From Bomb Disposal to Financial Services: How Military Perspective Shapes Career Success

Life in the military is very different to life in the civilian world, we can all agree on that. Being able to put situations into perspective and utilise tools fine-tuned to help you deliver in high-pressure situations means you have an edge that many of your civilian counterparts might have to work hard to match. 

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We spoke to a veteran who is a real embodiment of this: Dan McBirnie. Having moved from bomb disposal to Governance and Assurance, Dan was able to share with us how he translated his skillset to enable him to thrive in Financial Services. 

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We talk about the power of perspective, how sometimes the stakes don’t matter, and how vital it is to be part of a high-performing team. 

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Check it out: 👇

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[Annabel] Can you tell me a bit about your military experience? 

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[Dan]  I was commissioned into the Royal Logistics Corps; I spent two years in Germany and was deployed to Iraq twice. I then specialised in ammunition, as well as its storage, movement, surveillance, and disposal. And that then led me to the disposal of improvised explosive devices, or bombs as you might call them. That's really where I spent the bulk of my career, either conducting it myself or training and managing people who worked in the bomb disposal area. 

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As I got more senior, I had another couple of jobs: managing senior officers' careers, an HR-type role with senior stakeholders, and then a policy role in the Ministry of Defence.

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I left the army about three years ago and have since worked in financial services. I worked at TP ICAP for two and a half years before I took the next step in my career and started at Marex working in the COO team. 

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[A] Bomb disposal, wow. What made you want to pursue that particular route within the military?

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[D] When you're young and you join the military, you’re looking for adventure and excitement. For me, there didn't seem any better than to go into bomb disposal. My mum wasn't particularly chuffed with this situation, but it turned out to be an incredibly rewarding place to work.

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[A] No, I can imagine she wasn’t thrilled.

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[D] But it did provide me with some experiences, some skills, and some memories, good and some incredibly sad ones, too. I still feel very privileged that I got to do it; it feels surreal. 

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[A] It must do, especially now that you're in your new career, you're working in an office, it must be very different.

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Well, although the tasks are different, people are still people. If you're working in a team to solve problems, it doesn't matter if you're trying to work out what that device is down the road or whether it's how you’re going to manage this risk that's been identified. 

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It's those transferable skills of working as a team and seeing something through to completion. That's a real commonality for the military and then a high-tempo business environment.

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[A] I can see that. Can you walk us through a moment that stands out when you had to stay calm under extreme pressure?

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We're in Afghanistan. We'd flown in a helicopter to meet the Gurkha regiment, and a Search dog had found some explosives buried under the ground in the middle of a wadi - a dry river bed. We needed to clear this area because that's where they wanted to conduct a resupply. 

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We didn't know if this device was along a command wire, if it was going to be remote-controlled, or if it was going to be a pressure plate. But it's there, and we needed to clear it before it got dark, when we'd be vulnerable to an attack.

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Without knowing what's under the ground, it can be quite a daunting thing to think about. 

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But actually, you've got a team around you; a team of experts you can leverage. 

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You trust that your number two and your ECM operator, the electronic specialist and the search teams have all done their job perfectly. And that gives you the confidence you need. We had some possible enemies on mopeds, watching us from the other side of the river, but I had a brilliant team around me and I could focus on my one task. I could just focus on lying on my belt buckle on the ground and uncovering bits of sand, and little stones, trying to find a bit of this device to render it safe. And you have to be very, very just solely focused on that one task without necessarily worrying about the other stuff because the team's got your back.

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We successfully disposed of two devices, cleared them, got off the ground, and managed to collect some evidence that could be used for forensics later on down the line.

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[A] That does seem so surreal. It's crazy, especially if you've got the enemy watching you. That must be a whole extra level of pressure and fear.

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Yeah, it's surreal, but it's instilled into you. The military has world-class training systems and facilities. So you're super well-trained for it. 

Alongside that, not having a blame culture is game-changing because that allows you to have the most relevant information to get on with the task at hand.

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[A] And did you ever have moments where you struggled to make a decision or struggled to keep yourself cool?

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I'd say if I'd been on my own, absolutely I would have struggled. But having the team around me, working with them, and I have to be comfortable with a bit of uncertainty. 

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An 80 % solution now is better than a 99 % solution never. Veterans are comfortable with maybe only having 80 % of the answers, it’s enough for them to get on and try to solve the problem at hand. Being comfortable with uncertainty and just getting on with it, with that bias for action is a really strong trait of veterans that can offer a lot to business.

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[A] Are there any other ways that you think your military career has changed your skillset or has developed it in a way that maybe you might not expect?

