Introduction
Four years ago, I commissioned as an Officer in the UK's Royal Navy. I had been engaging with EA for four years before that and chose this career as a coherent part of my impact-focused career plan, and I stand by that decision.
Early next year, I will leave the Navy. This article is a round-up of why I made my choices, how I think military careers can sensibly align with an EA career, and the theories of impact I considered along the way that don't hold water. Military service won't be the right call for most in this community, but it could be for some. Hopefully, this is informative for those people. Furthermore, I spent a whole year being trained in leadership. Someone I met at an EAGx conference said the offhand nugget of Military Leadership 101 wisdom I gave them was the "best advice I received in the whole event". This is probably worth sharing.
Noting how unconventional my experience is for EAs, I also write this to help communicate the value of my CV to prospective employers.
A brief honourable mention to Molly for the only other EA forum post I have seen on this subject and John Fogle for taking a lot of initiative in cohering the burgeoning military EA community. A post of his can be found here.
Background
I discovered EA while studying for a BSc in Chemistry at the University of St Andrews. Most of 80000 Hours' top recommended career profiles did not appeal to me. My honours project taught me that I'm not a researcher, I don't have an interest in politics, and software has never been my thing. The one path I felt excited about was Operations for EA orgs, which became the strategic goal of my career planning.
Growing up, I wasn't exposed to career-oriented people and, in astounding naivety, thought internships were a negative signal on a CV; I spent each summer bartending. Following the prevalent advice to skill-build in consulting didn't work due to a lack of experience. Facing imminent graduation without employment against the backdrop of the first COVID lockdown, I seriously considered the military.
Unlike most jobs, the Armed Forces do not assess applicants in detail on their experience. An accountant at EY could easily get the equivalent job at KPMG because they can concretely show they are already doing the work. The norms of military hierarchy, working environment, and violent aims are too far removed from civilian life for anyone off the street to be competent in a Service role. Applicants must be judged by who they could become with military training, not who they already are. Compared with other professions, Officers are given responsibility unusually early in their career and take on a variety of tasks. Additionally, some roles are reliably undersubscribed. Hence, it is a uniquely promising way to build operations and management skills if you lack experience. Realistically, I would have either remained unemployed through 2020 and beyond or taken a job offering experience orthogonal to my career strategy. Hence, I firmly believe I made the right decision to join.
Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC)
Initial training for a Naval Officer lasts 8 months. Press-ups. Basic seamanship. Parade. Lung-busting HIIT sessions. Ironing. An oddly memorable lesson from the Royal Marines on "Why things get seen". While each component seemed like needless strife in isolation, the package as a whole delivers worthwhile results. Besides instilling teamwork values, it's designed to prove to a cadet how much they can get done and how applied to their work they can be. The defining quality of people who complete this training is that they will uphold whatever responsibilities are given to them. I'm also 8-0 up on spotting my friend Hannah in public before she sees me, so maybe the Marines had a point, too.
We are assessed through Personal Leadership Tasks, directing a small team to solve a time-bounded logistical problem. I was the Logistics Team Lead for the volunteers at EAGx Oxford 2022 and found the baked-in people management skills very helpful. At the end, the ever-compassionate Charlotte Darnell told me "You know you're allowed to relax", and my response, quite sincerely, was "I am relaxed. I've always been relaxed."
Around that time, I was back at the College for a professional course. This course had various awards available to highlight the competence of Young Officers showing particular promise. Everyone hopes to be the Senior Sub-Lieutenant of BRNC. Sadly, I was struck by the Curse of the Competent. I had submitted all my coursework by the halfway mark and was given the less glamorous position of College Duties Officer. The head of the Navigation School saw I was the person most likely to handle the workload my predecessor found oppressive. Fortunately, with 2 hours of spreadsheet-crafting and sensible delegation, I had the whole thing running on rails by the time Wednesday sport was over. A more easily understood accolade came at the end. I was presented the award for Best Navigator in my class of 15, having dropped only 17% across five exams that many Officers first attempt with scores around 40%.
