Chris O’ Malley was in the REME between 1987 and 1992, leaving as a Lance Corporal after serving 5 years as a Mechanical Engineer, supporting Guards units in a Light Aid Detachment. As it’s nearly 30 years ago since Chris left the Army, the ability to reminisce is challenging but in his opinion, military personnel are reliable, flexible, and committed people.
Chris gained his current role as a Logistics Manager at EKFB by utilising the services of BuildForce following redundancy. BuildForce helped him identify the most fitting roles in accordance to his previous career, amended his CV to suit these roles and further supported him with interview prep and introduced him to their employer network.
Chris comments on the improvement of services for those transitioning to ‘civvy street’, as at the time he transitioned there was very little, or no support compared to current times and would have liked to have seen the type of support infrastructure that now exists with BuildForce.
Chris’ current role involves being responsible for safely and efficiently planning and delivering holistic logistics, security and support functions to enable construction across Areas C2 and C3 of the HS2 project. During an average day at work, he undertakes a mixture of “BAU” task problem solving,manages and guides a Logistics team to deliver their business requirements whilst also leading on strategic elements to build robust solutions to support future construction needs in the area and route wide.
Key skills such as stakeholder engagement, project planning/management, process design, recruitment/team building and people management/mentoring are used daily in his role as Logistics Manager.
Chris’ advice to someone leaving the Armed Forces and seeking a new career in construction would be:
“Speak to an organisation like BuildForce; agree specific roles/areas to focus on so you don’t come across as ‘applying for everything’. Get a good CV which showcases your skills without too much military jargon. Attend networking and career events. Speak to people, via events and LinkedIn who have been where you are now…get a mentor to guide you through the career search”
Chris describes his career in the construction industry as being:
“Fascinating, multi-faceted, rewarding.”