Tony from our recruitment team joined the world of insurance after leaving the Royal Navy. As a member of our recruitment team, he reflects on his own career and how transferable skills across industries can help anyone re-route their own career path. I was brought up as a military child My grandfather was in the Army, my father was in the Royal Air Force so naturally when I left school I joined the Royal Navy. I served until 1982 then fell into financial services on the off chance after speaking to a chap who was setting up an insurance broker in my home town of Barry in South Wales, and I have been in financial services ever since, doing various roles from HR to project management, and customer service to IT. I joined Hastings as they were progressive company which reminded me of the time at the insurance brokers when I first left the Navy. In the four years I’ve now been with the company, I have seen significant growth – which has created fantastic opportunities for all colleagues to progress. All about teamwork Predominantly the military is all about teamwork and that is what is notably similar at Hastings. It feels very much that we are all one big team working towards the same goal. Also the structure of the military and discipline that it instils has helped me achieve success in my career and understand the 4Cs philosophy at Hastings – to do right thing by our colleagues, customers, the company and our community. Achieving challenging goals My initial role at Hastings was on the frontline as a Customer Representative, talking to customers every day. I liked talking to the wide variety of people that are insured with Hastings and surprisingly we do have a lot of military insured with us! I moved to recruitment because of my previous experience and the role is actually very similar to the Customer Representative, as I get to talk to lots of different people – just as potential colleagues instead of customers! Our team works together to achieve challenging goals – we are a small team but each of us brings our own personality and skills to the role, and it’s very evident that each of us really enjoys what we do. Think about your transferable skills For anyone who wants to join Hastings in whatever role – and the roles are so varied – my advice would be to choose an area that you have an interest in or have enjoyed previously, then the job doesn’t feel like a job. I enjoy my role because I like talking to people whether it be customers, candidates or colleagues. I find people fascinating and every individual has their own story to tell. Speaking as a recruiter, I find that ex-military personnel (like myself!) have a wealth of transferable skills, which I believe that can be adapted to a number of roles at Hastings. So if you’re looking for your next opportunity, take a look at our available roles and take a few moments to find out more about life at Hastings.