Specialist Fleet Time
The next formative experience came from 6 months on two frigates, spent qualifying as an Officer Of the Watch (OOW). It was an apprenticeship to be the person on the bridge driving the ship, being responsible for its safety and that of her crew in all aspects. The OOW must synthesise many considerations and constraints into one plan: the navigational track, other ships, sea state, visibility, the ship's internal programme, propulsion limitations, engineering defects, radar tolerances, management of emergencies, and maritime law.
Preventing collision with other ships and maintaining navigational accuracy in particular require constant vigilance, leading to a ceaseless, high workload in dense shipping lanes or inshore waters. You spot a new contact through binoculars and take a compass bearing of it, committing it to memory. Crossing the bridge to the radar screen, you project its relative motion and predict the Closest Point of Approach. Next, you look at the navigational chart to see how this contact lies in relation to safe water. Another bearing confirms the assessments of the other sensors. If you will crash, you must plan to pass well clear. With a dozen ships in sight and fixes of the ship's position needing to be taken regularly, this becomes extremely capacity-sapping.
All this must be done while serving as a leader. The quartermaster on the helm and the lookout turn to you for instruction whenever anything goes wrong. Sailors are perpetually judging their Officers. On the other end, the OOW reports directly to the Captain. They will not have confidence in your plan unless it is presented confidently. After 700 hours of bridge watches, I found myself able to present outward calm and control no matter the stress I felt. As a life skill, this has proved invaluable.
The Submarine Service
Having earned the coveted "Black Book" of an OOW, I began my first assignment as part of the Trained Strength on an attack submarine. I look back on this as the peak of my time in uniform. For any fans of Dune, I found integrating with submariners oddly reminiscent of the Fremen. Not least because I was somehow assigned "The Duke" as an affectionate moniker by the Warfare Department senior sailors. The Fremen obsess a lot over water and a little over noise; below the waves, it is the reverse.
One begins by qualifying as a submariner, learning a basic knowledge of some 35 different engineering systems and working routines. The submarine community places especially great emphasis on professional understanding. Everyone is expected to have an appreciation for everyone else's work and instinctively know the correct response to all manner of emergencies.
Upon qualifying and getting my Dolphins, I began holding duties as the Officer Of the Day (OOD). For a 24-hour period, the OOD is directly responsible to the Captain for the safety of the boat and her crew, similar to the OOW at sea. Instead of collision avoidance, the primary concern is the deconfliction of all maintenance work conducted on board and ensuring compliance with Safe Systems Of Work. While I faced other serious emergencies, one duty stands out as being truly intense. I had to brief my chain of command on a security incident (that I won't elaborate on here, but it caused me great tension). A remote-controlled vehicle briefly made us think we were under torpedo attack. Twice mechanical issues posed risk to life. Alongside all of this, I was directed to carry out the most time-consuming task my secondary duties had to offer by the end of the day. I felt the weight of my rank slide acutely but remained collected throughout, providing sensible instructions to my Duty Watch and helpful recommendations to Command. Knowing I can handle that much pressure is truly rewarding.
When deployed, I would work 85-100 hours a week as a Control Room watchkeeper. Intelligence analysis, meteorological forecasts, the unending crusade that Junior Officers fight against Microsoft PowerPoint. I got far more enjoyment out of being the onboard weatherman than I expected and enjoyed the task of revamping our operational impacts matrix to be more evidence-based. Post-event analysis following multi-vessel exercises also became my job, as the only Warfare Officer with even a hobbyist interest in statistics. So much of this time can never be shared with my friends or family, but one story was authorised for media release. The operational highlight of my career was being relied on for slick periscope drills throughout a stunt to make Russian aggressors look like fools for their insidious loitering over critical national infrastructure. Our morale on board was immense. Retelling the story to our Marine Engineers, so often kept out of the loop, with sincere enthusiasm was a powerful lesson in the value of fostering team buy-in for our work.
Back ashore, I led the boat's PR efforts and maintained relationships with Affiliate organisations. I was also responsible for the accounting of all IT assets on board. These make for clear examples of the breadth of jobs an Officer will typically perform.
