I joined the British Army a little later than most, just shortly after my 29th birthday, which is not something that I would typically recommend unless you’re happy being the old grandad of the group. The lateness of my joining up was due to a little bit of youthful wanderlust and lack of clearly defined goals in my life. I joined the Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers (REME) as an Aircraft Technician (Mechanical) for a number of reasons, but an NVQ in Aeronautical Engineering and a chance to learn a trade whilst getting to travel and work on aircraft was highly alluring.
I spent almost 5 and a half years serving but for a number of reasons I decided to resettle back home and try and use the skills and experiences that the Army had provided and translate them back into a civvie environment. The opportunity to join The Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM) was presented and immediately it seemed like a good fit for me. It’s a company that shares a lot of my values and standards, and is an organisation that has contributed significantly to improvement of health and wellbeing of workers and the workplace for over 50 years now. They embody the CDRILS that a soldier lives by.
The role I have is that of a Testing Engineer within the Workplace Protection umbrella. It is a role that offers me a great deal of responsibility, but also a great deal of freedom to undertake my role in a manner I see best. They want to get the best out of me.
IOM have put faith, trust, and respect in me and in the skills that I’ve gained through my time in the REME. The Chief Executive being ex-services was also a great indication to me, and the fact that he invited me for a sit-down brew to spin some dits before I even had my first day was pretty cool too!