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In my first role as a Troop Commander, I was in charge of about 80 soldiers. There were some warrant officers, some sergeants and staff sergeants, all older, all more experienced than me, all with a lot more knowledge than me. Now, I clearly can't come up with all the answers. So you had to manage them, harness their knowledge, their skills, and their experiences to help deliver the best for your troop or your squadron at the time. So from an early age, you've got to be very attuned to get the best out of people, find ways maybe of almost tricking them into coming up with the answer, especially if it's unpopular. 

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It's about having empathy. It's about seeing things from other people's perspective. And those soft skills, which may be difficult to quantify, are super, super important in business. 

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[A] And did your military experience shape your journey into a civilian career?

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[D] To an extent. 

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I knew that the things I wanted out of a career were going to involve working in a team, solving problems, and speaking to and dealing with people. I wanted somewhere that 

was going to offer me the ability to solve problems, be challenged, and develop new skills. Financial services tick those boxes for me. 

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Also, the type of people who also work in Financial Services are bright, motivated, and hard-working, and for me, that’s an environment I want to be in. 

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Financial services are related to geopolitical world events, and that's a bit like the military - you'd have to react to events. At that macro level, you need to understand that by delivering financial services, you’re allowing markets to function. It's a massive part of the British economy that gives you a kind of sense of purpose at a really big level.

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[A] That makes sense, I’ve heard from a lot of veterans how important having purpose in their career is. 

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Do you recognise the qualities and skills that you got from your military experience and how they impact your work now?

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[D] Yes! In the military when you all join, none of you know how to fire a weapon, use a radio, or march. But you learn those things very quickly. Then either through promotion or through postings, you change jobs every couple of years and everywhere you go, you have to work out what you're doing, get up to speed super quickly and start delivering. 

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That's a really useful skill. 

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You can't train for six months to go on operations in the real world. So when you start a new company, you're on ops straight away. There's real-time sales happening. There's real time risk events happening. You've got to be straight in there. So the ability to get up to speed really quickly, to learn those new skills, is going to add value.

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[A] And how important do you think it is for businesses to have team members who are resilient and can keep a cool head when things get stressful?

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[D] I think it's absolutely essential, but the key point here would be the onus is not on the individual on your own just to stay calm and to deal with everything. 

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What you need is the leadership and management in place to make it the right environment. So people can ask each other for help. They can say, “I actually don't know how to solve this. Can you help me?”

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[A] The common thread and it all just keeps coming back to is having a strong, supportive team.

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[D] Absolutely, and that's where I think veterans add real value because they're so used to being in a team, so they can bring people together. 

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You very rarely hear a veteran say that's not my job. They'll say right, I don't know how to solve it but let's try and work something out.

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[A] This has been so interesting. I just have one last question, do you have any advice for veterans who are making that transition into civilian life?

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[D] I would say, don’t be shy about bigging yourself up. In the military, we always say, we did this, we achieved this. It's okay to say, I did it, I came up with this plan. 

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You should focus on those transferable skills, whatever they might be. Everyone's military experience will be slightly different. The common threads would be a bias for action, problem-solving, teamwork, discipline, and integrity, they're always going to be there. 

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And back yourself. I speak to service leavers regularly who are looking to get into financial services and they were saying, I don't really know what I'm going to offer a company. And I was like, stop, look at all this stuff you've done. Think about all the teams you've led, all the problems you've solved, everything you've achieved, you can't put a price on some of those skills. 

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[A]Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. I've really enjoyed chatting with you. It's been really, it's been so eye-opening.

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Key Takeaways 

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Perspective aids challenge: Military experience shapes a unique perspective on challenges; helping to reframe high-pressure situations in civilian life and keeping a cool head. 

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The stakes aren't the metric: Whether facing life-or-death situations or business problems, the ability to focus on the task while understanding the bigger picture is critical.

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Problem-solving: Military experience can aid problem-solving and encourage a solution-oriented approach.

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Uncertainty breeds resilience: Military service instills the power of adapting to changing information, having seen uncertainty as the norm it fuels their drive to 'get it done'.

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Supportive teams are essential: The military teaches you to use your team, because you know they’ll perform, and a good civilian workplace will have the same. 

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Back yourself: Your military experience earned you a toolbox of skills and adaptability, be sure to showcase the unique perspective that makes you an asset.

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If you’re a service leaver or veteran, and you’re unsure how your skills translate, take Dan’s advice. Back yourself, and remember how valuable your skillset is. 

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Join the new Redeployable community and meet people like Dan. 

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