Flag Lieutenant
Having completed this first complement assignment, I moved into an office role, handling diary, travel, programme logistics, and expenses for an Admiral leading a 3000-person, multi-billion pound directorate. The tempo of work here can be ferocious. On the busiest days, I'll arrive at 0745 and only begin the work I planned to do that day at 1500. The payoff is being the fly on the wall for very senior discussions, a deep understanding of Navy Command, and an active professional network of fellow Officers, veterans in senior posts, and Civil Servants. Hence, these roles are both coveted and prestigious. Indeed, an Army veteran I met on the train actively tried to give me a high-paying consulting job when he realised I was both a Flag Lieutenant and a Submariner. How the tables have turned since my student days.
What other military careers might look like
The picture I have painted is specific to my own career pipeline. Even a fellow mariner in the Engineering or Logistics branches would cite different but equally vivid experiences and skills. Soldiers or Airmen would be further removed still. There are common strengths to each, though.
Regardless of trade, an Officer will be required to complete a broad range of tasks. One of the best things to do with your early-stage career is to expose yourself to different roles and reflect on which you thrive in. I've come to understand a lot about myself and how I work best. This is helped by career management structures designed to promote you as soon as you have reached competence in a role. While it might be uncomfortable, being kept in a state of only just being on top of things ensures you'll constantly develop professionally.
It is invariably the case that Officers will manage people very early. Leading a team. Annual appraisals. Discipline. Compassionate cases and welfare. Enforcing standards. Selling the Commanding Officer's Really Good Idea (CORGI). Even serving the minimum time, you will be more comfortable with authority than nearly anyone else in their late 20s. I'm regularly mistaken for being 6 years older than I am.
All Services will add credibility to political and governmental aspirations. In some other cases, veterans are given huge advantages in finding employment. Roles based in capital cities and aide positions like my Flag Lieutenancy provide extensive professional networks with highly informed people.
A mention should be given to the Reserves. One could get a diluted or slower form of these benefits through the sacrifice of some evenings and weekends alongside a full-time career. Some Reservists can switch between full-time military employment and the part-time pattern semi-readily, which could offer appealing flexibility.
Perks of military life
This is a vignette on the wider perks of military life. Optimising for these is not the goal of EA career-planning frameworks, but having some of these while you're young can make it a lot more comfortable to make big career transitions later. In any case, we're not automatons and inherently place some weight on having a "good career".
The pension is excellent, and, perhaps excluding graduates from quantitative fields, the pay is better than most people in their early 20s would get elsewhere. You can live on ship or shore base indefinitely at minimal cost. I didn't pay rent, bills, or gym membership for four years. While deployed, you will spend close to no money. It's little surprise that most Officers get on the property ladder by their mid-20s.
You will have truly vivid experiences, travel far abroad, and form friendships that will last your lifetime. I swam with a turtle in a private beach for free. Mount Etna erupted in the night sky while I sipped a Dacquiri in a rooftop bar. I shot clay pigeons off the back of an aircraft carrier.
I try to remain humble in the face of this, but it is straightforwardly the case that most people I meet are fascinated by my job and take a sincere interest in it. This is really helpful for feeling secure and valued, and I find socialising a lot more enjoyable in a headspace where I don't need to prove myself.
Costs of military life
Two hundred years ago, British mothers would take their daughters to Malta, a military hotspot, in the hope that she would catch the eye of an Officer. They were about the most eligible bachelors around. In 2025, it's the sort of thing that I absolutely do not mention on a dating profile. Googling this will readily produce examples of people who consider active military service to be a dealbreaker for dating: association with conservative values, prolonged absence from the home, and misogynistic reputation. Without getting to know me well, I don't think this is counteracted by having several signals of progressive values. Both sides of the political spectrum get spooked by my life choices associated with the other side and rule me out. Combined with the challenges of meeting people while deployed at sea or flitting between training courses, I feel this career has been net-negative for romance. Of course, I write this from the heterosexual male perspective and won't pretend to know how this would pan out for women or the LGBT community.
