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pantslesswithwolves posted:Since we're on the subject of career chat, I have to ask- at what point did you simply give up hope of ever having your efforts recognized or rewarded? I'm basically at some point in a mid-career existential spiral where I'm realizing that I have over a dozen years of work experience, diligent effort, great performance reviews and a reputation for being a good person to work with and it's amounted to...gently caress all. I left my last job because my contract ended and my uber-boss was unable to expend an ounce of political capital to keep me or any of my colleagues on, despite how we had made him look really good by working around the clock for over a week to evacuate several dozen Afghans who worked with us and partner countries from Kabul in 2021, or working for 10 months on a "return to operations" assignment (that was originally supposed to be six weeks) following the worst part of COVID. I took another job after mine ended and it hasn't been at all what I was led to believe it was- I'm basically doing the jobs that would have been done by four other people at my previous agency, fixing gaps far more serious than anything I've had to deal with before while also dealing with a salary that's 30% less what I'm used to. While doing mid-cycle performance reviews with my current boss this week, I asked about getting a raise for the one person that I supervise right now, only to be told that my current institution will only give a 2.5% merit-based increase for people who get "meets standards" on their annual performance reviews (if there's money in the budget)- "above standards" or "outstanding" doesn't get anything above that. In the 3 years since I retired from the Marine Corps, I am getting ready to move into my 3rd post retirement role. Since stepping into the professional workforce I've been able to increase my salary ~40% by being willing to jump ship for an opportunity to get paid more money. I do that because the only satisfaction work brings me is that it pays well enough for me to afford hobbies I care about. Waiting around for raises and promotions just enables your work to exploit your labor by assigning you the responsibilities without the pay. Look out for you and getting paid what you are worth. If your current employer can't do that, leverage your experience to move somewhere that can. Once you are somewhere comfortable, keep looking for the next thing since it'll probably pay even more.
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Nov 23, 2023 07:25
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M_Gargantua posted:Getting an MBA doesn't require brain worms. Moving my last post from the Ukraine thread... mlmp08 posted:Consider doing a bachelors or skill thing that’s interesting when you are retired. BAH, it’s basically part time hours, and a way to delay the onset of “old man brain” a hair longer. I didn't actually expect a bunch of advice to get posted, so I'll provide a little more context to my first world problem to close out the derail... I got a masters in interesting stuff at the end of my active duty time and only used a year of GI Bill (the lifetime interest of the loan was only 1 or 2 months' of GIB BAH, so I didn't use it until I was out), so I've still got two. Any undergrad program in this state has nonwaiverable general requirements that take more credits than several of the actual majors I looked at. The local votec has several certification programs I'm interested in (auto tech, welding, CNC/machining) so I'm waiting for further information but as of right now two of them are not offered evening/weekends and the other is only e/w on a part-time basis...but there's nothing published for next year. I'm not out of options and I've started looking at it soon enough that if I start next fall I should be able to burn it all before it expires. The MBA option is if none of the others pan out. lightpole posted:Could look for Engineering Management programs. Kinda similar but generally better. Otherwise there's nothing wrong with an MBA, the best classes I took were on the MBA side of my degrees. Just remember that they are giving you access to frameworks that need to be applied with nuance. That could be somewhat relevant to my .CTR work, I'll see if there's something like that around. I don't actually NEED another degree, it's not going to help with any career goals, I don't have any actual interest in business management or networking with other MBAs; the people I have to network with are foreign and US .mil and retirees-turned-CTR. But I want $1400 a month for 25 months, and I want my $1200 Montgomery GI Bill money back. My poo poo expires in 2027, so I'm just now begrudgingly starting to look seriously into my options...I'm also not planning on moving in the next few years, which is key.
