16 August 2024
The stars aligned perfectly for an Army reservist to work in the cloud.
Facing redundancy in the civilian IT industry for the fourth time, Captain Brendan Mulgrew knew it was too good an opportunity to pass up when he saw the job of his dreams come up on ForceNet.
The third-generation soldier knew he wanted to join the Army since he was five years old.
By the time he was of age to join, IT jobs were not being offered in the Army, so he joined as a reservist to fulfil his service-to-country ambitions and went on to work as a civilian pursuing his education and career in the IT industry.
With more than 18 years in the Army Reserve, 15 years working in IT, and having been made redundant three times as part of restructuring in his corporate IT jobs, Captain Mulgrew decided to commission in 2022.
He was enticed to full-time service with the Directorate of Business Intelligence.
His current Army role of data hub engineer merges his two passions, working with cloud systems and serving his country, as well as offering him stability and career progression.
“With a young family, job security and growth was very important to me,” Captain Mulgrew said.
“It also helps that the salary is incredibly competitive in the market right now. In the Army, I make over 10 to 15K above what’s advertised in the IT employment websites for what is essentially the same job, without all the Army-related perks, such as free medical and subsidised medical for my wife and kids.”
Captain Mulgrew works on digitising solutions, enhancing Army’s data capabilities and automating Defence systems.
“I really enjoy the work. It is a different paradigm to what I was doing as a civilian,” he said.
“In some ways, there are more restrictions in Defence, but there is also more capacity to come up with creative solutions and provide real-life change, and that is very exciting.
“I get to put into practice the knowledge that I gained in my civilian career, with the military benefiting, and providing service to my country, of which I am very proud.”
