How to build a career in the British Army: Insights from a troop commander

In today's episode, we sit down with Lieutenant Sophie Farrelly RLC, who shares her journey from university student to commissioned Army Officer - all funded by the British Army's bursary scheme. Sophie shares how she discovered the scholarship route in sixth form, upgraded to a STEM bursary during her degree, and graduated with a clear career path into Sandhurst and beyond

Participants

• Emily Slade - podcast producer and host, Prospects
• Lt Sophie Farrelly RLC - troop commander, the British Army

Transcript

Emily Slade: Hello and welcome back to Future You, the podcast brought to you by graduate careers experts Prospects. I'm your host, Emily Slade and in this episode I speak to Lt Sophie Farrelly RLC, a troop commander in the British Army about her career so far.

Lt Sophie Farrelly: Hi, I'm Sophie. I'm 24 and I'm in the British Army. I'm an officer and I'm currently in the role of a troop commander and I've been in since September 2020.

Emily Slade: Amazing. Let's go right back to the beginning. What was your educational journey?

Lt Sophie Farrelly: Educational journey. So I finished my GCSE's and I went to sixth form to do my A levels. So I did biology, chemistry and English literature. All quite broad subjects because I didn't really know what route I wanted to take. So I just thought I keep my options open going forwards. But when I was at sixth form, my mum who was in the military. She stated that there's this kind of sixth form scholarship that the army does. And that if you pass it you get a bit of funding and it's like a gateway into the army that if you don't want to go forward with that career, you can also say no. But what she did say is if you pass the selection board, it looks quite favourable for your CV going to university. So I was like, OK. If give that a try gave it a shot, didn't know. How it would go? And I passed it and was awarded the scholarship too, which was really grateful for. And from that, because I wasn't really sure if an army career is what I wanted, it was just something that my mom had done. She'd suggested I still didn't know what route I wanted to take, but I did know that I wanted to go something, people. 1st and people centred so it did kind of match the criteria I was looking for and being honest at the time I didn't really know what else I wanted to do. Plus I'd just been awarded this scholarship. I thought well actually perhaps the army seen something in myself that maybe I haven't. Before it started with a scholarship, which I then extended to a bursary at university. But I did my levels. I then went to university. It was University of East Anglia in Norwich, so it's a little bit further from home because. Surrey is home. For me, but it's really good for the sciences and I did buy medicine, loved the degree it was three years long and all about the body maybe. It's too much about the body and yeah, whilst I was university I did something called university Officer Training Corps, so this was part of my contract with my scholarship. That it was, yeah, essentially something that I had to do. On the side. But it was so much fun and I found that it cemented. That actually this career path is what I'd like to do so. To give a summary of the university Officer Training Corps, or OTC for short. They've got a few scattered around the country and my closest one was Cambridge. So I went. From Norwich, with some of the Cambridge students, which are really good to meet new people and network in that sense essentially just thrown into a pool with those like minded individuals who are interested in similar things so they're scattered around the country. Cambridge was the closest for me and essentially they put on things like. Obviously, military skills and teaching you the. Basics there and you. Get go down to the ranges and fire weapon for the first time or land drill. All of these kind of stereotypical army things. Also they also had like sports adventurous training opportunities. Essentially it was just like a really nice way to kind of get away from university and do something on the side. And it was paid as well so. As a unit scheiden, it was nice to have an extra source of income, but doing something that I actually really enjoyed and with people that I liked. So that's what I did for the three years alongside my degree and then straight into straight after graduating. Sorry, I joined the army, so went straight. Into the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst or Sandhurst for short. That was essentially a training year. I graduated in the summer of 22. I then started training September 2022. And then I finished my training August 2023.

Emily Slade: Amazing. So was that the point where you could have opted out once you've finished your degree? If you didn't, then want to progress into the army, could you have just been like, no, at that point?

Lt Sophie Farrelly: Yeah. So there's always the option. So at that point, I'd taken the scholarship, which meant that I'd been given a little bit of money. The support from the army. But if I didn't, if I did change my mind, then absolutely I can back out of it. I'd. Have to pay money. Back. But when I was initially offered the money, obviously you don't have to say yes. At that moment you have a bit of time to think and if you didn't want that, but you've still passed the main board. It's called Army Officer selection Board OSB short. You've got a couple of years. Soft. So if you don't want to join straight away, then you've got the opportunity to in a couple of years later, if you wanted to. I don't know the time frame. Yeah, I think it's about 5 or less years.

