Master of Your Craft - HR Specialist

I joined really because doing HR in the army just seemed a lot more interesting than doing it in a regular office. I joined to travel more and build a career. We're soldiers first, we train as soldiers, we deploy with units. We're HR specialists, we look after everything from personal admin to finance to tech, with the opportunity to gain qualifications like degrees and apprenticeships. You might get told that the 80 soldiers you're assigned to are going to West Africa next week. That means sorting visas, journey plans, travel and everything else. And you're working with some really senior people up close, which doesn't happen for everyone. It's the variety. You can do almost everything your unit does. I've driven trucks, jumped with paras and worked with the artillery. I've kicked down the doors and been the first in the building on a training operation in Cyprus, then carried on doing HR the same week. And that's on top of adventure training, the skiing, canoeing and anything else you fancy. It's that kind of stuff you'll never get in the civilian version of this job. For me it's the flexibility. Wherever the army go, we go. We could be posted absolutely anywhere with any unit. Which means a lot of us do a lot of travelling when we're young and stay in one place if we want to when we're older. The job's not always easy. You're relied on, but we're a team within a team. You get a lot of responsibility, looking after 90 people early on and thousands at a time if you progress. You can be an accountant, an instructor or assistant to the really senior leaders. But that means qualifications and experiences most civilians just don't get this quickly. That's how we master our craft. And how you could too.