This is Remembrance week, and a good moment to talk about engineers who learned their trade in the Armed Forces: a group we place regularly, and one several of our facilities management clients ask for by name. Here is why, what transfers well into building maintenance, where the gaps usually sit, and what it means whether you are hiring or leaving the services.

Where our ex-forces engineers come from

Most of the ex-forces engineers we work with come from the Royal Navy and the Royal Engineers, with some from the RAF. The backgrounds differ, but they share a lot.

• Royal Navy: engineers who have kept pumps, heating and ventilation, power generation and electrical distribution running on board, often a long way from any outside help.
• Royal Engineers: tradespeople trained in electrical, mechanical and building services work, used to setting up and maintaining infrastructure wherever it is needed.
• RAF: engineers from a culture of tightly controlled maintenance, documentation and sign-off.

In each case they have maintained plant where failure has real consequences and the person on shift has to fix it.

Why clients ask for them

When a client asks us for ex-forces candidates, the reasons tend to come back to a handful of habits rather than any single qualification.

• Fault-finding under pressure: a methodical approach to diagnosing a problem, rather than swapping parts until something works.
• Safe systems of work: permits, isolations and lock-off procedures are second nature. That matters on any site, and especially in critical environments.
• Planned maintenance discipline: routines are completed and recorded properly, not skipped when the day gets busy.
• Working alone: comfort being the only engineer on site, on shift, and making sound decisions without someone to ask.
• Reliability: turning up on time, prepared, and seeing a job through.

These are the qualities that make a static engineer valuable on a hospital, data centre or 24/7 commercial site, and they are hard to teach in an interview.

Where the gaps usually are

Military experience does not always map neatly onto civilian requirements, and it is better to be honest about that up front.

• Civilian tickets: clients and their insurers want to see 18th Edition, F-Gas, Gas Safe, L8 water hygiene or an NVQ Level 3 by name. Military training may cover the same ground without carrying the same certificate, so some engineers use their resettlement period to close those gaps.
• Terminology: a service CV is often written in language a civilian FM manager will not recognise. Trade titles, ranks and equipment names need translating into what the role actually involved.
• Commercial environment: working to contract SLAs, logging jobs through a helpdesk or CAFM system, and dealing directly with a client's building users can be new. Most engineers adapt quickly, but it is worth acknowledging at interview.

None of these is a reason not to hire. They are things to plan for.

How we assess ex-forces candidates

We screen ex-forces engineers in exactly the same way as everyone else. Before anyone is shortlisted we check the tickets a role needs, and candidates sit our in-house technical test: around 60 questions across electrical fundamentals, safe working and legislation, water systems and L8, HVAC and refrigeration, and controls and BMS.

Where an engineer's experience is strong but their CV undersells it, we help translate it, so the client sees the plant they have maintained and the responsibility they have held in terms that match the job description. Where a required ticket is missing, we say so clearly rather than leave it for the client to find.

What this means if you're hiring

If you have struggled to fill static, shift or critical-environment roles, it is worth widening your search to service leavers. Be clear about which tickets are essential on day one and which you would support someone to gain. Be willing to look past an unfamiliar CV format, and use a technical interview to test what the engineer can actually do. Our consultants can tell you which ex-forces candidates are available in your region and how their experience lines up against your role.

What this means if you're leaving the forces

Your experience is in demand, but it needs to be presented in a way civilian employers recognise. Before you leave, check which civilian qualifications your target roles ask for and use your resettlement time to gain the ones you are missing. Rewrite your CV around the systems you maintained and the responsibility you carried, not ranks and acronyms. Then talk to a recruiter who understands both worlds.

Talk to us

If you are hiring engineers, Send us a vacancy (/submit-a-vacancy) or call us on 0203 583 3099. If you are leaving the forces or have recently left, browse our live roles (/job-results) or call the same number to speak to a consultant about where your experience fits.

To everyone who has served, and to the families who supported them: thank you.