Rowing across a current: A veteran’s thoughts on transitioning into the creative media sector.
In ocean rowing, a relatively new sport where a team or individual row a small self-contained vessel from one side to another; a common misunderstanding is that your effort is producing the entirety of the forward motion.
The reality is a little further from the truth; you’re never really rowing across an ocean. Instead, you’re just adding a few extra knots of speed on top of an already fast flowing current heading in that general direction. The force of the ocean is providing the majority of the forward momentum – you’re just adding some extra speed on top of it and setting the correct bearing to get you to your intended destination.
Introduction
In her article, ‘It’s Hard to Be What You Can’t See’, Marian Wright Edelman asserts that kids need to be exposed to a wide range of writing that reflect the true diversity of the way the world really is. This perspective is useful to help explain why some veterans don’t venture far from employment that they know as a result of their service – and possibly why some organisations that have low numbers of veterans, may come to unfair assumptions of someone who has served in the military.
As a veteran myself, I spent 12 years in the military – both the Army as a non-commissioned soldier in the Royal Military Police for 6 years and the other half as an officer in the Royal Marines (part of the Royal Navy). As something of an outlier (having spent 50% of my career on a different employment contract in a different service), I feel I have quite a unique viewpoint on this topic.
Based on my understanding of the previous rounds of SDSRs and the recent integrated review; my opinion is that the British military may see further reductions in staff over the coming decade, as it shifts focus to unmanned vehicles, artificial intelligence and cyber defence.
Therefore, by documenting my thoughts and experiences of transition during my (first) global pandemic, I can start to explore thorny issues such as how veterans are perceived by the public in non-conventional fields - such as creative media – and it may be of some use to service leavers in the future as I navigate it.
Training to row over 3500 miles across the Atlantic ocean, image kindly produced by Dom Garton
How are we veterans perceived by the creative sector?
At first glance, a distinct lack of visible veterans in the creative sector is concerning and suggests to me that Hollywood films, unconscious bias and mass media representation (which appears largely negative from my perspective) might provide some of the starting point for how the public (but more specifically, hiring managers) see us.
Ocean rowing can be a good metaphor for this particular transition:
If the current is pushing you towards a certain vocation; the effort you put in to resist it and move towards an alternative direction can feel exhausting as it yields little visible results compared to other boats that are travelling specifically in the direction that the current is travelling in.
Negative stereotypes
I’m acutely aware that negative stereotypes of veterans are out there and harder to act against in some sectors over others. The focus on recent conflicts of the last decade, coupled with negative stereotypes might be out there and now having a corrosive effect on those wanting to join the creative sector.
To get a wider perspective, I posed the question of how veterans are perceived in the creative sector to my other veterans and received the following notable responses:
N.B Whilst most of the above examples are those in their forties, fifties and sixties there are a couple in their thirties.
How it can feel transitioning between very different sectors somedays!
Perspective 1. ‘In general, I’ve found the ‘creative industry’ has a narrower, more clichéd view of veterans than the other more usual routes of employment (who knew the world needed so many Project Managers!?).
I don’t think this is due to any narrow-mindedness or bias but rather a lack of experience of working alongside service leavers. Fewer and fewer people in society have a direct connection to the Military, so more people make their own estimations of people that have served based on what they read or see on TV.
Those of my friends in finance, banking or construction have often worked with ex-Military colleagues or even been on schemes setup specifically for that kind of background but outside of a fairy narrow field of employment this familiarity with what one actually does in the Army is often lacking. In my experience I’ve often found it easy to lean into this, getting jobs by highlighting my ability to organise and plan under pressure and once my foot is in the door I’ve had more of chance to show my creative side.’
Perspective 2. ‘When I left the Army, I had spent six years as a Physical Training Instructor. I had a raft of military and civilian qualifications to my name and had been running the Gymnasium in its entirety in [ location omitted ].
When I interviewed for jobs I was asked on multiple occasions if I was going to shout at the members of the sports complex.
It seemed to me that no matter the amount of experience and qualifications that we had, we were still seen as a threat with the potential to be aggressive. I later moved to America where that did not seem to be an issue. For many years it put a dent in my confidence.’
Perspective 3. ‘Military personnel tend to move into supporting jobs in the creative industries rather than purely creative positions. I think that's because they tend to be better than average at logistics, management and the technical side, as those are the positions where they have the most experience.
The military doesn't tend to nurture or value the creative side enough, which is one of many reasons I decided to leave. Even the language we use is regimented and fixed, which is the opposite of creative. I'd go as far as to suggest that for most people, the military restricts development in the creative/individual sphere in order to make them more logical/hive minded.
Obviously out of necessity, but it doesn't make us great creatives on the whole. My job is a technical adviser, but I really get a kick out of being creative within that. Writing lines of dialogue and devising awesome camera shots makes me happy.’
Perspective 4. ‘When I first left the military, I tried to get in to the creative industry as a documentary assistant producer - this is more of a technical creative role rather than and artistic one - but I found many barriers to entry.