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Nov 23, 2023 14:35
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pantslesswithwolves posted:
I got out in 12. Unemployed for almost 2 years, then started as a bottom-tier Office Space drone in the state dept of commerce. I kept the literal rubber stamp with my initials, when I left. I've jumped jobs twice since, but only when my requirements were actually going to be satisfied by the new job. I never expected to actually TURN DOWN a professional job offer, but it happened because of a difference of $5,000 (and thank god it did, WOW I dodged a bullet with that gig). If you're stable but dissatisfied where you are, figure out what your requirement is to get uprooted. Whether that means picking up and moving or staying local, whether it means more money or a different physical environment, more/less travel, whatever. Whatever changes you WANT, you need to figure out at least a few. Maybe it's a dollar amount. My job in Vegas was basically my dream job. I got to do the fun part of my military career (controlling airplanes) with none of the extraneous bullshit. We had one low-threat eval per year, and the normal cyber security CBTs and that was about it. In exchange for that I got paid more than I did as a captain, and got to play with F-22s, 35s, 15s, 16s, A-10s, Mirage F-1s, L-159s, the occasional Rhinos, Growlers, and Hawkeyes, and of course the C2ISR community I grew up in. But I hated living in the southwest. I liked my house, but hated that I had about 120 sqft for my dog, and no room to work on a project car or even take up woodworking (couldn't do it outside, couldn't raise a shed, stupid HOA). After about two years I'd maxed out career progression...we did so well they actually let us do more, but we'd hit the limit of what was even legal so there was nowhere else go upward. I had an idea of what the company was making on the contract and there wasn't a lot of extra room for raises, either. So I was basically topped out and not happy with anything outside of work hours. So I started thinking about what I really wanted. Ultimately, I decided on a dollar amount AND the kind of scenery I wanted: trees and water, and either mountains or beaches. Parts of New England, or maybe Montana/North Dakota, something like that, is what I was thinking. Maybe some kind of civ/ctr gig supporting an air national guard wing. Then I got a text from a buddy I hadn't really seen since training 15 years ago. A job in his office was opening up; the work sounded tedious, but as I looked into the area and the cost of living, it really got my attention. $5 gas was getting really loving old. I decided that if they met my dollar amount (which in my mind was ridiculous) I'd go for it. Then they actually did and it was a real "Oh poo poo" moment. It checked every box on my list of requirements...I never thought that would happen, so I expected to stay in Vegas. The job is tedious, but the travel is pretty great, I get paid better, and for within $5k of the sale price of my house in Vegas I bought a similar-sized house with a workshop on 5+ acres and no HOA. If I hadn't put thought into what I really wanted ahead of time, I never would've gone down this path. You're responsible for your needs. They don't care. Godholio fucked around with this message at 15:05 on Nov 23, 2023 |
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Nov 23, 2023 15:00
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Move on when you need to. They don't give a gently caress about you, don't give a gently caress about them. It's not personal, at this point things are structured this way to put people in this position on purpose. Do an honest internal evaluation and ask if they're shorting you. They'll never give you what your worth so when that evaluation comes up "yes", move on to someone who will. It sucks throwing everything up in the air and gambling on the new thing, and they know that. For retirement, uhh, ask someone else I guess? My retirement is a heart attack at my desk and dropping dead. Never gonna happen so I don't think about it.
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Nov 23, 2023 15:02
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Thanks for the advice, all. Admittedly I'd been drinking, was in a bad mood, and needed to vent. I definitely know I'm being shorted, so I'm working on my exit plan. Hope to find myself in a better place soon- I thought I had a good conception of work-life balance in other career choices I'd made, but I'm going to be a hell of a lot more mercenary with how I approach things from now on. Life's too short to be miserable and in a dysfunctional place.
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Nov 23, 2023 15:15
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Godholio posted:Moving my last post from the Ukraine thread... More education is never a bad thing and multiple degrees allowed me to branch out a lot and take a bunch of random poo poo I'd always wondered about. I would never have just taken an MBA though, the thinking was much more limited. There was a lot of value in taking classes through ENG and Engineering Management programs usually have a better structure from what I've seen e.g. less focus on Six Sigma and more on the evolution of efficiency programs and how they can be used in an organization. I didn't need anything for career advancement but they definitely helped in my own growth and made me much better. I stopped thinking about management degrees for the purpose of managing others as a boss and more as an aid to help in managing the relationships I have with those around me, if that makes sense. Thats where the value is for me and its definitely worth a year of study since that's a huge impact across your life.
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Nov 23, 2023 16:59
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I used half of my GI Bill on a top 20 MBA, outside of the core classes I focussed on entrepreneurship and global strategy/cross-cultural leadership, though being located here in Seattle my program was heavily geared towards tech anyway. 2023 has been a loving awful year to graduate from grad school, the layoffs have hit Seattle like a truck and every white collar job posting gets an insane amount of applicants. Started looking at sub $100k job postings, and with LinkedIn premium I can see that 75% of the applicants for almost every job have a masters degree. A year previous my program had a 98% hire rate after graduation and like $130k average salary and $20k signing bonus. Here it is 5 months later and I'm still trying to find a job. Many of my fellow graduates are also still looking for work. Friends that were laid off at the beginning of the year still haven't found new jobs either. Just a completely insane job market. It's like the current economic conditions are heavily focussing the pain on white collar workers in particular. Not sure how else to explain the otherwise low unemployment rate. edit: want to use the rest of my GI Bill on another masters but not sure what yet.
