Kings College London

[MeatCleaver]

Hi all,

Have only just found this site and spent the last day or so trawling through it. Some very interesting subjects and debates in the forum. I hope to become a regular contributer.

Anyway, I am currently considering undertaking a full time course of War Studies at Kings College London as it is of immense personal interest to myself. My intention is to progress to an MA programme in order to enhance my future career prospects, with a view towards think tank/research work or an analyst role within a financial institution.

So I was hoping some members have either had experience at KCL or know of people who have and what your recommendation would be on undertaking this course at KCL and what sort of reputation does KCL have worldwide?. Would also be interested to here what career prospects would be like within the defence related industries and how they would compare in terms of salary to an analyst role within the financial world, as I am currently working within in the financial field.

Thanks

 

[gf0012-aust]

Hi all,

Have only just found this site and spent the last day or so trawling through it. Some very interesting subjects and debates in the forum. I hope to become a regular contributer.

First of all, welcome. It might also be a good idea to introduce yourself into the formal "hello" area: http://defencetalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3577

Anyway, I am currently considering undertaking a full time course of War Studies at Kings College London as it is of immense personal interest to myself. My intention is to progress to an MA programme in order to enhance my future career prospects, with a view towards think tank/research work or an analyst role within a financial institution.

Can't help you specifically re KCL - but next para can offer some insights.

So I was hoping some members have either had experience at KCL or know of people who have and what your recommendation would be on undertaking this course at KCL and what sort of reputation does KCL have worldwide?. Would also be interested to here what career prospects would be like within the defence related industries and how they would compare in terms of salary to an analyst role within the financial world, as I am currently working within in the financial field.

Re KCL, all I've heard are good things. A couple of my business associates are ex Sandhurst, and they've never said a bad word about the quality of people output.

Re the job, it all depends on what you want to do. In my experience the blokes who score jobs easier than anyone else outside of specialist opportunity roles are the Loggies (logistics blokes). Loggies are in demand in both the mil sector and in major corporations.

As for the money side of things.

I spent some 25 years in Govt and was paid to give advice across various disciplines. The internal nickname given to people like me was "the fixer" - officially we were called Project Recovery Specialists. In other words, we were paid to go in, identify why systems, platforms and projects were stuffing up and then fix them before the public or the press got wind of it. Invariably, a very low percentile of our recommendations got signed off on or listened to - senior uniforms and senior suits tend to think that even though they are unfamiliar with a brief - that they are still the resident expert. That can be terribly demoralising if you take your job seriously. The ones who do, pack their bags and head for the major mil-specialty contractors. I left my "guvvie" job on reaching a salary of $85k per annum.

I then went to work with one of the largest military spec consulting companies in Aust and was contracted out (at the companies rates) of $1200-1500 per day. The company gets a fair but proportionate whack of that - you get the balance. The funny thing is that I was paid 3-4 times my prev salary to tell them exactly the same thing - except this time they listened and signed off on it - go figure. .

There were any number of projects I've been involved with where the lead contractors were recent ex-staffers - even though the employment rules for ex Govt employees are quite strict, the Govt breaks them all the time if they're short on the skillset. there are always ways to re-skin the cat so that it looks like a budgie.

I now work for myself as a mil-technology consultant in specific disciplines.
Much happier, much more job satisfaction and much more money. I also get to pick who, what, and where I will go, and as long as it's not challenging or contradicting the national interests, as long as it doesn't clash with existing contractual obligations, then I'll do the job.

 

[SABRE]

I think there is a subject of "Defence & Strategic Studies" at KCL. why not opt for that and go into defence field directly.