Continuous Learning in the Military and Tech Industry: A Veteran's Perspective

Never start from scratch. That's what I tell myself when picking my next challenge. There's usually something to carry forward from a past endeavour that will be helpful in the next. In this post, I'm reflecting on how experience with continuous learning in the Royal Canadian Navy transfers to the software industry.

Mandatory learning

Technical training

I enrolled under the non-commissioned member subsidized education plan (NCM SEP). I finished an accelerated college program and earned my diploma as an electronics engineering technologist. Then, there were the:

• Navy bridging courses
• man aloft and lockout while ashore
• technician of the watch while sailing
• QL3 course for juniour electronics technicians
• machinery control room watchkeeper for duty watches
• QL5 course to specialize in a combat systems department

The list above is just the education required for the trade I signed up for. I retired from the military as a master sailor. There would have been more mandatory technical training like the QL6 courses, leadership training, language training, etc. I would have done what it took to climb the ranks. That's what I signed up for. I expected to be learning throughout my whole career.

Skills training

The military needs more than technical training to become a soldier and a sailor. There were a lot of general skills to acquire.

When working with career transition services to update my resume, I wrote a nine-page document reflecting on every position I remember serving in. I reread this document and realized I left out mandatory training like first aid, weapons handling, chemical warfare, etc. Every soldier had to have these skills.

On top of the skillset a soldier must acquire, a sailor must fill multiple roles while sailing. Throughout my career, I had to learn how to handle lines, operate different cranes, respond to damage control scenarios, react to battle scenarios, and so much more.

I am trying to remember a year when I didn't have to undergo new training or a refresher course to keep my skills up-to-date. I can't. The learning and relearning/reinforcement was constant.

Voluntary training

When I was ahead on the required training, I pursued extra roles to keep busy. My motivation was to be more multi-skilled than your typical sailor.

I completed the challenging ship's team diver course to use it as a stepping towards applying to become a clearance diver. I did apply and received an invitation to the clearance diver selection process, but I declined to try out. (As an aside, in another universe where I didn't leave the military a few years later, I imagine I would have reapplied and be a clearance diver right now)

I have had many voluntary responsibilities throughout my career. I accepted a unit HAZMAT coordinator role and completed all the training to serve in the position. I spent a few weeks as a court orderly, witnessing the military justice system in action. I spent months learning to manage inventory as a unit driver and storeman. I had a posting to a radio maintenance shop where we set up the sound systems for events, modified the public announcement systems in buildings, and maintained equipment in remote radio installations.

There was something to learn in every single role, which I thought was normal. Later in my career, I realized that it wasn't the norm. Many sailors were okay with not pursuing these roles, which broadened my breadth of experience.

After the military

When contemplating leaving the military, I realized all my options would require continuing education.

If I continued as an electronics engineering technologist, I wanted to pursue my civilian industry certifications credentials. Also, I would have brushed up on the technologist's skillset since I was only a technician. On top of that, I considered finishing another year of university to go from technologist to engineer.

Ultimately, I left the military by taking my chances with a veteran-friendly company, WithYouWithMe. They had an exciting opportunity to upskill in cybersecurity and break into the tech industry.

Tangent: you could argue that all my experience around electronics counts towards years of experience in the tech industry; I'm working on processing this.

From my conversations with the recruiters and my research about the tech industry, I understood that embracing continuing education as I did in the military would be beneficial in succeeding with this career change.

How it's going

I was right about the constant learning.

After doing all the WithYouWithMe cybersecurity analyst training, I pivoted into a cloud ops role. I had the opportunity to collaborate with Microsoft contractors. Through multiple small projects, I learnt about cloud architecture, artificial intelligence, web development, etc.

It irked me that I didn't understand some of the code we were implementing. So, I signed up for a coding bootcamp to fill that knowledge gap. Learning to code made me more effective in my current role, and it's something that I can use for building personal projects.

Currently, I have experience in operations and a quickly growing skillset as a developer. I'm worried about the current state of the tech industry. Naturally, I'm preparing for the inevitable job search, and it would be easier if I narrowed my skill set further. So, I'm focusing on building up a DevOps skillset. To do this, I'm not starting from scratch. I'm building on top of my current skills.