Emily Slade: So you've kind of touched on it with your mum's background and obviously getting access to the scholarship, but what really cemented that opinion for you? What made you want to join the army?

Lt Sophie Farrelly: Big question. I think for me, the official decision that I wanted to join wasn't something that happened over the space for a couple of days, a couple of weeks. It was something that was spread. You know a decent amount of time. I'm speaking maybe like a year or two in the sense that, yes, I was presented with that opportunity of a scholarship at the start. But like we discussed earlier, there's always that route to back out if you want to even at university. So I think a mix of of seeing my mum's background, she never pushed me in the direction, but you know, hearing her stories and her friends stories. 20 university Officer Training Corps that massively cemented it, but I don't think there was any one specific thing that kind of confirmed it to me it was. Through research and and and those things I've already stated, it kind of came together and. That there wasn't any negatives. I just couldn't find any negatives at the time. I really wanted to do something. People focused and you know. Without sounding cliche, with a kind of sense of purpose and it absolutely ticks those boxes. So that's kind of what happened. I've run with it and so. Five, we've got no regrets.

Emily Slade: Yeah. Brilliant. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about this bursary. Of course. So the army offers scholarships and bursaries. So to kind of split them down and summarise it, you've got the scholarships, which are open to sixth form students. And then you've got bursaries which you can apply for at university. So in my case. Before going into the specifics. I did the sixth form Scholarship Board and I was awarded a scholarship, but then I was given the opportunity to upgrade that to a bursary university. So again, I'll go into the different types, but I was then. Because of the scholarship board automatically given a standard bursary, but from there you could upgrade it further to one of the bigger bursaries if you wanted to, based on the criteria. So yeah, so with scholarships and bursaries, they're slightly separate. As I iterated to. Earlier and I've got some notes just so I'm up to date with like today's guidance on scholarships and bursaries from the Army website. So forgive me if I read my notes a little. The Army Officers Scholarship scheme or scholarship board that I did the application criteria for that is you've got to be 16 or 17 years old and you've got to apply by March of Year 12. So lower 6 if you're successful in that initial selection process there, you'll then be brought on to a bigger selection process, which is the Army officer selection. Board OSB which is exactly the same as someone who's 18 and above applying to the wider army would do. But instead of looking for. More of a finished product. They're looking for more potential because you are that bit younger. So you go and do the Army Officers Scholarship Board in June or July and if you're successful, you'll qualify for a Commission within the Army. So essentially, that means that if you do pass. And you decide to take the scholarship, then you've got a guaranteed place after university in the army. So guaranteed career. And it kind of gives you that sense of stability. But like we said earlier, if you don't want that, then there's also absolutely fine. So a bit of the kind of application criteria in your GCSEs you've got to get at least 40 Alice points, including a pass in English language maths and either a science or a language. And then Scottish national qualifications, you need 34 hours points. If we're looking at the financial side, if you. Or successful you will receive 3000 lbs in year 13. So once you've done the selection process in year 12, you'll be awarded with £3000 in upper 6th or year 13 at sixth form. This is then upgraded to a provisional 6000 LB standard Army undergraduate bursary and if that's for a three-year course like. And but if you do a four year course, that's 7000 lbs. So you can see that the money there is pretty generous, especially for a university student because. Money can be. Quite tight in university, so that's the standard scholarship. So with the scholarships and with the bursaries, there is this expectation that you do serve at least four years, including the training year and our Sandhurst. But for the money that you're giving and the opportunities that you're presented with. To me, I see that as quite a small turn of service. Once you're at university, whether you're on the standard bursary like I was or not, you can apply for a bursary. So this is essentially an upgrade from the scholarship, which is more sick form level. This is now speaking to all university students. And I'll go into a couple of them if that works. There's different criteria for each, and as a result, different financial benefits, so. There's a range. Of different bursaries that the army has on offer, and I think a lot of people don't actually know about them. I met a couple of army verses through my kind of. Army career so far, that again, some people didn't even realise that was a possibility, and in some ways feel. Like they like. Left out in a sense. So I think it's good that people know about it. So you've got the standard bursary like I've already mentioned. So even if you haven't done the scholarship initially, a sixth