Veterans’ skills, discipline real job-ready attributes post-ADF

Ex-service people understand how to work in teams, they know how to give and follow orders, and they understand the importance of task completion, says former Lance Bombardier Peter Sanderson.

former Lance Bombardier Peter Sanderson

Employers should consider taking the time to talk person to person with ex-service people, says former Lance Bombardier Peter Sanderson.

Ex-service people understand how to work in teams; they know how to give and follow orders; and they understand the importance of task completion, he says. Importantly, ex-service people might not even know how their ADF skills suit civilian jobs, and an in-person conversation could reveal a range of suitable matches.

“The job market can be very difficult to break into when a lot of employers have difficulty translating the skills that service members acquire,” Sanderson says.

It can be especially hard for ex-service people who joined the armed forces soon after leaving school, who had not been officers or do not have a range of certificates, he says.

Sanderson found work as an instructor with William Adams, the Victorian/Tasmanian dealer for the heavy-duty equipment company Caterpillar, and he found his army training gave him a solid foundation of skills and experience that he could rely on in the position.

“How the army teaches you to teach people is so well-structured and thought-out that you can apply it to almost any situation,” Sanderson says, adding the army teaches ways to learn new things that are very much transferable across a wide range of industries.

About 6000 ADF personnel leave the armed forces each year and most go on to seek civilian employment. The government’s Veteran Employment Program (veteransemployment.gov.au) supports employers to recruit and retain ex-service people. More than 400 organisations Australia-wide have joined its Veteran Employment Commitment.

“If you’re looking to consider hiring a veteran,” Sanderson says, “I’d honestly say one of the best avenues is engaging with that platform, which demonstrates that your organisation wants to recruit veterans and allows you to be visible to a larger pool of potential candidates.”

Enlisting in the army in 2006 when he was 19, Sanderson signed on as an operator for weapon-locating radar. Deployed to Afghanistan for several months the following year, he took a junior leaders’ course in 2008 and he was promoted to the rank of lance bombardier. Painful stress fractures in his legs forced him to accept a medical discharge in 2011 and take the plunge into civilian life.

“Like a lot of people, I joined the army because it was something I always wanted to do as a kid, and I never really put much thought into anything outside of the army,” he says. “So when the discharge process started rolling along, I needed to start figuring out what I wanted to do.”

He struggled to find meaningful employment after he left the ADF. He did a lot of cash jobs for mates and took on random work such as maintenance tasks and groundskeeping, casual jobs that allowed him to stay outside and did not require desk work.

“You open up the web browser, like SEEK, and just start searching to see what’s out there,” Sanderson says.

“And it’s very much trial and error, because if you don’t know what your interests are, what you’re passionate about, you just have a crack at things and hope something comes up.”

He eventually connected with ex-service organisations, including the not-for-profit armed forces support organisation Soldier On, which gave him the chance to meet other ex-service personnel who shared similar challenges. It also provided him with networking opportunities that could lead to introductions and employment offers.

“I actually started networking and meeting people; and I happened to stumble into a construction job through connections from my time in the army,” Sanderson says.

“It all flowed from there. After four to five years of just doing jobs because I needed to pay rent and live, I actually finally stumbled onto something which was very much in line with my interests and something I really enjoyed doing.”

Sanderson worked in the construction industry for about five years, mostly on Tier 1 construction projects. He then moved to a position as a health and safety officer with a wind and hydro energy company, which included safety procedure reviews and site audits in three states.

He subsequently moved on to the training position with the Caterpillar dealer.

“I absolutely loved it. It allowed me to use a lot of the skills I picked up from my time in the army through my promotion courses, while also allowing me to continue to get time on the equipment, which is what I really loved about construction,” he says. “It allowed me to travel around the state and interstate and on a couple of international trips as well.”

Most recently, Sanderson has taken on the role as Victorian disaster relief team manager for Disaster Relief Australia, a not-for profit organisation established in 2016 and led by ex-service personnel. As a state manager, he oversees training and operational activities for the volunteer workforce to ensure the volunteers are provided with as much upskilling and skills maintenance activities as possible.

“So that when there is a need for us to deploy to a national disaster, our workforce has the skills and availability to be able to do it perfectly,” he says.

“While I don’t get quite as much time on the big yellow, heavy piece of equipment as I used to, this role crosses over a lot of the skills that I picked up from the army. So while I still give instruction and teach people how to do stuff, the back-of-house personnel management things that I picked up during my time in the operation cell at my regiment is very much transferable, and it aligns better with what I want to do as far as my job goes.”