Episode 06: Axel Wilhelmsen - Constable, Metropolitan Police
Axel was interesting to me as a Career Couch guest because he had come from my industry of sports marketing/ partnerships and gone into the police force. I couldn’t imagine anything more different. However, speaking to Axel in more detail about his journey, I realised it all made complete sense.
Axel seemed pretty confident that he enjoyed sports and he enjoyed helping people so he went to Durham University to learn how to become a sports teacher. In his final year after a work placement, he decided that teaching wasn’t for him. At this turning point, he also had to make a decision on which nationality he was going to choose between British and Norwegian. He chose Norwegian and then took advantage of the voluntary military service program. Still interested in sport, he took a role in the Norwegian Navy as a personal trainer for the cadets. Here he was teaching and getting to interact in a sporting environment.
Once the service was over, he wanted to come back to his home town of London (who can blame him) and still wanted to work in sports. He got an internship working for a sports marketing agency y that had Etihad as a client. At the time, Etihad had a lot of really interesting partnerships and Axel was tasked with supporting the team in managing them.
As with most agencies, their survival and talent attraction/ retention depend on winning and retaining clients. Unfortunately, the agency lost Etihad as a client and made Axel redundant within the business, he realised new business wasn’t his thing so went to work for another agency on another contract. In the back of his mind and having spoken to his father for advice, he was considering a career in the police. He had enjoyed elements of teaching and helping people and he had enjoyed his experience in the military.
When his contract at this agency ended, he decided it was time to act on his police application that he had been putting off. He embarked on the training and has not looked back. Axel has now been a Police Constable for 5 years and has had a lot of experiences in this time and evolved his career to now working with a taskforce on more prevention measures rather than reactionary emergency services.
It was interesting to hear that although Axel has to deal with some very tough situations, he has enjoyed his role and learned a lot and looks forward to his career within the police force as there are always options to suit your passions and skill set.
To learn more about potential careers in The Met Police, have a look here:
To learn more, listen to the episode and let me know what you think!