
How the army readied me for a new consultancy career
To mark Armed Forces Day 2022, client relationship director Rob Adkin talks about his experience of finding a new post-army career on ‘civvy street.’
It’s no secret that the UK tech sector faces big challenges on recruitment. Many tech businesses have found themselves up against the skills gap, meaning that when they hire they can’t find enough skilled candidates to fill their pipelines. It means that they often face a long hiring or a long ramp time for those who join them.
One answer to this challenge lies with the UK’s ex-forces community. By tapping into the military talent pool, more businesses are finding that they’re able to source highly skilled candidates who make excellent additions to their teams.
Opencast has for some time now recognised the value of being a forces-friendly employer. As a member of the Ministry of Defence-backed armed forces covenant we have specifically built in hiring veterans to our recruitment strategy.
Having successfully employed several ex-forces people across our specialist practices, we’re looking to grow our connections with the veteran tech talent pool.
Our new collaboration between ex-armed forces recruitment specialist Redeployable is striving to bridge the gap between a talent-hungry industry and a pool of skilled and motivated individuals seeking purposeful post-military careers or new roles.
Redeployable is led by a team of people who have successfully moved on from the military. It is a recruitment business created for the ex-forces community, by the community.
They know that there is no simple, clear-cut route out of the military, and that service leavers often report that it can be hard to know what to do next. As a result, vets often end up underemployed, or working in jobs that don’t utilise their skill sets or abilities. They are under-paid for their work and aren’t given the chance to excel.
Redeployable and Opencast have come to understand that tech consultancy is an excellent option both for ex-forces people and for the consultancies themselves. With their proven work ethic, leadership skills, resilience and adaptability, people coming out of the armed forces are exceptionally well-suited for success as consultants.
We have recruited several of our team from the ex-services community. We’ve found that a lot of ex-services people have transferrable skills that can lend themselves to product delivery or client relationship director roles, with others going down the path of software development.
Opencast has a strong commitment to career progression, helping our people to build skills and giving them opportunities for personal growth and to further develop their expertise.
The Opencast and Redeployable partnership isn't just about filling job roles. It’s about helping veterans into rewarding new careers that they know their skills will translate well to.
Redeployable’s mission is to maximise the potential of every member of the military community, and it is confident that helping ex-service people into tech roles is helping solve the underemployment challenge. At the same time, it is helping to build a workforce that’s resilient, diverse and exceptionally capable.
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