form, that's something you can. Still apply for. And it's open to every single university student, no matter what your discipline is, and with a standard bursary, you can join any regiment or any part of the British Army which you've commissioned. So there's no restrictions there. Then we go on to the Army undergraduate enhanced bursary. So this is another type of bursary you can apply for university, but this one is open to the best performing candidates that says on the Army website. So it's a little bit more competitive in that sense and to apply for this bursary at a level you need at least a BB or Scottish equivalent and you need to be on track to get a 21 university. And with this one you could receive up to 24,000 lbs. Also you can join any part of the army as an off city so. Lot more generous and also not too restrictive in your Army career as well. Then we go on to the Army undergraduate STEM bursary which has now also got the name of defence STEM undergraduate sponsorship scheme. So the DS US and this is the one I got graded myself to. It's changed a little bit since, but this is the one that when I went to university because I did buy medicine, it was an army endorsed STEM degree. So I applied for that and was very grateful to have been accepted for that. But essentially this bursary is open to anyone wanting to join one of the stem cores and essentially it means that you're a bit more limited in the branches. You can choose within the army, but it's still quite a large list to choose from, and there are just a bit more stem stem related I guess just with the skill set that you bring to the table. And like I said, you have to be studying in Army endorsed STEM degree with this one you can receive up to 42,750 lbs ^2 across. 30 years. It's a large amount for a lot of people, quite life changing, especially as a university student, so the career options within the army as a stember, Sir, you can be an officer in one of the following branches. So you have the Royal Engineers, the royal signals, the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, the Royal Logistic Corps, RLC. So that's what I'm in. The rule artillery, the Adjutant General's Corps, Army Air Corps, and the Intelligence Corps so you can see. It's quite a large list. It's restricted in a sense because there's so much you can do with it on me. That there are still so many options. I think the army is recognising that they're wanting a lot more different skill sets, different angles, different minds, different things that people bring to the table. And then finally, we've got the Army Medical Services AMS bursary. This is available to potential medical, dental, veterinary and nursing professionally qualified officers. So Professor qualified officers is called PCOS for short, and it's quite mouthful. And with these you get differing amounts of money and these are the more generous bursaries. So medicine and dental, you can get £75,000. The Army veterinary, you can get 60,000 lbs. And then nursing is 42,000 lbs. Again, all very life changing amounts of money and and with fees. You must serve three years after commissioning or finishing your training because PQO's their training course is not a year, it's a shortened course, which is why there's a slightly different return of service there. So yeah, you can see that there's a lot of different opportunities on offer from the army. And again, like I said earlier, not many people know about it, but that's just a general summary from myself. And if people did want to look into it. The Army website is the best place to go in my opinion, and because that's where I got all this information from and they have so much more information on there, not just about the bursaries but generally about the career as well. So if people are interested, it's quite a. Good place to. Go.

Emily Slade: Yeah. Fantastic. So let's talk now about your specific role. Like, what is it that you do day-to-day like, what's a day in the life of your job?

Lt Sophie Farrelly: Also another good question because it's so varied. What I've really enjoyed about the job is how diverse it is and. The range of opportunities you have and the range of kind of challenges that you're faced. To. Like I, I genuinely wouldn't be able to give you like a stock answer of what my day looks like. I can say what my like day and work would look like, for example, but again this doesn't always happen so. Let's say so today's Tuesday. So if I was at work today and I would wake up and go to PT, so a bit of exercise. As the regiment comes together, and then our smaller squadrons that we work in, like our smaller teams, we will then go off and do different PT. Session so that will last for an hour in the morning and then we'll head back into work for the rest of the morning and then Jen will work in the afternoon. But essentially as a troop commander. Like I said earlier, it's kind of like a managerial role in a sense essentially just managing a team of soldiers and depending on where you go, different branches. Different causes, different regiments. You have different sized teams. So down where I am because the logistics is a bigger core, the platoon or troop size. Sorry ranged from above 30 to 40 people that you're managing, but my friend who's gone to intelligence for example as a team of 10. So it really depends. And as a result you have different working relationships because you're working with people more closely or less closely. But no, it's been it's been good.

