Careers
Mr Chris Forman
Age: 25
Job Title: Scientific Engineer
Organisation: QinetiQ
I was born in Nairobi under a wandering star and in the ensuing 25 years I've never stayed in the same place for more than five years. I've just spent the last year travelling the world on a years' special unpaid leave but I'm now back at QinetiQ as a scientific engineer based in Worcester where I'd already spent two years locating interference on communications satellites.
So why should anybody consider taking a "gap" year and what is to be gained? How did I achieve it? What adventures did I have on the way? What is it like coming back and what has the experience has done for me professionally?
Having gained an MPhys in mathematical physics from Edinburgh University - I specialised in Grand Unified Theories - I successfully acquired a job at QinetiQ (then DERA) to work in its geolocation department. I decided that satellite communications was a step in the right direction (towards space). There I learned an awful lot about putting my analytical skills, honed as a theoretician, into practice. I also learned a whole host of new disciplines such as communications, signal processing, satellite systems and orbital propagation.
Calculating the origins of far off signals, besides improving my geography, soon gave me a hankering to visit these places - so I asked my boss if I could take eighteen months off work. He agreed on the basis that when I returned I would stay for at least a year. Seemed fair enough to me!
This agreement was dually written down in two separate letters. One letter intended for the bank and stated clearly that I could have my job back when I returned. They other letter, for QinetiQ, stated quite clearly that, while it wasn't guaranteed, every effort would be made to find a place for me on my return, subject to the prevailing economic conditions. So everyone was as happy as could be!
I sold my car and asked the bank if I could stop my loan payments for a year and a half. I showed them the first letter and they said 'no'. Undaunted, I refinanced myself by switching banks to a bank that really said 'Yes'. I bought a round the world ticket, scraped together about a thousand pounds in spending cash. I bought a rucksack, a new pair of hike boots, a new toothbrush and set off.
In brief: I went to Moscow, St Petersburg and overland to Singapore via Beijing and Ulan Bator and then Australia, NZ, USA, Canada and home. On the way I camped in Siberia (-15C), rode a camel in the Gobi, went hot air ballooning, dived to 30m on the barrier reef, flew in a sea plane, hiked for hundreds of kilometres, drove 35,000km round Australia, climbed many mountains, swam with dolphins. I made a hiking stove out of a tin can - an act that saved my life. I got mugged and robbed (on separate occasions). I set fire to my car in the desert (accidentally) and put it out again, by myself, which saved my life again! I rode in a helicopter - a life long ambition. I learned to gallop on a horse. I even saw a Tasmanian devil eat a pencil, and all this was before I set myself up as a satellite communications consultant in Adelaide, with help from local contacts.
The consultancy worked very well for four months and it could have continued indefinitely but the world was my oyster. I'd learned that I could achieve things that seemed hopelessly unrealistic at first sight. So on to New Zealand for a month where I ran out of funds so came home via the states, with six months to spare and after scotching a plan to be a used car salesman.
In total I spent £15,000 - half of which I earned on the way - which was still less than I'd spend staying at home for the same duration. I definitely took the view that this was a once in a life time opportunity and that I wasn't going to hold back because I "couldn't afford it". I used all the funds I had access to and eagerly squeezed them dry.
Returning home was nice for about a week. I had a great deal of enthusiasm to get things done. I saw a lot of old friends and family members. However, I had to get a job quickly because I had little money left and large debts. I asked my old boss if I could have my old job back and he gave me the option of moving to a new department or back to my old one. I took the opportunity to move to a new department, this time studying the effects of the ionosphere on HF communications. This had the advantage that it was new to me and it felt like I was making progress. With my new job, and a modest pay rise, I refinanced my debts to make them manageable.
I didn't really know what I had learned on the way round until I came back. Instead of being a slave to a computer, a budget, a management plan or some kind of research drive I was just me for a whole year. It's good to remind yourself who you are and what is important to you (other people!). Now I know I have the responsibility and power to make decisions - I certainly don't need anyone else to tell me what to do. I have learned to be aware of my own opinion and to justify it to others. This is all made possible by learning to listen properly to other people.
This new found sense of accountability now finds me in charge of a team of programmers. Being a leader poses fresh challenges to my personality that were opened up to me by learning to take responsibility.
Taking a career break taught me that if you believe something can be done, and you can see a way of achieving it, then the only way you can follow that road is by determination to overcome the obstacles - one of which is to decide to do it!
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