Situation
Armed forces service leavers, veterans and family members are supported via our Painting the Grass Green support. We provide regular employability content to the JobOppO community app, that supports the military community to secure employment, offering peer support and links to employers. This content includes coaching videos, handouts and providing insights to discussions. Being aware of SDM Training Services and our support of veterans, Julie reached out for assistance with changing careers. Having become disillusioned in her current role as a logistics planner, she was looking to move to a larger company that would offer more progression opportunities. She had applied for several roles and despite being interviewed for 3, had not yet been successful.
Task
Julie had left the Army approximately 10 years ago, where she held a transport planner role and had various driving licenses including HGV. It was important to understand what she enjoyed about this area of work, her understanding of her existing skills and her confidence in attending interviews. This would involve her being able to list her key competencies, the levels in which they have been deployed and examples of when or how she can employ these.
Action
It was clear during discussions with Julie that she enjoyed the fast pace and pressure that was involved with the logistics industry. She was encouraged to research key skills required in these roles, and cross reference them with her own skills. She developed a greater depth of knowledge around the work she has been doing and the many skills she uses daily. Julie was then tasked with giving specific examples of when she has been able to use these skills to achieve results or provide solutions to a challenge. She was able to use the STAR technique effectively to structure these examples in a way that keeps them specific and chronological. Her next task was to become more confident in discussing these, firstly with herself and then others. She was able to practice talking about her skills aloud on her own and then to a friend as part of her interview preparation.
Result
Julie was able to attend her future interviews, with greater confidence around discussing her skills. She had her examples with her in note format, but found that having processed these several times, in different manners, she did not need to refer to these during the interview. Pleasingly, her greater level of confidence also helped her to answer questions that she had not prepared for, as she was already in a positive mindset. Julie moved to a larger company, in a role that was similar to her previous, but came with line management responsibility, new challenges and greater benefits.