Emily Slade: Yeah. So you're in charge of like, 30 to 40 people. Does that mean you're with them constantly? And you all travel together. And what does that sort of look like? What does that relationship look like?

Lt Sophie Farrelly: So, yeah. So I've got my team, my true. And I thought that I would when I came into the job, see them a lot more. But it hasn't necessarily been the case, so I work at somewhere called 17 port and Maritime Regiment, which is this kind of enzyme heater and. They are port operators in my troop, but then you've got Mariners down there. You've got marine engineers. You've got VSS, which is vehicle support specialists. Everyone's so bored and because they've got such a niche skill set that works down in that location down in Marchwood, it means that they're constantly deployed. Obviously on rotations we also got to man our working port as well. So we're down near Southampton. People are always on the go and I think that's why it's such an exciting place to work, because OK, you don't necessarily see all your team, all your soldiers, all the time. But you know what they're doing. There's obviously ways of tracking them and seeing what people are doing. People come back with really good stories. And the opportunity to travel both for the soldiers but also on the officer side of things. A troop commander, they're so broad and so fast levelled. So I've been quite lucky at my regiment. I'm really grateful for the opportunities they presented me with. So have you. So I joined my regiment January 2024, so last year and I had my first deployment in March time, I believe, which was a port task group or a PTG for short and essentially. When you load up a vessel with kitchen equipment, vehicles and the like, when you send off to another country, you need to make sure you've got port operators to kind of take out all off again. So quite often we have these PTG's dotted across the world and quite cool locations. This one this time around was Estonia. So we went down there for a week, which was really, really good fun. And then I flew directly down to Poland. So there was a big exercise on time called operation Liner Typer. And you had lots of different elements of the army come together and essentially work on this big exercise, 17 point Maritimes role was essentially to get people home. It was kind of the rounding off the operation essentially and making sure people get home their it gets home and the right place, right time. And there was, there was a lot of equipment. Like to tell you that so that was really good. Especially because I was still so new in the job, you know? You're given quite a large amount of responsibility quite quickly, which is kind of nice. I quite like that they almost didn't throw you in the deep end like there's always that support network, but to kind of throw you straight in straight away, you kind of just get to know everyone so much better as a result. So I'm really grateful for that. After that, in about may time I went on something. Called Operation Underhill, this one was really exciting because the idea behind it, and it was meant to be a real time operation. The main reason we were doing is because we wanted to help the Americans who were creating the force at the time in Gaza. We wanted to go and help deliver that aid, so it was a humanitarian aid operation, so we were working as an attachment to the War Marines on something called like an RFA vessel. So the war fatals auxiliary. And we're working with essentially like creating this plan and on how we would do that and how we would help the Americans deliver this aid. So super exciting to be kind of part of a real time planning process with real time consequences too, if it if you did get things wrong. So we had things kind of planned and prepped but. Sometimes these things fall through and that is what happens. Yeah. So we did then get sent home, but to even just have like a snippet of that was so unique. And I'm so grateful to have had that opportunity. So those have kind of been my deployments. But then on the sports side, I've also been quite lucky because I joined the netball team. So you have regimental. Netball teams, which is like you. Yeah. And then we're all part of our RLC. So the logistics core. So they have a core team as well. So I was lucky enough to kind of. Join in with. Them and they invited me down to Cape Town to do a netball tour for two weeks, which was incredible. It was on my cards. I didn't expect that to be on my forecast events at all, and when the opportunity opportunity. Mark, you know my chain of command super supported and like yeah it's fine and. And so I went along and did that, which was fab. And there's so many other opportunities at the Army House with sports, adventurous training. Like I went to. Norway and France in December and January time to do a ski season, which again absolutely incredible. You can't believe that it's your job in a way that that was new for me. I've done a bit of skiing before but we were doing ski racing so very different type of skiing. Quite a lot of courage. Send yourself down those slopes. The opportunities have been so broad and that's just like a couple of them. I know other people to have gone off to do things like sailing. And rock climbing, mountain biking. I think a lot of the time as well, people don't realise that about the army. It's not all about work. Don't get me wrong, that is the main kind of emphasis in the deployments, especially at my regiment, because it is a working regiment that there is always torrent flows, other things and it is still seen as something important. Is that's what builds A3 dimensional person. 

