Leighton Gosai was told cyber was not for people like him.
After medical discharge and a stretch of ordinary civilian work, the former Rifleman found his way into the defence sector only by refusing to accept that his military experience counted for nothing.
Service and sudden change
Leighton Gosai grew up in uniform. He joined the Metropolitan Police in his teens, then enlisted as a Rifleman with the Royal Green Jackets. He qualified as a marksman and completed several tours in five years of service before being medically discharged in 2009. The abrupt end to his military career left him adrift.
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A period nobody likes to talk about
After leaving the Army, there was no obvious glide path into a second career. Gosai has described doing delivery shifts for Amazon while picking up basic IT qualifications and trying to get a foothold in technology.
Recruiters told him that, because he came from a non‑technical background, he would need to spend years in general IT before he could even consider a cyber role. He says that belief was “very disempowering” and that “those recruiters were wrong”.
Finding a route in
Gosai’s circumstances shifted when he took psychometric and aptitude tests through WithYouWithMe. Instead of dismissing his military background, the results showed he was well suited to cyber. “I was contacted by WithYouWithMe to discuss my skills report. The aptitude testing showed that I was well suited to a role in cyber, so I entered the cyber pathway,” he says.
That pathway taught the basics of networking, open‑source intelligence and red‑team tools, alongside consulting skills. It gave him a structure and a sense of momentum that had been missing. “The variety of courses on offer is fantastic and within a couple of months I had the foundation needed to move into a new role with confidence,” he says.
Breaking through hiring filters
While in training, Gosai attended a job event hosted by the defence firm Leonardo. He secured an interview and, within days, became a senior cyber security consultant in the company’s Cyber & Security division.
Inside Leonardo he found something he had not encountered in previous recruitment conversations: an employer that valued breadth of experience. “The level to which Leonardo invests in your training and development is incredible. It’s so refreshing to see a company that recognise that the more skills, knowledge and experience a person has, the more value they can bring to the company – and then act on that principle,” he says.
Gosai’s new role exposed him to complex projects across defence and gave him a chance to specialise. It also restored a sense of purpose. “Given the vital role that Leonardo plays in the defence of the UK and our allies, the chance to give back, and support others in learning these skills holds great meaning for me. In the cyber world where there’s such a shortage of experts to meet the rapidly increasing need – the sky really is the limit,” he says.
