What life after the army? It’s not always easy to return to the traditional job market… At 47, Cédric, a former soldier, had to learn to “sell” himself and translate his skills. A shift that he was able to initiate thanks to a specialized firm. He tells us.
A little over ten years ago, Cédric made a 180-degree turn in his professional life. At the age of 40, this former soldier – more precisely a former combat swimmer – decided to hang up his uniform after being shot and wounded during a mission. A shock, but also a click. He then realizes that it might be the right time to turn the page, take advantage of this way out and try something new.
Before thinking about his professional reconversion, Cédric had an unusual career within the special forces of the French Navy. A former commando swimmer, he was one of this handful of highly trained men capable of intervening where few venture. Their field of action? It is divided into two main types of missions: those carried out under the direct authority of the Navy, often focused on the fight against piracy or drug trafficking on the high seas, and those, more confidential, orchestrated by the Special Operations Command (COS). These can include ground infiltrations, releases of hostages or even assaults carried out from the air.
Within this elite, combat swimmers occupy a very special place. “Their specificity, in addition to that, is to be able to carry out infiltrations or underwater actions, therefore under the sea“, he explained clearly. A constant commitment but which does not necessarily lead to a crazy salary as one might think.
“I was, all bonuses included… around 3000 euros, even a little more“, he told us. In this environment, remuneration depends mainly on bonuses, which vary according to the missions, qualifications or unit of assignment. “There, what will cause the bonuses is if you are in a parachute unit. For example, there you have a bonus which is linked to the fact of parachuting” he specified. The basic salary remains aligned for all soldiers, at equivalent rank and seniority. For a lieutenant under contract, it takes €2,618 gross per month after a first year in the regiment, excluding bonuses, according to data from the Ministry of the Armed Forces.
But, after spending years traveling the seas and conflict zones, an injury suddenly stops his trajectory. “I was injured by a bullet during training. I could hardly return to operational units“, he recalled. Cédric then chose to leave the army, but he did not turn his back on his passion for the sea. He began a career change in recreational diving and spent three years supervising outings in the South of France. A radical change of scenery, but not so easy to reconcile with his family life. “My children lived in Paris while I was in the South of France. When you do leisure jobs, you work when others are on vacation. So basically, from Easter to the end of summer, I didn’t see my children“, he noted.
It was in this context that he came into contact with the Pépite firm, founded by Clément Têtu, a specialist in military retraining. Pépite’s objective: to help former enlisted personnel identify, promote and transfer their skills acquired in the army to the civilian world. A sort of professional translator between two worlds which do not always speak the same language. For Cédric, this is a turning point. Thanks to this boost, his operational experience takes a new form on his CV, with words that are more readable for recruiters.
And this time, the reconversion is bearing fruit. Cédric manages to gain a foothold in a world that remains close to his own, while promoting his technical and managerial skills. “Today, I worked for an underwater maritime exploration company with specific equipment as manager of a site in the Mediterranean.“, he said. A position of responsibility which allowed him to preserve his standard of living: “I tried to ensure, at the very least, that I kept my salary level from what I had in the army.“Each year, 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers leave the army around the age of 30,” assures the firm.