Emily Slade: Right. So when you get deployed. Do you have time to for yourself? Your you have your work hours, but then are you able to explore where you've landed?

Lt Sophie Farrelly: So I think it depends. It depends on what you're going out to do. So with the port task group in Estonia for example, we went out and there was work to do. But when you don't have work to do and yeah, you can have a little. Explore around the area but when we were in Poland, for example, operational on the typo, that was a lot more exercise focused. It's you're in the mindset simulating that. This is like the real thing. So it's not quite the same. So it's really situation dependent.

Emily Slade: So you're travelling a lot, but you're also in base a lot. How often do you get leave and to visit family? So it's more than you'd expect. And again, it really depends on obviously the current climate and what's going on within the regiment and the tasking. Is coming through. But I think. There's this kind of stigma around the army that you're always on the move always. You know never at home and don't get me wrong, sometimes that can be the case and it's very dependent on where you go with your career. But it's not always the case. I I very much think that is a myth that sometimes needs to be busted a little bit. Sometimes you've kind of got like a directed posting. Where you have to. Go and based on certain circumstances that a lot of the time some deployments can be voluntary based. At least they are in my regiment and there always has to be the places filled like. Comes to say. But there is that leeway there, and there is still kind of a huge push for things like G1. So you're welfare. Don't get me wrong, mission comes first, but if there's a way that we can prioritise people's welfare and their own family situations, then obviously we will, yeah.

Emily Slade: Brilliant. Are there any other myths that you would like to bust?

Lt Sophie Farrelly: I don't know. Because there's so many different myths in different ways, it could be something as low level as the fitness standard. To me, the main myth that I think sometimes I have to even bust with my own friends is the general stereotype of. British Army British Army soldier British Army off. That. Like who is it? What do you think of when you hear that? And I think when I've spoken to my friends quite a few times, they picture your infantry soldier who is out on the ground and they've got a weapon with a bayonet fixed or. You know, doing something super normally, which absolutely is the case and there are people who do that and we all have that basic training going through either Sandhurst or sold. Your training. It's not always like that. You know, people jump to their thinking. That's what you're doing all the time, or you're always deployed and you're always away. But actually there is so much more to the army. There's all these different roles. You can see that I mentioned. There's these kind of more stem focused backgrounds where essentially you're supporting that infantry soldier. Right. So mission. Critical. Absolutely. They need to get things done, but where would they do that without the sustainment from logistics? Where would they do that with the communications from the signals, where would they do that with certain aspects from like the really or the engineers so. I think people can be very. And again, when I say people, it's not everyone, but I'd say the average person can be very narrow minded, narrow, focused on what the army is about and not actually know about all these other other kind of branches but also sports opportunities and XYZ it it's it's not all just that one thing.

Emily Slade: What kind of skills would you say you need? For your role?

