Time Served and never looked back
I served from 1970 through 1995 as a TG2, Air Comms and then became a Sim Tech guy, left when the Berlin wall was no longer a problem and the planners decided that my trade was no longer needed in uniform.
I was fortunate to have worked for over half my RAF career in F2/F3 software development/maint and last 7yrs as AWACS data center implemetation and management.
Why was I fortunate, simple, I planned ahead, saw the opportunities and made sure I got selected..
On leaving the RAF, like many others I had limited confidence in my capabilities, boy was I wrong.
I spent a couple of yrs as an IT director in a small brewery, then got hired by a US company working in the outsourcing business in Nottm.
In 2002 they moved me to Texas, promotions kept on coming, (no dead mans shoes - its all on merit), headhunters kept on tracking me down and I moved up the tree and now live in the Valley of the Sun (Phoenix Az)
Now some 16+yrs later after leaving the RAF I am a C level executive (COO) for a innovative global US company that is going public in 2012.
The RAF enabled me to be what I am today, but you need to work at it, never take anything for granted.
Guys - if I can be successful, you can too, looking back my dear mother reminds me that I failed the 11+, didn't study as a spotty teenager and only started to learn when I went to Cosford as an apprentice.