With Australia’s military commitments overseas winding down – just two days ago it was announced that the military’s Tarin Kowt base in Afghanistan was to be closed – there will be a large number of soldiers looking for work on civilian street.

Chauvel Group managing director James McMahon, who left the army as Lieutenant-Colonel in charge of the Special Air Services regiment, believes companies do not understand what ex-military people have to offer.

“Anyone can pick up skills,” he said.

“I’ve found military people understand instructions well. They’ve had to do that during their whole career.”

McMahon said they also understood context well – not just what their role was but how it fitted into the larger picture.

Another benefit of former military personnel, he said, was that they were used to the rigours of living away from home on remote sites.

“They’ve already developed the coping mechanisms for that,” McMahon said.

Better yet, he said, their families already had developed their coping mechanisms too.

When a typical military posting can be six months on and two weeks off, a two weeks on, one off roster becomes a bit of a doddle.

McMahon said he had two clients, whose identities he would not divulge, looking to staff their operations with former military personnel.

One is a major player and the other is a mid-tier miner.

“One is starting a new site and they have the luxury of choosing their people and setting the culture they want there from the start,” McMahon said.

While Chauvel is looking to help link companies with Australian military personnel, McMahon said there were opportunities to get members of foreign militaries involved, too.

But Firefox Talent’s Nick Sutton said that might not be so easy.

Firefox set up with the aim of bringing former British military personnel into Australia on 457 visas to work in the resources sector.

Sutton said the company was probably about six months behind the curve.

It started up at a time when iron ore prices started to soften and the debate over 457 visas started to heat up.

At the moment the Australian government is trying to make it much harder for companies to bring workers in on these visas.

The driver behind Firefox was the massive cuts to the British defence budgets that had left a number of defence personnel out of a job mid-way through their careers.

Sutton, who also comes from a military background, has a similar view of the capabilities of military personnel to McMahon.

He said people often thought of military people as running around with a rifle in a field but their skills were often much broader than that.

“They don’t understand the huge technical ability and the huge logistical ability of these that is waiting there to be used,” Sutton said.

“It’s mind boggling what these guys are expected to do in very short time frames with very limited funds.”

Sutton said the company had enjoyed some success with former British military personnel who had come to Australia on residency visas, which may be the way forward for others looking for resource roles.