Lt Sophie Farrelly: I think again, it's super varied. It's dependent on the person and I guess me saying this now, I mean like the rest of this kind of podcasting fear, it's all my opinion, right? But I think the skill sets you need to have, obviously there's an element of mental resilience. Because you can get very busy very quickly or the kind of. It doesn't happen as often, but like fitness wise you need to make sure that you can push through those kind of barriers, but ultimately it's just to make sure that when things do get stressful, fast-paced, you can essentially lead A-Team. And if you're not mentally, mentally resilient yourself, how can you expect others to be? Too. So I think that's quite a big thing. And I think as a officer, communication is super key as well. I mean it's key across the army. But I think a lot of the times I've seen it myself where things aren't communicated properly damaged, they're not up the chain of command and that's where things have gone wrong. So I think you got to be confident. In yourself in that way, and I haven't always been the most confident, and it's something I would still say. And being honest, I struggled with to this day kind of backing yourself up. But I would say going through the Sun test year of training absolutely helped because you realise how much potential you have. But ultimately, for me personally, I would say the best thing you can have or the best skill is compassion. I think empathy and having that emotional intelligence is key in being able to run and work. Alongside a team. Because if you can understand people's strengths and weaknesses, you can utilise them in better ways or like we said with the deployments you kind of know their situation better and as a result you've got a better working team as a result, you have better results and if you've got a team that works for you, it makes your life easier too. And so always always I would say compassion is key so. What advice would you give for people looking to follow in your footsteps? I think perseverance is a very big thing, especially in training because like. Say that. Going through that training year and I can't speak of how it is for soldiers going through Ebert on an army officer kind of perspective that year at Sandhurst is created to challenge you and it is not reflective of what the wider army looks like because it's a lot more meticulous with everything and they are there to challenge you and see what your mental resilience is like and. Are you someone who can kind of fit in with the? Bigger team, right? So I would say in those circumstances, even if you feel like or maybe this isn't for me. Like that is what they're testing you for. They are seeing. Can you get through those moments? The sense of personal growth and just like meeting such like minded people and I've got some. Yeah, without sounding too cliche. Whatever got some fab friends out of it. So it is all worth it in the end. Just persevere and know that you're being tested for a. Reason what's been one of your biggest challenges. So far I think one of the biggest challenges I faced in my role as a troop commander was actually kind of my first few days. At the regiment with my troop. Because you're coming in and people know that you're new, you're fresh out of the Sandhurst factory, essentially. And you want to have good first impressions. And there's a range of experience in the troop. You know, you've got people. Who've been serving for their first year, and then you've got people who've been close to. 20 years so. Coming in and trying to. Adjust to the kind of working patterns they've got already and kind of integrating into that team I think was probably one of my biggest concerns because I never wanted to ruffle any feathers. So I think coming in the mindset, I kind of just went in with was OK, well, I'm here to play my role and they've all got their roles and. Yes, the Army has its sense of hierarchy, which is absolutely there for good reason. And you know everyone respects the hierarchy. However, my approach was we are a troop, we are a team. You play your part, I'll pay mine. And I found so far that that's been my thing. Quite well. And finally I do. You have a question around? The support that the army. Offer in terms of mental health, is there something in place there? Yeah, absolutely. And I think that there's a larger partialness over recent years in comparison to when my mum went through in the 80s, for example, right, a lot of organisations only included has realised the importance of the champion mental health. And. We've got so many different support schemes whether you speak to the Padre or the welfare team that we've got on site and you've got, like, anonymous organisations, we've always got kind of posters up and about where if people don't really want to speak with their own chain of command, which is encouraged where sometimes people aren't comfortable with that, then there's means and ways of, you know. Getting that support without people knowing because everyone's circumstances different, right? I would say, you know, going through, there's definitely being that kind of support structure that network. And if you did need it, then you would kind of have pool selection to choose from. And so, yeah, I think it's been good. Hey. So what's next in your career? So I've recently just found out my next posting. So as an officer, your postings tend to change about every two years, give or take. So my two years at my current regiment coming to an end and I found out that I'm going to per bite. So it's a training centre for phase one soldiers so. Brand new coming into the Army and looking to start a career. I'm very excited about that. And again super grateful to have been given such an opportunity. These people at the start of their careers and any influence I can have on them to kind of make their careers or the start of their career as a positive. Place and have that perseverance through something that's quite challenging. Perhaps the biggest challenge they've ever faced. I'm really excited to be part of that journey. I'm conscious that, you know, I've been speaking about my personal kind of journey here myself, and I just want to say, obviously these are my own opinions apart from the facts on scholarships and bursaries. But. If people did want to know more, then there's like, YouTube blogs online. But also I think the best source is the Army website. Because the information there and the videos are the most up to date and most factual.

Emily Slade: Amazing. Well, thank you so much for your time today.

Lt Sophie Farrelly: Thank you so much for having me here. I think it's so nice to be able to give our presentation on again. It's my own personal opinions and experience, but it's a kind of broadcast, these opportunities that the army does. Have to offer and. Essentially like not break the stigmas and such, but if further awareness, I'm really grateful for the opportunity, so thank you. 

Emily Slade: Thanks again to Sophie for their time. For more information on joining the army you can check the show notes below. For a full length video version of this episode , check out our YouTube channel @future you pod. If you enjoyed the episode feel free to leave us a review on Apple or Spotify. Thank you as always for listening and good luck on your journey to future you.

Notes on transcript

This transcript was produced using a combination of automated software and human transcribers and may contain errors. The audio version is definitive and should be checked before quoting.

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