Work After the Navy
The Navy and almost everything else in my life ended in May of 1985, however I was determined to sort my life and somehow pick things up.
There was a navy careers and resettlement office which offered help for me. I decided my best career assets were my electronics knowledge and my skill of hand at fixing things. I also decided I wanted to move well away from Scotland, ideally to Portsmouth where I knew the area and had friends who did not know about my drama back in Scotland.
Lots of options and ideas were going through my mind however I found a job advert in the office for an Electronics Technician in Guildford. This suited my skills and was close enough to Portsmouth. I applied for the job.
However I had also found an advert on Teletext for a job in Staines. I called them, they said to come in for an interview whenever you like. I went along, they asked me a couple of easy questions about an electronics circuit diagram, I told them I had been a sonar maintainer in submarines and they said you obviously know what you are doing, start tomorrow. The interview took a couple of minutes and I didn’t even get asked my name. This was a bit weird.
Anyhow I was keen not to be unemployed any longer and to move south. I knew I could leave this job as quickly as I started. I was to be constructing heavy duty 3 phase control panels, switch panels, fuse panels etc for industrial premises. I rapidly found a room to rent in Slough and got started. When I arrived they just said help those guys there and that was it, not even a few seconds to introduce me to the company. I rapidly learned that the guys I was supposed to help were external contractors couldn’t follow the diagrams and specification and were mostly useless. By the end of the week the three external contractors I was helping had been fired and I was doing the job by myself. I finished this construction job during the next couple of weeks and left the company. They did eventually take my name, other details and pay me.
I had also been called for a formal interview for the Technician job and passed it. In July of 1985 I started the job, initially it was very successful I did well and got good pay rises. I was commuting from Slough but found a house in Guildford. I moved in November 1985 and I am still living in it now.
This technician job was with an independent company of engineers and business analysts who provide solutions to business problems and to the armed forces through advanced technology.
Customers came to us with a problem; we had very highly qualified staff mostly with doctorates in Engineering and Maths subjects. We did some research into the problem, mostly theoretical and gave the customer a document on how to solve his problem. Most of the problems came from the armed forces and were to do with designing new state of the art equipment, sensors and weapons. In later years we also got a number of contracts from large organisations mostly to do with transport of all kinds and communications.
To aid this theoretical research we had an electronics lab to try out ideas, build prototypes and bits of trials kit for the customer to experiment with. My job was to start with the design from the engineer, obtain all the parts needed, build the circuit or whatever was needed. Sometimes these circuits needed boxes with power supplies, cooling, wiring looms etc. etc. Sometimes I needed to get outside contractors to make special parts. I did it all and gave the engineer back his design turned into real life for him to experiment with. The company’s web site is now www.detica.com however it is very different from when I worked there in the 1990’s.
Although I had a lot less free time than in the navy, the working hours and free time was predictable and I could plan holidays and other things.
By the early 1990’s my job and I had stagnated somewhat but it still progressed OK. Any thought of promotion was impossible; I was the only technician in the company. In the late 1990’s I got involved in a relationship. This unfortunately went downhill and by 1999 there was so much going on and stress in my life outside of work I was constantly tired, late and unable to do my job properly. In early 2000 my partner died and I was unable to recover my job situation which therefore ended in the summer of 2000.
I haven’t done any real work since but I have been used on a few occasions for medical experiments which has earnt me a few thousand.
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