When Captain Zoe Monck joined the Army for adventure and challenges away from her home town of Moruya, NSW, she only intended to stick around for 12 months and then head to university.
But she found the friendships, lifestyle and opportunities suited her perfectly, and postponed her academic aspirations to continue serving as an Army driver.
She had played basketball from a young age and was thrilled to find herself on the ADF team not long after arriving at her first posting in Darwin.
"I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and ran into the basketball coach. Then two weeks later I was in Melbourne to play basketball with ADF. That's pretty cool," she said.
She played every year since joining and, after dabbling in rugby union, has found a new challenge in triathlons.
"The ADF does a really great job in prioritising fitness, so being able to stay fit and work out on Army's time is awesome," Captain Monck said.
"Being able to go away and be paid to play sport with my friends is a great opportunity. Triathlon events are really expensive, so to have entry fees subsidised by ADF is amazing.
"It's an excellent incentive to work hard so you can get released for those sorts of things."
While she was enjoying life as a digger, it wasn't until her first promotion to lance corporal that she found a true calling in leadership and personnel management.
"I had seen people be let down by poor leadership way too often, and the idea of making a positive influence in at least one person's day or life is such a great opportunity," Captain Monck said.
"I wanted to be the kind of leader I would have wanted [as a digger], more down to earth and human, understanding the everyday needs of soldiers."
'When the opportunity is put in front of you where it's paid for, you're supported, you can take time off to do exams, it's hard to say no when it's such an excellent opportunity just served up in front of you.'
She attended the Royal Military College - Duntroon and was allocated to the Royal Australian Armoured Corps, then posted to 2nd Cavalry Regiment as a tank troop leader.
While there, she deployed on every major field exercise and was the only tank troop leader to take part in a live-fire exercise with the US Army Comanche Company M1A2 Abrams unit in 2023.
Captain Monck also pursued university studies, completing a Bachelor of Organisation Leadership in 2023 under the Army Tertiary Education Program.
She said getting educational support opened up opportunities that people may not otherwise consider, because of financial or work pressures.
"There's a million and one reasons not to pursue extracurricular education, we're already such busy people," she said.
"So when the opportunity is put in front of you where it's paid for, you're supported, you can take time off to do exams, it's hard to say no when it's such an excellent opportunity just served up in front of you."
In her current role as senior career coach at ADF Careers Sydney, Captain Monck draws on her "mixed bag" of experiences when relating to potential enlistees.
"I can talk about the different training centres like Kapooka; I can talk about IET and the progression of your career in general. And then I can talk about RMC and that experience," she said.
"It's an excellent opportunity to be able to get up and say 'hey, look at all of the opportunities the Army has provided me and I'm just a young person in my 20s, like you'."