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Nov 23, 2023 20:29
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Mustang posted:edit: want to use the rest of my GI Bill on another masters but not sure what yet. Do the Mr Nice route and find a funded PhD program so you can technically use up the GI Bill and not have to pay for the rest
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Nov 23, 2023 20:31
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I've thought of that but have no loving idea what I would like to study and I've never been a particularly great student. Maintained like a 3.4 during my MBA program and that took a lot of work, though I was never super concerned about my grades anyway. I definitely don't want to do anything business related again.
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Nov 23, 2023 20:36
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Mustang posted:I've thought of that but have no loving idea what I would like to study and I've never been a particularly great student. Maintained like a 3.4 during my MBA program and that took a lot of work, though I was never super concerned about my grades anyway. What was your undergrad in?
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Nov 23, 2023 21:31
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International Studies, with an area focus of Africa. Used to want to become a foreign service officer, passed the test but never got an interview and did college option OCS to become an Army officer instead. Not interested in living an expat lifestyle anymore, despite taking a lot of international courses for my MBA and studying abroad in Berlin and South Africa. Was hoping to find a role in Seattle with an international aspect to the work, and some travel involved, but ultimately still living in Seattle.
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Nov 24, 2023 01:04
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Nick Soapdish posted:Do the Mr Nice route and find a funded PhD program so you can technically use up the GI Bill and not have to pay for the rest This is what I was ACTUALLY planning to do, but the local program flat out isn't interested in someone who isn't going directly into academia after graduating. I know what they get paid though, and no way in hell am I leaving my job for it.
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Nov 24, 2023 16:02
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Godholio posted:This is what I was ACTUALLY planning to do, but the local program flat out isn't interested in someone who isn't going directly into academia after graduating. I know what they get paid though, and no way in hell am I leaving my job for it. You don’t have to go into academia even if the program is geared toward that. My program is as well but there are grads that go private industry often enough.
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Nov 24, 2023 22:11
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAIrMSKzkTw I totally forgot Chris Hemsworth is Australian until I heard him talk. edit: I guess I should add more effort. Has anyone seen Godzilla Minus One yet? Reviews seem to love it and it looks amazing. It's open in my area right now until next weekend. Trying to figure out a time to go. Wrong Theory fucked around with this message at 01:20 on Dec 1, 2023 |
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Dec 1, 2023 01:16
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I hope they clean up that CGI a lot between the trailer and the release.
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Dec 1, 2023 02:17
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Wrong Theory posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAIrMSKzkTw not yet but supposedly its a fantastic godzilla movie
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Dec 1, 2023 06:16
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Hekk posted:In the 3 years since I retired from the Marine Corps, I am getting ready to move into my 3rd post retirement role. Since stepping into the professional workforce I've been able to increase my salary ~40% by being willing to jump ship for an opportunity to get paid more money. This. My CV is a mile long with the number of companies I worked for simply because if someone offered me another $1000 a month I'd be gone. I used to go to interviews and people would say "you have worked for a lot of companies, why did you leave?" and I'd just say because they did what you are doing, poached me and I jumped ship. I very rarely ever failed a job interview.
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Dec 1, 2023 08:20
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I just got word that I have passed Fundamentals of Geology (FG) exam and can now register with my state engineer licensing board as a Geologist-In-Training (GIT). I'm really proud to have accomplished this, and even moreso that I did it on the GI Bill. As a high school student twenty years ago I thought it was completely unrealistic to think I'd ever even go to college, much less really intellectually challenge myself with a science discipline. Feels good to accomplish a thing, even an entry level thing.
