officer Selection Board. I’m used to being on the side asking the questions. So, she instructed me on the Situation, Task, Action, Result technique and grilled me with practice questions, and I sought other colleagues’ advice on how to approach interviews.” He says he really enjoyed the interview. “I felt really well prepared for the questions asked.” He was asked back, and told he was the preferred candidate. “Once I accepted, they wanted to talk salary. I wasn’t ready for that, I had to run back to Tania to find out how to do salary negotiation!” The separation from a Navy world of 32 years is not easy, he says. “Even by lunchtime on the first day of the job, I was feeling separation anxiety. You don’t understand, I suppose, how much those 32 years shape you, mould you, grow you, support you. It’s not to be underestimated. I’m in the Reserves which keeps some connection. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like, not to be able to go back onto the naval base. That cut-off from something that’s been such a large part of my life would be quite bizarre.” In Defence, he ran teams for years. “I had thought, wouldn’t be great not to have to manage people for once, not having that constant load. But as soon as I lost my team, I thought, who am I? I’m not CDR McMillan anymore. Being in leader development I used one of our models, the SCARF model, to analyse myself. The S is for status and it’s been interesting to understand how we measure our status in life, I realise that, for me, leading a team is part of that. So is uniform, rank, even just being able to say you’re a part of the Navy whānau, that’s the C for connection.”

What helps is joining a wonderful team, he says. “They’re wonderful people, amazingly supportive, and made me feel extremely welcome. If you’re going to join a new team, make it a Pasifika one! My new boss said, think about it this way. You are bringing your 32 years with you, not leaving it behind. We’re going to use that 32 years to amazing effect. That’s a cool way of looking at it, of what you have to offer outside of Defence and by bringing it with you.” He says he’s sure there are other people like him in Defence. “A lot have come and asked me about my experience. I tell them, having a conversation with the Transition people is a good first step to take. Engaging with them doesn’t mean you’re leaving the Navy, you’re just having a conversation. It’s way more important to start early, rather than finding out you’ve left it too late.”

Think about who you can and want to be, he says, and look at your experiences and skills. “The civilian world might see me as a military officer, but I’ve reborn myself as a leadership development and HR professional and it was reasonably easy because that was a lot of what I did most recently. Sure, you can’t suddenly become a specialist like a lawyer, but what if you want to be? It might be a four or five-year journey, so you need to start on that journey early. Understanding all of what you do in Defence and finding out what that might be called in the civilian world is important. If you do it properly you might find out that you have more options than you thought. “The old saying is; everyone has to leave at some point. When you do it’s much more comfortable having an understanding of who you are, what you can be and what transition is all about.”

“A lot have come and asked me about my experience. I tell them, having a conversation with the Transition people is a good first step to take.”

Transition coaches are available in all NZDF locations and can be accessed by Regular Force personnel at any point in their career and for up to 12 months after they leave the Regular Force. Their support is confidential. To be put in touch with your local coach, email transitionunit@nzdf.mil.nz

Open forum for women recruits

Ordinary Marine Technician Grace Kelly always knew she wanted to be in the Navy, but when she applied, she had next to no idea what it is actually like to be in the service.

Last month she helped host a trial ‘Navy Wahine webinar’ series, targeted at women in the recruitment process who wanted to ask questions about what training involves and what life is like for women in the Navy. Together with Lieutenant Jess Shaw and Defence Recruiting’s Petty Officer Hydrographic Survey Technician Katrina Mohi, the once-a-week webinars allowed potential recruits to type in questions. The Navy hopefuls could see the staff on screen, while the staff could only see the questions.

Ordinary Chef Matariki Wairau joined the group in the latter stages to help with questions on hospitality trades. OMT Kelly, 19, from Cambridge, joined the Navy last year. “I wanted to serve my country, I didn’t like planes and Army looked pretty hard core. I’ve grown up around boats all my life.” She loved Basic Common Training. “It was the best part of my career so far. Even when orders were being barked at us, it was such fun. I got to meet great people, did cool things, and I was the fittest I had ever been when I came out.”

She got involved in the webinars during her branch training, after expressions of interest went out. She emailed LT Shaw and said she was keen.

“Why did I want to do this? Because I wished I had had it for me. I had no idea what was coming. People can be nervous about asking questions, so this is an open platform for women to ask anything they want.” The webinars ran every Monday, up to 45 minutes. OMT Kelly handled the Basic Common Training questions and queries about the technical trades. “We got heaps of different questions. ‘What’s it like being a female during basic training? Have you got any tips? Are you treated any differently?’” She really enjoyed doing the webinars, an easy role as she loves what she does in the Navy. “If I can help one person, that’s one more female in the Navy. Women think about a lot of different things compared to men, but we’ve had no surprises – the questions are the sort of thing I would have asked if this had been around when I joined.” LT Shaw designed the initiative as a wahine-only, interactive setting with serving women, without the pressure of a formal recruiting environment. “With the widespread transition to digital services, building relationships with women before they enter the service has suddenly become incredibly achievable. Pending the success of this initiative, I hope it will become a sustainable, low-resource engagement tool which Navy may choose to use in years to come.”