He had left the armed-services 18 months ago but didn’t feel he had found comparable job satisfaction.

• The change in lifestyle was tough; he missed the adrenaline rush, the camaraderie and the pride at being able to say “I am an officer in the British Army”.
• After an initial chat he agreed to use After the Military as his “career specialist”. It was time to take charge of the situation, stop struggling with the same issues and address where he wanted his career to go.

We worked together for 6 ninety-minute sessions over 2 months, and during this time we:

Identified the key issues, set a strategy while agreeing which goals to work towards, built in measures for accountability and worked on honing the necessary skills in practical training sessions.

We also questioned four key areas:

One. Why was the transition to civilian life taking so long and was he focusing properly on his new performance requirements?

Two. Were his job search skills up to date? Did his genuine strengths come through in interview? Did he know how to tap into the “hidden jobs market”?

Three. Had he had honest feedback to help him make better career choices, to help him “move-on” from his military life and had he developed “resilience” to best handle the ups and downs of a competitive and unfamiliar jobs market?

Four. Was he making the best job of demonstrating that his transferable skills were what employers and recruiters are looking for?

Then, together, we set about answering them:

• By working on job search tools such as interview technique, communication skills
• By overcoming the “road blocks” to progress such as negative thinking and behaviours that were preventing him adapting to post-military life.
• By setting quantifiable targets for his job search progress, which would begin immediately
• By setting up an activity spreadsheet and a concise journal to monitor progress.
• By speaking regularly together between meetings to ensure the project was on target.