Serious career-type questions ahead, gang.
Here’s the deal:
I’m 23, married, living outside of Washington, DC and have no particularly defined career goals thus far. I’ve been working in financial services for about 18 months and I’m looking for a change. Ultimately, what I’d like to see in a short-term career (10 years or so) is as follows:
*opportunity for travel
*challenges that actually mean something, not just “I got the copier unjammed AGAIN, boss!”
*interesting people
*a chance to use my ability for languages and cryptanalysis
*defined technical skills I can transfer back to the civilian job market upon retiring
In addition, I’ve got a Bachelor’s in International Politics from The American University here in D.C. and have a valid TS clearance from when I interned at State.
Anyone have any ideas? I know there are people out there who are current and former, and I’d like some opinions.
Thanks!
I would have joined the Navy (dad was a Naval officer), but I blew out my knee skiing in high school. Couldn’t join the army, air force or coast guard either. (Hey, aircraft are flown from the seated position!)
I think joining the military is a good thing. It promotes responsibility and self-confidence. It provides experiences, some good and some bad, that people in civilian life would never have.
But. You are married. Deployments can be hard on a marriage. You could be at sea for months. There might be a war. Right now if you don’t like your boss, you can quit. In the military you may have to answer to some martinet whom you despise. And all you can say is, “Aye aye, Sir.” When I was in my twenties, I could have dealt with that. Now that I’m in my thirties, I don’t like people telling me what to do.
Well, I’m 33 now. I enlisted and went in right out of high school and absolutely loved it. I liked to travel and I got to do that. I didn’t know what I wanted to do in college so I didn’t want to “waste” the money. I did get out at the end of my four years 'cause I was really burned out. Staff shortages, etc, with no relief in sight.
Things are much different for officers and much different if you are married.
Here are some of the pros as I see them: paid health care for you and your family, opportunities to see/live in different parts of the world, educational opportunities, doing a job that is important, military will help pay for your lodging if there isn’t on-base family housing available.
Here are some of the cons as I see them: plan on being away from your family for extended periods of time - this is the Navy so plan on being on a ship at some point in your career; pay is decent but not fabulous; uprooting your family every 3-4 years can be rough. Again, this is the military so if a conflict occurs, you have a high potential for going to where the action is.
That’s just off the top of my head. I was young, single, and had no responsibilities when I joined and I really liked it. I did have a friend who joined and he was married and he was really glad he did - he was in your position (married, no job of long-term potential) but he didn’t have a degree and just couldn’t see himself working at minimum wage jobs with nothing to show for it at the end. For him, it was great. He could support his family and felt he’d have something to show when he retired.
Now, I got out 10 years ago. I don’t know how its changed. Chief Scott is the man you really need to talk to. I haven’t seen him on the Board much lately but I haven’t paid much attention either.
Thnaks, guys, those give me something to work with.
I should add here that we’ve been married since May, neither of us have locked-down careers, and we’re not planning on having kids. Anywhere the world’s two most spoiled rabbits are welcome would be just fine.
Oh, and my father-in-law is a retired USN LTC. Got posted to Antartica. Twice. He’s really fun.
OTOH, my uncle was in and retired a few years ago and couldn’t speak of it highly enough. While I was reading these posts, I checked my email, and what should be in there but a letter from my recruiter. Eerie, no? BTW, if anyone knows where Chief Scott is, steer him over here, OK?
I went Marine, but don’t think that’s going to affect this.
If what you are looking for is what you stated above, but you aren’t really sure about the “military thing,” I’d suggest Air Force. It’s as close to civilian as you can get, yet they have really good beni’s, their technology is top-notch and all that.
My $.02, though Naval Intel is pretty good, I would tend toward the USAF, though, with a family and all.
Actually, ever since I saw John Carpenter’s The Thing I’ve wanted to do a stint in the Antarctic.
Back to the admiral’s wife… My dad was assigned to show the admiral’s daughter a good time. He “borrowed” the captain’s gig to take her touring and waterskiing. The girl had such a good time that her father wrote a letter of thanks to the captain. “Lt. W____! Report to the bridge!”
(Since the admiral was happy, the captain let it slide, but he was horrified. Dad said the captain said, “There are sharks out there!”)
Johnny, my son got to Diego Garcia TODAY!! I wondered why he got sent there…now I know. That’s my boy!
As to the OP, my son is 20 and single. He went in because he didn’t know what he wanted to do, was tired of minimum wage and wanted the educational benefits. I was a Navy wife. It’s tough to be married in the service. Deployments can go on for 6-10 months or more. You have to have a VERY strong, mature marriage. I didn’t.
Actually, do you know how hard it is to get on the Antartica expedition? Pretty tough. I was interested in it when I was in, but you had to be an IDC for my rate (Independent Duty Corpsman), which I wasn’t.
Ah well.
O, BTW, don’t believe anything your recruiter tells you!
I should point out that due to my knee injuries I could not join the Navy, and I’ve never been to Diego Garcia. It just seems to pop up as “punishment” in some films involving the Navy. ← (smiley for Chief Scott, since I know how much he loves them!)
