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Military careers? (Right job, attitude, civilian opportunities)

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5K views 25 replies 10 participants last post by  Tempest09 
#1 ·
I'm a military brat. So I feel obligated to join, even if it's one enlistment.

The Marine Corps is out of the question. I won't deny their discipline is great... Which is exactly why I don't want to join. I like to be myself and the recruiters were Grade A douches. I'm considering the Army, maybe intel, eod, medic. What would you do?

I kind of need suggestions, I'm a horrible decision maker. I understand the military is signing your life away, but I would like some kind of autonomy with my job. So that takes out most all of the combat arms jobs besides SOF, of course you have to be Bobby Hardass to make it through. I don't like swimming (and I'm black, go figure) so Diving and the like is out of the question. I'd also like something that could transfer better into civilian life. I hear so many stories of guys having to go to school cause being a door kicker doesn't translate to much on the civilian side.

I got a 90 on the ASVAB, so the Navy guys are ready pushing the nuke option. The pay (bonuses) are great and when you get out you're guaranteed 60k+ a year. Possibly even 6 figures. But I hear life sucks when you're in for those 6 years.
 
#2 ·
I don't know much about picking a military occupation, but I do know that a lot of military folks have trouble when they get out. A lot of it seems to stem from the way the military likes to have people work. That is to say, you do your one job and your one job only. I see a lot of people coming out claiming IT or intel analyst experience, only to find out they were really only trained to do the bare minimum necessary for their job. The military seems to like to modularize and compartmentalize work, where the commercial world expects people to have a much broader and well rounded skill set. (i.e. You sign up for a job doing aircraft electronics, go through basic and they send you to tech school to learn electronics fundamentals. Then you get out in the field and your job is to pull these one or two specific boxes from specific aircraft, and if you happen to be lucky enough to be assigned to "troubleshoot" them, you're required to run a very specific set of defined test procedures and nothing more.) Now, if there happens to be a job in the commercial world doing just that, then you're golden; but you're more likely to wind up not being truly qualified experience-wise to do much of anything in that field. On the other hand, the military has a good reason for operating that way, and it's so that Joe Dirt with an IQ of 60 hailing from Assbackwardstown Tennessee can enlist, go through a bare minimum training session and still be reasonably expected to be able to perform the job without issue.

Honestly, if you really want to sign up, I'd suggest doing yourself a favour and seriously consider the navy or coast guard. Of everyone I've met in all the different branches of service, the best training seems to go to the squids and puddle pirates. If you can't swim, they will teach you. And if you can, but just don't like it, well, you're going to have to decide if you can put up with it for the benefit of better schooling. If it were me and the navy guys mentioned nuke school...I'd jump on it.

I do know for a fact that the navy has by far the best EOD training available. Second would be the FBI.
 
#10 ·
What would you say is the right job with that balance of interesting-ness and autonomy?
Seriously considering Intel. I hear a lot of it is preparing Powerpoints and briefing Senior NCO's and Officers but there's other schools and whatnot you can go to that nobody can talk about without having men in black suits bust through their windows.

I'm going into Security Forces first, then I will cross train into that field. That is, of course, I can make it through the pipeline.
Security Forces? That's gross.

Most (not all) of the Air Force SF guys I've met have this air of douchey-ness about them that says "We wanted to dress the part, but didn't want to actually go outside the wire." Of course that's a horrible generalization but that's the jist of it. That said, some of the guys do get lucky (if you consider it that way) and go outside the wire and I respect them because they've actually did something besides check ID's at the gate.
 
#12 ·
I'm not saying everybody is like that, I'm just saying you'll likely work around a lot of tools.
Have you considered TACP? Lots of people drop out of the tech school because they don't prepare.

But if that's what you REALLY want to do then just do it.
 
#13 ·
What I REALLY want is CCT. Security Forces is just a start. Is there something similiar to Security Forces in the AF?
 
#20 ·
I'm going to join the marines, most likely career. I would of already joined but I had some health complications and now the earliest I could sign the papers is Spring '13. It kind of works out in a way since I wanted to join with my best friend and he needs to finish his last year of high school.
 
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