Getting real about civilian employment

Every year, thousands of people leave the Armed Forces and return to civilian jobs. Most have little experience of life outside the Services, and it is therefore a leap in the dark – albeit with a great deal of guidance available from the system.

The first adjustment they need to make is to do with timeframes. In the Services, people usually receive considerable notice of an operational deployment, a unit move or an individual posting so they can be reasonably certain of what they will be doing in six months’ time. In civilian life, things are very different. Unless you have a very rare skill, the furthest ahead most civilian employers will be looking is about three months. Very often, they need someone to start next Monday; or they have ongoing vacancies to fill immediately. So do not be surprised if the response to your letter saying that you will be leaving next February, is a polite invitation to get in touch in December. This is simply a matter of different business timescales.

If the rules are different for hiring, they are even more so for firing: no interviews one year before end of contract; short-term contracts so that you can be sacked easily – and you may well be taken to your desk, watched as you empty your drawers and return the car keys, and escorted from the premises. You may get compensation or you may have to fight for it.

Your notice period is likely to be one month, or three with a generous employer. Forces notice periods are incredible by civilian standards – and generally unsustainable. Job security is also very different. Private civilian organisations have to be free to upsize, downsize, amalgamate, merge and change. It is just not possible to guarantee employment to anyone.

Your Service pay may not be top of the going rate, but it is nowhere near the bottom. Many people look enviously at Forces salaries and the attendant benefits. The chief of these is probably the pension – and you will probably never find a better one. Your civilian equivalents may have only a personal plan, and recently may have seen their pension values reduced by stock market performance.

No housing is provided in the vast majority of civilian jobs, although occasionally there will be some element of accommodation. Nevertheless, you may still be expected to move if the organisation relocates, or to commute long distances. Employers care more about productivity than your personal circumstances. Even a compassionate problem that will merit sympathetic treatment in the Services may well be seen as a nuisance, particularly if it affects your contribution.

Standards of civilian medical and dental care, and hospitals, are quite different unless you pay for private health cover. Your holiday entitlement may be less than you have now and you may find that your actual working hours are longer than stated in your employment contract. You may find some subsidised sports facilities and social life, but they are unlikely to be as good as the ones that you are leaving behind.

All of the above is, of course, how the vast majority of people spend all their working lives. They survive and often prosper; so can you. But you should at least be aware of what lies ahead.

To help in the choices ahead, June’s Quest covers the leisure industry, with articles on diving and sport and fitness, with a piece on remotely operated vehicles included in the package. Not surprisingly, many Service leavers opt for these employment sectors, with a great deal of success. The prison and probation services, or the national offender management service as they are now called as a result of their top-level amalgamation, also offer a wide variety of jobs dealing with anybody from a vicious thug to a distressed child – not an easy option, but hardly a dull one.

Logistics and distribution are areas in which many Service people have considerable qualifications and experience, and so offer a relatively smooth transition out of uniform. And for the budding entrepreneur we cover franchising: what it is, how to research it and how to find out if it is right for you. Finally, we look at the world of computing and information technology. We are all users now, but there are now employment lanes along the superhighway and most of them do not require a first-class maths degree.

We also cover the rudiments of housing when you leave the Forces and the basic types of mortgage available. Gaining the maximum use for your resettlement time and money is something that relatively few Service leavers achieve. While operational deployments can make this tricky, a little preparation and planning can make all the difference. So we enclose a short guide on the subject that should at least pose some questions. And, despite recent City job threats, our regional feature covers London – a buzzing workplace and an object of envy throughout the rest of the world.