CivvyLife – James Murphy, CEO of TechVets
James was an Infantry soldier before serious injury obtained in Afghanistan, saw him transfer to Intelligence. After 19 years of Service he was medically discharged and is now CEO of Forces employment charity, TechVets.
How was resettlement?
I basically did everything I could. I got my degree in and various other courses under my belt.
When I decided enough was enough and I was leaving under medical discharge, I had three months and in that time I finalised my networking – I used TechVets primarily for that.
Can you tell us a bit about TechVets?
TechVets is a non-profit that helps build a bridge for Service-leavers and Veterans into cyber security and technology careers.
We want to build on the skills of Veterans to help them create a far more robust and capable cyber security industry.
Let’s talk about the cyber security industry…
The global cyber security market is expected to reach £210 billion by 2026, so it’s a very fast growing industry.
There’s been an increase in cyber attacks and a growing need among organisations to minimise their security risk because of the increase of new technology, smart devices and all of that. Add to that the impact of the pandemic and the fast forwarding by, on average, five years, of companies in their digital transformation programmes. There is definitely a lot of demand for having the right people in cyber security.
How are Service-leavers able to use their skills in the cyber security industry?
First and foremost, we’re talking about protecting people, protecting assets, protecting national infrastructure; who better!?
Veterans have spent their careers on the front line literally protecting the UK’s national interest. To defend the cyber front line is something that they are certainly already shaped for.
They have the right characteristics. The skills gap suggests those skills most in demand across businesses are the ones found in the Military: leadership, teamwork, social perceptiveness, flexibility and adaptability, ability to work in fast changing environments as well as judgement and decision making under pressure, grit and resilience and critical and logical reasoning. We’re also looking at a Military that is becoming more technical by the day.
How does TechVets operate?
Veterans sign up and come on to our new academy platform. They can then upskill and educate themselves on whatever pathway they wish to. That can be through any of the numerous training resources that we have on offer through our partnerships. All the services we provide are 100% free for members.
There are plenty of roles you can learn quite quickly through TechVets so come and talk with us. Use the community and learn the basics all the way through to the point of landing that first role.
TechVets: www.techvets.co
RFEA – The Forces Employment charity recently launched a new partnership with TechVets encouraging Veterans to consider tech and security-based roles that they may otherwise overlook.