I have been a transient person since COVID hit. It's five years since I have been in a position to say "Sorry, I'm not free on Wednesdays - I go to a ballroom class". My training pipeline lasted just shy of three years and required relocation every few months, often to places without any social scene I would find exciting. This ended with some degree of security that I would spend a lot of time near Glasgow, but I then spent many months believing I would imminently go to sea. There doesn't seem much point integrating with a Krav Maga community to say goodbye to them a fortnight later.
The abuse of one's sleep cycle in watchkeeping roles at sea is severe. Submariners work 6 hours on, 6 hours off. As an Officer, you will rarely be in a position to get straight into bed when you come off watch. There's too much to do. Meals, washing up, personal hygiene, and exercise happen in place of sleep, too. At it's worst, I was getting 4 hours of broken sleep per day, and I have friends that have had it even worse. I do not doubt that my life expectancy has had years shaved off.
Maintaining a vegan diet in the Navy has been, at best, bland and, at worst, dreadful. I lost 5kg in four weeks in my first submarine patrol. I worked with the chefs to improve things, but mealtimes were initially costing me happiness rather than restoring it. Following an exercise regime while watchkeeping requires significant commitment, and your fitness will decline no matter the effort made. Considerations of daily routine aside, the living conditions while deployed were truly austere.
You will not have colleagues that share your values. It is very unlikely that anyone you work with will know about EA or agree with its principles if you share it with them. You'll spend a lot of time being asked about your career plan without being able to talk about it in terms that are meaningful or helpful for you. While they are a minority, you will have some colleagues and friends that hope war happens so they can seek glory in killing people.
You might be the people getting killed.
Leadership
A great starting point is Major Bach's speech.
Know your people. In Western democracies, essentially everyone working at an organisation chose to be there. Find out what the reasons for that decision were and what they want to get out of the job. They'll probably tell you if you ask. As their manager, you can work with them to get more of what they want, and you shall retain a motivated employee.
Major Bach's aim for every Officer to know more about everything than each of the specialists working for them is not practicable in most settings. He is absolutely right that confidence comes from knowledge of a subject, though, and well-founded confidence is vital to lead. British Officer training still uses the 10-minute talk on a subject of the cadet's choice as a means to build this. Many people arrive a little daunted by public speaking, but it is much less daunting when delivered on a subject of sincere interest. When I transition into civilian life, I fully intend to spend some time understudying each person working for me to have at least some hands-on exposure to what they do.
Nothing can be expected of those you manage unless you demonstrate you are willing to meet similar, or ideally greater, demands yourself. People will far prefer to be led by someone they see as their better than a boss who they can look down on.
Your team should feel able to come to you with their problems. Their home lives will affect their work, and that is your responsibility. It may be that you can offer no help beyond your sympathy, but that might well be enough. It will not take many instances of finding that your door is not "always open" before you lose their trust. Recovering that relationship will not be quick.
The book Turn The Ship Around presents a credible approach for fostering a leadership culture within an organisation. Delegate each responsibility to the lowest level at which the person is technically competent to uphold it. This frees up capacity for the senior leaders to think strategically and identify problems before they happen. Junior personnel should present recommendations and solutions to their seniors when raising problems to protect this capacity and develop their own abilities. Furthermore, a junior person should be given the senior's intent and left to figure out how best to achieve it. Overly prescriptive instructions too easily cause a deviation from that intent when plans meet the enemy.
Credible theories of impact
I think the most credible theory of impact is through skill-building, as I described earlier. Commission, serve the minimum time, and take that career capital elsewhere. As briefed, this is most sensible for those who would struggle to gain management credibility elsewhere. I know there is a sentiment amongst some EA ops folk that the community would benefit from its members gaining conventional experience first. The wheel has already been invented for nearly everything an EA ops department does; we should learn to build them.
If you are highly uncertain about your theory of impact, gaining exposure to many tasks and rapid financial security from a conventionally prestigious employer is probably a good idea.
There may be niche roles of particular relevance to major EA cause areas. The integration of AI with the military could be a very impactful field to work in, and many roles have a direct relationship with nuclear security. I was fortunate enough to have a one-on-one with the late Rear Admiral John Gower at EAG London 2023. His career started the same as mine and saw him eventually take on the UK's senior military position for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) threats. From this, he transitioned into nuclear security policy in Washington, DC. I caveat this paragraph with the reality that interesting work in these areas would come very late in one's career, and you would be much faster reaching an impactful role in a specific field through the Civil Service.
