Career No2 please! British Army Veteran 18 years service, left in 2015
> Joining the British Army. From quite early on I knew I wanted to join the Army. I studied Civil Engineering at the University of Birmingham, graduating in 1995 and commissioned in to an Infantry Regiment in Dec 1996. This fulfilled my childhood ambition,since I was 12. I went on to serve for 18 years and been responsible wholly or in part for the provision of military and civilian telecommunication and technology services. In doing so, my family and I have lived and deployed on Operations around the globe.
> Leaving the Army. In 2014 I found that the vocation that is service in the Armed Forces, was having an enormous negative impact on my family. So in a joint plan, I terminated my contract early and gave myself 12 months to complete the transition to civilian working life and embark on my second career. My aspirations were to set myself up in the operations or change management world either as part of a larger company or as a consultant.
> Joining Phoenix Group (initially ReAssure). I joined the Change Management function (ReAssure) in summer 2015 thanks to a personal network tip off and needing a new job. Over time my roles evolved and I moved in to the Premises and Resilience function (more usually facilities management) in 2019. Throughout my time to date, the values of both companies have been a good fit and change management in any function means that no 2 days are the same. Seeing on a daily basis, the impact and change that I deliver to colleagues and customers gives me enormous personal motivation and satisfaction.
Project Portfolio Manager
Premises and Resilience function (more usually facilities management).
Role involves the management of a Portfolio of projects (as well as project managing some projects) that deliver numerous connected or individual change across the Premises and Resilience function. See it as a coordination and information role to maintain a constant real time picture or what is happening at any point in time across our estate. A cross between Operational and Change Management, to provide more efficient management of limited resources.
Seeing change happen on a daily basis.
Key source of immense personal satisfaction and motivation, is seeing the change that has been planned, resources aligned and budget secured etc, is watching the plan unfold and the change being instigated/delivered with a variety of different levels of involvement from myself (depends on the project or impact on the customer or business).
Make a commitment and go for it.
Always have a career plan, no matter how vague and set your self targets/goals that you want. Be flexible though, as sometimes you may need to take an indirect route to get to your next goal.
Opportunities will come along that might not be an exact fit to the plan, sometimes you will use your head and other times your heart to choose whether to take up an opportunity but keep the plan in the back of your mind at all times. Its good to always consult your friends or colleagues, be prepared to be challenged, embrace this though, do not fight it. You should always listen and take account of both sides an argument, that way you can make and take informed decisions and actions.
No such thing as failure and do not be afraid to make mistakes, no matter how careful you are, they will happen, so don't stress it, use that energy for getting things done. When mistakes do happen, own them, be accountable and learn from them. Your mistakes and those made by others are all part of what makes you. They are as important was your successes and make sure you add them to your building experience and knowledge. These lessons can be applied anywhere and will increase your personal resilience.
You own your career, no one else, take those opportunities that fit.
Office Refurbishment Projects
The project management and delivery of concurrent projects to refurbish our office space at 2 different sites (130 miles apart) while minimising the impact to the business using the existing space. The worst bit was as we were nearing completion the principal contractor went into administration and as project manager had to pick up the remaining deliverables in short order to keep to schedule and work with multiple suppliers overnight. Awful at the time but we got through and delivered, that built up reserve of experience, knowledge and importantly resilience over my careers was critical to my personal, team and project success.
Over the entire projects (almost 2 years) I saw things all the way through from start to finish and handed back the refurbished space back to Operations/BAU. It took all of my skills, experience and knowledge in operations, project and change management to deliver. All of which was made worthwhile by watching people utilise, with enthusiasm the office space we had envisaged, created and delivered to them.