One of the main "behaviours" that my TV colleagues were fearful of was the assumption that I would try to command and or control. That I would be the shouty man of [ another’s] anecdote. And I can see why - as [ name omitted ] says the main skills I had when leaving the military were about logistics, management and admin - to be able to do that well on a TV shoot (when there is no money and so you are often single handed) requires that you are terse, direct and keep many spinning plates in your head. So I was often frustrated, distracted and more than a little overwhelmed.
Thus I became the shouty man that was predicted.’
Analysis - views on veterans
At the most extreme, I suspect the way we - veterans - are portrayed in films and TV, in news and on documentaries is as alcoholic; right-wing; often angry; PTSD-suffering and occasionally ending up homeless.
Interestingly, The Independent suggests:
‘According to a recent study by the University of York’s Centre for Housing Policy, the number of rough sleepers with a services background has fallen from around 25 per cent in 1994 to just 3 per cent today.’ (1)
Therefore, the generation of people that saw such a high percentage of veterans as rough sleepers in the 1990s are now in their 40s, 50s and 60s – meaning that they’re quite possibly CEOs, heads of HR departments, business partners and hiring managers now. Hopefully they’re aware and have mitigated potential negative unconscious bias of veterans. My suspicion is that it will have been replaced by some but not all.
Those who have successfully made the transition
Whilst a quick trawl of the internet suggests there aren’t many veterans that have made the successful transition fully into the creative sector and retained their overt connection to the military; there are few high-profile cases:
1. Actor Adam Driver.
A former US Marine who was medically discharged following a mountain bike accident, Driver is most famous for playing lead character ‘Kylo Ren’ in the last three films of the Star Wars franchise, set up the not-for-profit ‘Arts in the Armed Forces’ (1,3) to help veterans get into the creative sector.
2. The British comedian Sir Billy Connolly CBE.
Connolly is understood to be a former member of the 15th (Scottish) Battalion, the Parachute Regiment (15 PARA), Army Reserves (then referred to as the Territorial Army) however details very little about his time with the regiment. (2,7)
3. Guitarist Jimi Hendrix
The late American guitarist was a paratrooper with 101st Airborne division and stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky for a year before being discharged due to an ankle injury (5).
My own experience of being stereotyped
In some parts of the military, Officers are sometimes portrayed as being born into high society, with a second income, large and powerful network and a burning desire to work in ‘the city’.
As a former officer, I’ve always been aware that people might assume that I was born straight into a middle-class household (or as some soldiers suggest with ‘a silver spoon in my mouth’). The reality is that couldn’t be further from the truth: I actually grew up in a single parent household on a social housing estate occasionally in receipt of free school lunches.
When I first left transitioned from the Royal Marines, I long suspected that in trying to join the charitable (aka the ‘third sector’) was possibly hampered by a short-sighted stereotype that isn’t reflective of who I am. Whilst I feel I had the qualifications for the roles I was applying for, my suspicion was that hiring managers thought I might bulldoze my way over other people’s perspective if I joined their charity.
A challenge with transitioning into a sector where there aren’t many other people from similar backgrounds, is that there is no one to mitigate against harmful stereotypes.
I don’t believe that it’s entirely impossible to do – progress can be made, however it’s energy-intensive, slow and far easier to go with the current instead of across it (i.e. into a field that values your perceived skill set lower than the one you’re being carried towards). Hopefully unconscious-bias-aware processes are starting to reduce their harmful effects.
Summary
‘You can’t be what you can’t see’ Marian Wright Edelman
The situation is highly nuanced. Anecdotally, it’s easier for service leavers to find themselves in security and sectors similar to the military than it is to row across the current pulling us in that direction. However, some of us want to take the more challenging route in order to grow.
I have no tangible proof to back up my suspicion that some parts of the creative sector may be more prone to unconscious bias than others than others – however it would be an interesting study with which to craft transition policy for those interested in exploring new waters.
However, I do believe the MOD would benefit from further research to investigate what the perception of veterans is in different sectors of society at large – so that future generations of service leavers can make a smooth transition without burning through so much deliberating as I have.
References:
2. Billy Connolly biography accessed at https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0175262/bio
3. Driver, A (2015), ‘My journey from Marine to actor’ accessed at www.ted.com/talks/adam_driver_my_journey_from_marine_to_actor?language=en
4. Edelman, MW (2016), ‘It’s Hard to Be What You Can’t See’ in The Huffington Post. Accessed at www.huffpost.com/entry/its-hard-to-be-what-you-c_b_8022776
5. ‘Famous veterans: Jimi Hendrix’ accessed at www.military.com/veteran-jobs/career-advice/military-transition/famous-veterans-jimi-hendrix.html
6. Green, C (2014) ‘Homeless Veterans Christmas Appeal: Drifting and forgotten – turning lives around for ex-soldiers’ in The Independent accessed at www.independent.co.uk/voices/campaigns/homeless-veterans/homeless-veterans-christmas-appeal-drifting-and-forgotten-turning-lives-around-ex-soldier-9883110.html
7. Thomson, G, (2017) ‘Billy Connolly – a life in pictures’ in the Daily Record accessed at www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity/gallery/billy-connolly-life-pictures-10634107
