Employment means basically taking on another job, either full-time or part-time, that provides you with a regular income to hopefully meet with your financial and personal needs. Whatever your level of success turns out to be when looking for a new job or career, your salary is likely to be different to that which you have been used to. As we will see later, the level of income that you are satisfied with is relative to your new set of personal circumstances and it could be that you can afford to earn less or you may actually need to earn more, so it’s important to identify your requirements early on. Do this even before you start to apply for roles to ensure that you have a salary figure in mind that at least allows you and your family to get by.
A useful website for working out what tax and National Insurance you will pay is:
Remember that if you have a pension, then in order to ensure that you know the tax and National Insurance that you will be paying, you need to add your gross pension figure to any salary that you enter into the calculator.
What makes you of value to others?
Direct skills are specific skills that you have gained as a result of either training and development or by the nature of a specific role that you have worked in. These specific skills map across to a range of industries or types of work.
Economic Crime - Confiscation of criminal assets / money obtained from drugs etc). Relevant for Financial Services / Local Authorities / Advisory Groups / Regulatory Services.
Safeguarding - Protecting vulnerable people. Relevant for Charities / Local Authorities / Sports and Leisure / Education / Social Care Providers.
Intelligence - Collecting information. Relevant for Financial Services / Local Authorities / Advisory Groups / Regulatory Services / Investigative bodies / Security Organisations.
Disclosure. Relevant for Financial Services / Local Authorities / Advisory Groups / Regulatory Services / Police contracting out.
Forensics - Science-based crime solving. Relevant for Financial Services / Local Authorities / Advisory Groups / Regulatory Services / Police contracting out.
Training e.g. First Aid, H&S, Management / Soft Skills, Risk, Driving, Firearms, Public Order etc. Relevant for Financial Services / Local Authorities / Advisory Groups / Regulatory Services / Police contracting out / Agencies / Security industry / Education.
HOLMES2 - Crime Management Technology). Relevant for Police contracting out.
Fraud. Relevant for Financial Services / Local Authorities / Regulatory Services / Police contracting out / Security industry.
Investigative Interviewing - Interviewing about crimes or misconduct. Relevant for Financial Services / Local Authorities / Regulatory Services / Police contracting out / Security industry / Private Sector professional standards roles.
Human Resource Management. Relevant for HR roles in any organisation.
Operations Management. Relevant for Private and Public sector roles requiring managers to run operations, deal with large teams, processes etc.
Strategic Management - Implementing organisational goals and initiatives. Relevant for Senior public and private sector roles.
Indirect Skill Transfers
Indirect skills tend to be those that you have collected throughout your career and tend to go hand in hand with police work. It should be easier to evidence these without necessarily having undertaken specific training or carried out specific roles.
How to find a job?
There are a variety of ways to find a job and the best approach is to consider and use each of them to ensure that you become aware of the full range of jobs that are out there at any given time.
Job Centre – The walk-in centres have local jobs and the online version allows you to search further afield. Tend to be blue collar or lower paid administrative roles.
Recruitment Agencies – Good because they work with you on a personal level and are proactive in matching you to suitable roles.
Organisation vacancy lists – the larger organisations tend to advertise roles on their websites. You may also be able to sign up for job updates e.g. Merlin Entertainment Group (Alton towers etc) will mail you about any job types you are interested in.
Direct approach – even if organisations are not hiring, by sending them a covering letter and CV, outlining your interest, you may be placed on file and save them the time of advertising a role if you appear to meet the criteria.
Online search sites - There are a range of sites that organisations use to advertise their vacancies and the search facilities on them are excellent. The most notable ones are:
The same vacancy can appeal on multiple sites, so take care not to apply more than once for a particular job.
Settling into your new role
Once you start a new job, to help you quickly settle into the role, there are a few things that you can do. Firstly, try to mentally leave the police service behind you. When you walk out the door for the final time, you bring with you a valuable set of skills and experience, which should be your focus now. Don’t think of yourself as the ex-CID officer, instead think of yourself as one of the future top investigators in the private sector. It’s all about looking forward from now on. You don’t leave your skills and experience behind you but you should leave your job behind you as you are now a civilian focusing on what you can do for your new organisation. Being a former police officer carries with it a lot of credibility and attributes that can help you. Talking about when you were in the police service does not really do you any favours.
It also helps you to settle in to your new role if you are proactive. Be something that makes things happen rather than a person who things happen to. Get to know the key people for your role, read relevant policies and literature, accept offers of meetings, even social events outside of work hours as it quickens the process of you settling in and no longer being the new person.
Ask lots of questions. The newer you are the less daft questions there are so make sure you get all your questions in early because after a certain period of time, around 3 months, you are going to be expected to know the ins and outs of your job.
Don’t criticise or complain about anyone or anything. Be seen as a glass half full person by being positive about things and even when there is a setback, see it as an opportunity to learn. Don’t complain or moan about previous colleagues, managers or jobs – no-one will care and it can only do a disservice. Try to see the good in things and people will warm to you sooner and you will be part of the group that much quicker.
Help people when you can. Give before you receive and ensure that people see you as a useful member of the team and someone who adds value and helps others for no benefit to themselves.
Engage with your line-manager sufficiently to understand what your and their priorities are. You will ultimately be measured by what you deliver against your objectives so you need to be very clear about what they are. Look to have them in writing as soon as possible.
bluepathfinder@redsnappergroup.co.uk