Honoring Remembrance day
CARA BRICKWORK LIMITED are really keen to help ex-army personnel get back into ‘civvy street’ so when we got a chance to interview a guy who wanted to look to come back in the construction industry after 7 years out in the Army, we were really keen to give him a chance.
Mitch originally spent 7 years as a Bricklayer before pursuing his Army career and wanted to get into the management side upon his exit from the Army. Mitch has now been working for Cara now for several months and he is quickly finding his feet as an assistant site manager.
With it coming upto Remembrance Day, Nick Mather caught up Mitchell Thomson an Ex-Army soldier who now works for Cara and presented him with an ACS Stainless Steel Fixings Ltd ‘miniature soldier’ and had a brief chat with him about Army, Bricklaying and everything else:-
Nick – Why did you chose a bricklaying apprenticeship when you left school?
Mitch – I worked on building sites through my summer holidays and bricklaying was the trade I enjoyed the most.
Nick – When did you join the British Army and how long was you in service?
Mitch – I joined in July 2015 and worked my way to a Lance Bombardier then left in September 2022.
Nick – Why did you chose bricklaying management to pursue a career in when you left the British Army?
Mitch – Before I joined the Army I worked as a bricklayer for 7 years and really enjoyed it on sites, overcoming challenges, so when I was planning to leave the Army I decided to pursue the management side and got myself a SMSTS and 1st Aid courses so I would be ‘employable’ when I left the Army.
Nick – Why did you choose Cara Brickwork when you were looking to start a career in a bricklaying Managerial role?
Mitch – I saw Cara was advertising for Site Managers on LinkedIn, so I done some research before applying for a position. A few things that stood out to me – firstly was the length of time the company has been operational, secondly was the size of the schemes they had built through the years and lastly but defiantly not the least was the charity work they do, raising money for charity is something I’m passionate about and something I want to do more of. I’m looking forward to being on Cara’s next ‘charity challenge’ whatever that maybe.
Nick – What has been the most challenging thing about your new role as Assistant Site Manager at Cara Brickwork?
Mitch – I think just coming into the management side was my first challenge as I had never managed on a construction site before albeit as I was well versed with working in a team in the Army, but my most challenging is working on a high rise commercial building as previously I had only ever worked on Houses so I had never really worked with masonry support, Non-combustible cavity trays and working on Mast climbers.
Nick – Are you enjoying your new role as Assistant Site Manager at Cara Brickwork?
Mitch – Yes definitely, everyone has made me feel very welcome and helped me with anything that I have needed and I’m looking forward to building my career with the company.
Nick – Where would you like to see yourself in 5 years’ time?
Mitch – I certainly want to see myself climbing the ladder at Cara and running my own Hi Rise multi million pound masonry packages like Islington Wharf 4.
Mitch continued to say – “I would like to thank you for the ACS Stainless Steel Fixings Ltd miniature soldier, it means a lot to me coming up to this day when so many soldiers lost their lives protecting and serving for this country. I would also like to thank Caroline Logan from BuildForce Programme, Project Reece which helps ex-army personnel get into work when leaving the army and Neil Allen who believed in me and took a chance on me when I had no previous experience in management.”
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