Less-credible theories of impact
It has been tempting to shift my plan to a 20 or 30-year naval career. Assuming I don't quit and don't fail assessments, which is by no means a given, I could be the Captain of a nuclear-armed submarine in my mid-30s. This would justify a transition into all manner of government jobs. For a while, I considered pursuing a career in nuclear policy, similar to Admiral Gower. Having the exceptional management experience of Sea Command would guarantee that my leadership skills would be in demand for the remainder of my career, too.
Admiral Gower made a very convincing argument not to follow in his footsteps. As an experienced submarine Captain, he moved to MOD Main Building in London and became the coffee-brewing grunt. His deep operational knowledge was not so applicable there, and he essentially began a career afresh in apprenticeship to the policymakers. The work he did in Washington afterward was a result of his final post as the CBRN head, not his seagoing life, having spent 30+ years in uniform. He emphasised that one cannot guarantee reaching the rank of Admiral through hard work or being good at your job, though these are certainly required. You need the career manager to give you assignments that develop the right portfolio of experience for you to take on ever more senior roles. This is largely a matter of fate. He put the odds of my reaching his post, assuming I was already a submarine Captain, at 20%. I wouldn't make that bet in a poker game, least of all when the chips are the vitality of my youth and the longevity of my old age. Admiral Gower recommended I pursue Sea Command, to pass Perisher and drive a submarine, but go no further. I would find impact far sooner as a Civil Servant.
My Executive Officer (second in command) convinced me not to go even that far. I cite this as very commendable advice, given the culture would normally be for him to encourage my retention in the Navy at all epistemic costs. He made clear that the path to Command is not paved with policy credibility; it is solely about operational expertise. I would be little better at nuclear security work for commanding a deterrent patrol than having been on one as a Lieutenant (which, admittedly, I haven't). If I moved on from the Navy at age 40 and found I could not produce a valuable contribution to the nuclear security field, with minimal opportunity to test my fit sooner, I would be distraught. This is too demanding a lifestyle to pursue on blind hope.
As for the operations experience, as EAs use the word, that Command would bestow, I have significant doubts as to its relevance. I'd be very comfortable with senior authority and have the associated gravitas to take on Director-level positions. However, there'd be 23-year-olds with a better contextual understanding of the orgs I'd hope to work at. I'd never have conducted a hiring round, fundraised, ensured 401(k) compliance, or performed many other tasks featured in Operations Manager job adverts. I'd be the most exceptional applicant going in a few attributes, but a big question mark would hang over my name in this community regardless. For 15 years more service, my situation would be improved only marginally. Better to leave now and start learning those skills.
Many people on this forum will have heard of Vasili Arkhipov and his decision not to fire nuclear torpedoes at an American fleet during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Early in my career, I thought I could build a theory of impact around this idea as a submarine Captain. I now think that is utterly naïve. We only have nuclear ICBMs, not torpedoes, and I doubt it is even possible for my peers to get trigger-happy with them. Were there a ludicrously unlikely situation where another Captain-to-be would cause an erroneous launch, this theory of impact would add no value if this happened while I was in the off-crew ashore, or not yet a Captain, or promoted into staff roles in London, or...
There might be some value in being really clued-up on some aspect of the military relevant to altruistic efforts. However, the military is fundamentally not an altruistic organisation, and your ability to move the needle on things that matter is likely negligible. I also suspect that if you had the research aptitude to add value here, you'd be much better off just becoming a researcher.
Conclusion
It has been the most formative four years of my life, and I don't regret joining for a moment. I would regret staying even a day longer than I need to, though. If any part of the above has intrigued you, or if you know of longtermist organisations likely hiring for Operations Management staff in early 2026, feel free to reach out. We can connect online, or schedule a meeting at EAG London in June. Otherwise, fair winds and following seas!
I really like it when people write up experiences from areas that are uncommon for EAs to choose! Thanks for a very interesting read.