From firing a gun to pushing a public service mouse

Jim Thatcher loved life in the army. He was a proper boots-on-the-ground soldier who served in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the end, he was invalided out.

As a reluctant civilian, another door opened to a very different sort of working life, one in the public service. It demanded a mental makeover.

In the artillery, he performed physical tasks and ordered others to perform physical tasks. In the public service, a desk rather than a big gun is his work station.

Transforming from a sergeant to a team leader (APS6, in public service speak) has been a big adjustment. It was a transition to a very different culture.

"In the army, you can pull them into line - give them a mouthful," he said.

But this is not the public service way. Polite conversations rather than barked orders are the civilian way.

To make the successful transition out of a military mindset, he was one of the first veterans on a new Department of Veterans' Affairs program called VetPaths.

Jim Thatcher, formerly in the artillery of the army, has undertaken a transition program into the public service. Picture by Elesa Kurtz

"It was tough to transition across," he says, "but it helped me a great deal. It helped me understand the civvy way of life."

Part of it was classroom training in the ways of the public service, but he was also mentored in a "buddy system" with veterans who had made the journey.

Being in the military does demand a lot of skill - but often it's skill learnt on the job and without a certificate. The transition to the public service meant gaining formal recognition of those skills.

"I'm an active hands-on type of person and to be stuck behind a desk was a culture shock," he said.

Being in the artillery was "full-on". In his 15 years in the army, he worked his way up to become a sergeant. He spent time in war zones and also time back in Australia training other soldiers.

"The biggest thing for me was that I was managing 80 to 100 people," he said.

Now it's two or three, "and they seem to be very self-sufficient".

In the army, problems present themselves, and need to be solved quickly without endless discussion and emails. It is not a meetings kind of place.

Jim Thatcher has made the transition. He is a successful public servant, imbued with civilian ways.

A new group of veterans is about to start the journey.