Chris Faulkner served with the Royal Engineers for 18 years leaving with the rank of Staff Sargeant in 2024. Chris advised “my most recent role was as a Military Plant Foreman, this involved delivering engineering training to JNCO’s, SNCO’s and Officers in Road and Drainage design. The focus being on the planning and delivery of projects in deployed environments.
My typical day included scheduling and reviewing lesson content, the creation of lesson plans, delivery of lessons, engaging with internal and external stakeholders. Scheduling courses. Reviewing feedback and process improvement. Marking course reports and preparing and providing performance reviews to students.
The army teaches a lot of skills, the main ones that come to mind being resilience, planning and the ability to speak with confidence in front of groups of people.
Upon leaving the Royal Engineers, I was offered a role with Mace Consultancy working as a Senior Project Manager. I secured this by networking, networking, and more networking, making sure I was well prepared by exploring analysing the job market and exploring a number of career options, BuildForce supported throughout this. My role involved administering the NEC4 contract on a programme of works providing new infrastructure to the MOJ, developing strategy for the progression of main works contract negotiations and maintaining project progress of the prelim works. Throughout these works there was also the ongoing process reviews, preparation of briefs, provision of project progress updates to key stakeholders, managing stakeholder relations and the ongoing review of commercial documentation to provide VfM to the client.
I think there are three key things a service leaver offers to any employer:
– The ability to communicate clearly and be able to tailor the communication style to the audience.
– A can do attitude.
– A willingness to take on a task and see it through to its conclusion.
I was lucky during my transition as I had a supportive network that held each other accountable throughout. One of the things I struggled with was identifying an organisation that provided a challenging and varied work environment but also understood that there would be gaps in my knowledge transitioning from the military to civvy street. I think it would have been helpful to have more company led insight days, providing a detailed overview of the company structure and what they can offer to service leavers who are transitioning.
My top tips to others going through their transition would be: –
Prepare early – carry out a thorough assessment of your skills. (Time to be totally honest with yourself) and do your research on areas within construction to assess if your skills align to working client or contractor side.
Targeted engagement – through identifying your strengths and weaknesses you should know what area you feel you align to. Identify key people within the sector you want to move into and open lines of communication, starting early on this is only going to help your cause.
Execute your plan – you know what you need to do, now this is the time to do it. Take full control of your resettlement. No one is going to remind you to revise for your exam or tailor your CV for each role you apply for. Make sacrifices and hold yourself accountable. You still have a full career ahead of you so set yourself up for a successful one. A career in the construction industry is insightful and demanding, as service leavers we are durable, agile and disciplined enough to carve out a career we can thrive in.
I have recently moved over to Bird and Bird as a Legal Project Manager working within the legal project delivery team. This move was with the aim to enhance my professional development in procurement related matters providing an opportunity to Work with a diverse range of clients across multiple sectors and jurisdictions. With no legal background, this move demonstrates the transferable skills that we have as service leavers and that these skills aren’t just valued in construction but are sought after in multiple sectors.
Good luck in your transition and please feel free to reach out if you need some guidance or just want a chat”