19 Years and Counting

19 Years and Counting

Well, it may come to some of you as a bit of a surprise that I started Ex-Mil Recruitment Ltd over 19 years ago, and to be honest I actually forgot and was shocked that I received over 50 messages that day congratulating me.

 

It got me thinking of why I started Ex-Mil Recruitment up in the first place and how the last almost two decades have gone.

History, I was a fairly good recruiter who was just chugging along speaking to people and matching up candidates to companies, and making a decent living off of it, when I got made redundant for the 3rd time in 4 years because I worked with small recruitment companies and never with the big players as I would never fit in to the corporate world.


I looked around and saw a niche in the market that when I spoke to people, they said it would never fly, there is not enough demand for such a company, it would not work etc., so I decided to take a gamble and 19 years I am still here.


I have prided myself on only placing veterans into roles, don’t get me wrong, I was tempted especially in the early days to place civilians as well, but I resisted temptation and tried to move heaven and earth to find a suitable veteran candidate, with a mixture of success.

 

So why did I do it, well for one it was not to get rich, the number of military veterans in the working population looking for a new role is always going to be a small percentage of the whole. The real reason I started this company up was to try and help folks get more and better opportunities than was on offer to me when I left in 1994, (I know I am an old fossil) and in the early days it seemed I was a lone voice in the wilderness.

 

Go forwards now almost 20 years, and there now seem to be a multitude of different voices and strategies out there for veterans, so instead of being one of the very few voices, there now seems to be a chorus, some helpful and others out for a quick buck, I have seen other Veteran Recruitment companies appear and then disappear a short time later, be bought up by others or in extreme cases, like a phoenix go into liquidation and rise again with a slight chance of name and continue as before.

 

After all of this time, I can still sleep well at nights, knowing that I have done everything I can to try and improve the chances of service personnel when the leave or have left the service, either directly or indirectly with companies now seeing the benefits and abilities of us and how we can adapt and grow within their companies to the betterment of both sides is fantastic.

 

So, where do I go from here, to be honest I don’t know, my kids jokingly said to me, I would retire feet first in a wooden box, as I said I don’t want to be the richest man in the graveyard, but as long as I am having fun and helping people I will carry on, and I hope that I can continue to help former Army, Navy or RAF find their feet in civvi street.

If you are leaving the forces, or you need any help trying to find veterans for your roles, please feel free to reach out to us. Or if you have liked this piece, again please let me know.

Patrick Benham-Crosswell

Proven, Entrepreneurial CEO & Managing Director

9mo

Always good to hear that you're thriving JC.

Austin Compson-Bradford

International advisor security and crowd safety at Sword Security Group

9mo

well done and what a great job you do

Russ Crowley

Premium Ghostwriter | Microsoft Word Specialist | ex-Soldier | Dog Lover

9mo

Well-played, JC, and it is all about the journey.

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Reply
Tim Jenkins (CMILT)

Senior Consultant at TVS Supply Chain Solutions, Activity & Resource Planning and Repair Manager at Defence Equipment & Support, CMILT

9mo

Well JC a I have no doubt you have helped many Veterans in their quest after Service for which undoubtedly if it wasn’t for your endeavours life would have been significantly more challenging so very well done and I for one thourghly appreciate the time and effort you put in. Sadly however there are still companies out there who have very little understanding when they see a CV from an ex serviceman and because of their lack of understanding they are not prepared to offer an opportunity. It would be good if companies were to apply themselves better in understanding what we can offer. Anyway please continue the good work JC.

Nice one mate. Keep going while you are enjoying it.

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