

Joining the military- bad career choice with well paying job offer on the table? - zrose811

I have an offer to work on a trading desk (I know, I know - it's corporate, but that doesn't change the situation) at a Wall Street firm, but I've always wanted to join the military and serve. Is it a poor career choice for me to do so? Any advice is welcome..
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gexla
If you want to join the military but you could also be looking at a good job,
then I would do both. Accept the job and join a Reserve / Guard unit.

Go ahead and start with the trading desk and get going with it. After things
have settled down with whatever changes you have had to make, then start
talking to recruiters.

What you need to look for is the available opportunities in your area, and a
recruiter can help you with this. For example, if you have an Army base close
to your area then there is likely a lot of local Army Reserve opportunities
available. If there are no local Army Reserve units, then you will need to
look at National Guard units. Though I'm using Army as an example, you could
do the same with any branch which has equivalents (and again, the branch will
largely depend on local opportunities.)

Once you have located the local units which you could be based in (or close
enough by commute) then try having the recruiter take you to each of them to
talk to someone who can tell you about the needs of that particular unit.
Hopefully that person could also tell you a little about the jobs available.
You will probably find that the unit will have some needs which are more
critical than others and this might mean the difference between being being
bored with nothing to do and being active and needed.

The reason I suggest starting out as a part timer is because you have the best
of all worlds. If you go into basic training / AIT and hate the military, then
you get to go home and only have to deal with the military one weekend a
month. If you love the military and feel that you want to go full time, then
you have the option of making that switch.

Make sure you don't get pressured by your recruiters and MEPS. The recruiters
will try to get you to go full time and MEPS is where you land your MOS (job.)
I'm not sure exactly how MEPS work but when I went into the reserves I had to
pick from a list of open jobs available in my area. If there are no open jobs
that you like, I'm not sure what options you have. That is why I suggest you
speak with a unit before you go, so that you can get a good idea of what is
needed and what you will be doing.

I went into an aviation unit (Chinooks) and it was a lot of fun. The reserve
unit I started out with was well funded and did a lot of work for the local
community. For me, that meant free helicopter tours of places like Mt. Ranier.
;)

Another reason for checking with your unit is that you can see how active and
how well taken care of they were. I served in two different units and the
differences were like night and day. The first unit (Chinook Reserve unit at
Ft. Lewis) was very active with most of their Chinooks in service and I had
people fighting over my time for helping out in different areas. I could have
easily landed a full time job there if I wanted to (another possibility, you
can work full time military even though you are technically a weekend
warrior.) The next unit I served with (Blackhawk Guard unit in Pheonix) had a
lot of inactive aircraft and I hardly did anything.

From what I have seen I believe Reserve units are better funded but I could be
wrong on that. The pro's for the Guard units is that they are more diversely
located and I believe they have more benefits such as discounts on the state
public schools.

Good luck and take things slow. Make sure you don't get rushed or pressured
into anything.

EDIT: One issue you might run into is that you will have to take time for
training. This might be a deal breaker for you and / or your job. You have
some choice over your time away with the MOS you select. My aviation MOS was
supposed to be something like 7 months on top of basic training but that was
shortened quite a bit because we had a small class of people who were all
college students (we were much stronger in the classroom environment than the
typical Army recruit.) If you couldn't be away that long then you could pick a
much shorter MOS.

------
cperciva
_I've always to join the military and serve. Is it a poor career choice for me
to do so?_

Aside from the obvious answer that the first sentence no verb, I'd say this:
Wall Street jobs will always be there (or if not Wall Street, similarly well-
paying jobs for highly-skilled people) but you won't always be fit enough /
young enough / single enough to join the miliary.

In short: Screw your career -- live your life the way you want to live it.

------
rdl
I'd join the military, as long as you have non-financial reasons to do so.
Then, you have a bunch of options -- get out after your contract, go
reserves/ng, or retire after 20 and have a second career.

