Meet Our Ex-Forces Consultant Christopher Rice

Christopher Rice served in the British Army for 15 years before being untimely discharged on medical grounds. He joined FDM on the recommendation of an army friend who was employed with FDM at the time. Christopher is currently working as a scrum master for a national bank. He shared his story of moving from the army to a civilian role and the experiences he had on his journey

Time in the FDM Academy

Christopher joined the FDM Ex-Forces Advanced Programme during the COVID-19 pandemic in a cohort of 12 other colleagues. The course was fully remote and offered PSM1 (Professional Scrum Master 1) training and certification as well as CV and interview preparation. Christopher found this professional- skills training particularly useful as it allowed him to translate his military experience into corporate language. The PSM1 training was also beneficial for his current role as Scrum Master. He believes that the dedicated time he had in the FDM PODs with the opportunity to simulate Live in-house and role-specific scenarios prior to interviewing was instrumental in his success at landing the role.

Placement on client site

Christopher works as Scrum Master for 2 teams of AWS Infrastructure Developers, based in the UK, Poland and India. He recalls that a vast amount of his military career was an Agile journey and this experience directly translates to his current role. In his day-to-day role he facilitates Agile ceremonies and helps his team unblock any impediments to their work. Through collaboration and fostering of the Agile Scrum values within the team, he enables them to become a more self-managing and cohesive unit,

Working together as a team  

Christopher enjoys helping his team with any challenges they face – from simple signposting or facilitating meetings to being involved in complex working groups to find the root cause and solution. Christopher says, ‘Seeing my team succeed for our stakeholders and not only delivering value to the business but also gain experience and satisfaction for themselves really gives me a sense of job satisfaction.’

Becoming a Wellbeing Champion 

One of the main highlights of Christopher’s current placement is his role as a volunteer to provide mental health training and guidance to his team which subsequently spread to the wider business area. Following his initiative Christopher has been selected as the Domain’s Wellbeing Champion, delivering both training and guidance on physical, mental and social wellbeing to 400 people. He attributes the success of this role to having good people skills and emotional intelligence – both of which he gained through his military service.

Learnings from the army

Christopher reflects on the many similarities between work in the military to project management. He says, ‘much of what happens in the military, from deploying on operations to conducting physical or technical training is very “waterfall” in terms of Project Management. However, he adds that ‘a large percentage of what happens in the military is very reactive and this is where I believe I learnt a great deal about being and thinking “agile”.’

The journey with FDM 

Christopher acknowledges FDM and the Ex-Forces team for being instrumental in his transition into civilian work. He recalls that being discharged from the military much earlier than he had anticipated, had left him anxious about his future. He adds that the FDM Ex-Forces team ensured he was fully aware of what to expect from them and in turn what was expected of him. He felt supported throughout his training with regular catch-ups with both the wider ex-forces team and his account manager.

Parting tips

‘Do not fear that you do not have the knowledge needed to look into a career in tech. With the right attitude and support you can learn and thrive in a new and exciting industry where the avenues for progression are only limited by your aspirations.’

Christopher Rice

The FDM Ex-Forces team is run by people who have had military careers themselves with the right attitude and sensibility to assess your skill set and aspirations and guide you on your career journey.

At FDM we welcome service leavers, military veterans, serving reservists, ex-police personnel, and their spouses to apply to our programme. Over 750+ Ex-Forces personnel have joined our programme since 2014.

So, if you’re looking for a new challenge after leaving the forces, apply to our Ex Forces Programme today.