Liam Barbic says he's now "more comfortable being uncomfortable".
It's a brilliant phrase from a man who doesn't think he's very good with words.
What he means is that his six years in the army have made him more mature. He went in as a naive teenager - naive is the word he uses about his younger self - but now, with the army behind him at the age of 26, he goes more with the flow.
"If circumstances change and I have to adapt, I don't get worked up," he says. "You can make do with what you've got."
He is one of the former soldiers working on the construction site at the back of the Australian War Memorial. He got the job through an organisation called Veterans in Construction.
It was set up to help veterans find work - and find their feet in the dizzying world of civilian life after the order of the military.
"A lot of people who leave don't have a trade. They find it harder. We take them in, give them skills and construction qualifications," the founder of the company, Dave Farrell, said.
He was in the army for 18 years, from 1999 to 2017, and served in Iraq, Afghanistan (six tours of duty) and in East Timor.
The army, he feels, gives lads and ladettes something - but not always the skills for life afterwards. "When you are in the army, you get a large amount of responsibility," he said.
They get specific training for the military tasks they are set. "But when they leave the army, they don't have civilian qualifications and they find themselves working in scrapyards or packing boxes. They find it hard to get meaningful employment."
His organisation aims to give them the means to get "meaningful employment".
The pitch to employers is: "If you're a construction company, then you have the opportunity to hire the best Australia has to offer; veterans have many 'non-tangible skills' such as teamwork, mission focus, integrity, loyalty, initiative, and adaptability amongst others."
McKinley Blanken (like Mr Barbic, a Canberran) recognised a looming problem after his six years in the army. "I didn't have any life skills because the army is its own system," he said during a break on the War Memorial construction site.
"The thought of getting out and not being able to adapt made me think I would get out when I was still young enough to adapt to a different life-style."
That different life-style is regular work, and a life outside work. "All my family and my partner's family are here so that was one of the main reasons I came here."
He was born in Canberra and went to Lanyon High School before joining the army in 2016 at the age of 18. His comrade in the army and his colleague on the construction site, Mr Barbic, grew up in Kambah and joined the army shortly after his 19th birthday.
"I still don't really know why. When I was a kid, I went to an Anzac Day parade, and I thought it was special, so I thought, 'I want to do that'."
Neither man says he regrets enlisting. Both talk of "service". They are clearly proud of having served their country. They were infantrymen in the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment. They were based in Townsville, with a posting in Malaysia, though neither came under fire (or put an enemy under fire) in war.
Another Canberran on the site is a little more jaundiced. Aaron Portelli joined in 2015 in his mid 20s. "I wanted to serve my country.
"You watch all the movies and it looks like fun, camping and doing all that stuff," he said.
"Some of it was a lot of fun - that mateship, getting to experience stuff that only 5 per cent of the population experience, shooting every weapon that the Australian army has to offer."
But eventually, he had had enough of the "micro-management" as he puts it.
He did come out with skills - an apprenticeship as a mechanic before the military and as a carpenter since.
He is now back in his home town, using those skills on the War Memorial. The army is behind him. Civilian life is ahead.
As McKinley Blanken puts it: "I'm still taking it as it comes."
