After nearly 20 years of regular Army service I have decided it is time to end this chapter of my career and explore opportunities beyond the Armed Forces. The reason is simple – having decided as a family to settle in North Yorkshire I face a career of weekly commuting if I stay in the Army. Having experienced this for the last 18 months it is clear to me that living apart from my family 5 nights out of every 7 is untenable, especially as there is always the possibility of additional separation of 6, 9 or even 12 months on an operational employment that could happen at any time. After 20 years I simply need to spend more time with my young family.

Even though the decision was the right one and somewhat inevitable, pressing ‘the button’ still felt odd and disloyal. With the click of a mouse I surrendered my job, my career (which was guaranteed to age 55), my vocation and, in part, my identity (I still get introduced as ‘David, the Army officer’). I am fortunate though; I was never one of the ‘Army Barmy’ crowd who couldn’t imagine doing anything else, helped in part by joining a little older than the average and by working in ‘Civvy Street’ before going to Sandhurst. I was fortunate too to join the Royal Signals, a capbadge that gave me a career wonderfully balanced between traditional Army officer leadership and more technical appointments. Indeed, the skill to effectively lead technical teams is probably the most valuable I learnt over the years.

I will always be eternally grateful to the Army for my career, the highlights of which read like a clichéd advert to ‘Be the Best’. I was invested in hugely; approximately 4 years of my time in the Army was spent in training or education, including an invaluable MSc in Information Systems Management. I had a daunting but character building amount of responsibility from the very beginning of my career – aged just 24 I was leading 36 soldiers. I served in British Forces Germany at a time when the sense of community and, quite frankly, fun pervaded everything we did. I learnt to ski, mountaineer and SCUBA dive, and have since instructed others in the latter two. Most importantly I deployed on operations, commanding 150 fantastic Gurkhas in Afghanistan, without doubt the career highlight. The same Gurkha connection took me to Nepal where I was able to spend time in the remote east of the country helping to ensure the money raised by the Gurkha Welfare Trust is spent effectively. There is no question I would tell my 20 year old self to do the same again.

I might be naïve but I’m excited at the prospect of finding a new opportunity that is the right fit for me. It feels like the market is ripe with possibility and there is no question I am lucky to be in the Cyber specialism at a particularly exciting time. Old habits die hard so I have written a ‘Leaving the Army Campaign Plan’ (I’m not kidding – it has 6 Lines of Operation that subdivide into 59 Lines of Effort). Hopefully the same tried and tested methodology that planned countless operations over my Army career will be just as effective at finding the right opportunity for me. It is certainly going to be fun finding out!