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Dec 1, 2023 22:20
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US Berder Patrol posted:I just got word that I have passed Fundamentals of Geology (FG) exam and can now register with my state engineer licensing board as a Geologist-In-Training (GIT). I'm really proud to have accomplished this, and even moreso that I did it on the GI Bill. As a high school student twenty years ago I thought it was completely unrealistic to think I'd ever even go to college, much less really intellectually challenge myself with a science discipline. Feels good to accomplish a thing, even an entry level thing. Congratulations! That's awesome man
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Dec 1, 2023 23:15
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US Berder Patrol posted:I just got word that I have passed Fundamentals of Geology (FG) exam and can now register with my state engineer licensing board as a Geologist-In-Training (GIT). I'm really proud to have accomplished this, and even moreso that I did it on the GI Bill. As a high school student twenty years ago I thought it was completely unrealistic to think I'd ever even go to college, much less really intellectually challenge myself with a science discipline. Feels good to accomplish a thing, even an entry level thing. The FG/FS/FE exams can be a huge pain in the rear end. I thought the PE was much easier than the FE and that the application process was actually the hardest part of it. Congrats!
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Dec 2, 2023 01:08
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US Berder Patrol posted:I just got word that I have passed Fundamentals of Geology (FG) exam and can now register with my state engineer licensing board as a Geologist-In-Training (GIT). I'm really proud to have accomplished this, and even moreso that I did it on the GI Bill. As a high school student twenty years ago I thought it was completely unrealistic to think I'd ever even go to college, much less really intellectually challenge myself with a science discipline. Feels good to accomplish a thing, even an entry level thing. What’s your favourite rock, taste wise?
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Dec 3, 2023 01:16
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US Berder Patrol posted:I just got word that I have passed Fundamentals of Geology (FG) exam and can now register with my state engineer licensing board as a Geologist-In-Training (GIT). I'm really proud to have accomplished this, and even moreso that I did it on the GI Bill. As a high school student twenty years ago I thought it was completely unrealistic to think I'd ever even go to college, much less really intellectually challenge myself with a science discipline. Feels good to accomplish a thing, even an entry level thing. That’s pretty cool. Ten years after my MS, I am actually using geology in my job. I’ve started an earth science program at my school and I’m rediscovering how much I find dirt fascinating.
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Dec 3, 2023 01:50
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Thanks for the congrats. Can confirm the exam was a major pain in the balls -- took three solid hours of grinding hard to complete. Lots of tough map reading problems. FrozenVent posted:What’s your favourite rock, taste wise? I tasted gypsum a few times in the field lol (tasting is only really for figuring out which evaporite you are examining) Stultus Maximus posted:That’s pretty cool. Ten years after my MS, I am actually using geology in my job. I’ve started an earth science program at my school and I’m rediscovering how much I find dirt fascinating. Dirt rules. I would love to learn some soil science stuff, but unfortunately I don't have any biology background to speak of
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Dec 3, 2023 03:19
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US Berder Patrol posted:Thanks for the congrats. Can confirm the exam was a major pain in the balls -- took three solid hours of grinding hard to complete. Lots of tough map reading problems. I have no biology background either. This was straight soil profile stuff. Also, nothing like the look a high school class gives when you do the field tests for soil texture. Rub the dirt on your teeth, they’re more sensitive than your fingers to grit.
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Dec 3, 2023 03:29
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US Berder Patrol posted:I just got word that I have passed Fundamentals of Geology (FG) exam and can now register with my state engineer licensing board as a Geologist-In-Training (GIT). I'm really proud to have accomplished this, and even moreso that I did it on the GI Bill. As a high school student twenty years ago I thought it was completely unrealistic to think I'd ever even go to college, much less really intellectually challenge myself with a science discipline. Feels good to accomplish a thing, even an entry level thing. That's awesome, congrats!
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Dec 3, 2023 03:31
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loving rock lickers.
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Dec 3, 2023 04:06
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All I'm hearing is that toddlers make excellent geologists.
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Dec 3, 2023 04:43
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The children do yearn for the mines
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Dec 3, 2023 05:21
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Mr. Nice! posted:You don’t have to go into academia even if the program is geared toward that. My program is as well but there are grads that go private industry often enough. It's explicitly what they select for.
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Dec 3, 2023 22:38
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Stultus Maximus posted:Also, nothing like the look a high school class gives when you do the field tests for soil texture. Rub the dirt on your teeth, they’re more sensitive than your fingers to grit. Oh yeah, we learned to do this, too. You distinguish between silt sized qtz and clays this way. You can feel quartz bc it's harder than your teeth, clays aren't.
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Dec 4, 2023 00:05
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I moved into a pretty fancy apartment to be near this new job, got a good deal for the area etc etc. Already trash picked a 52" Sony TV, some hardwood ikea end tables, an ikea shelving unit, a couple house plants, a stainless fruit basket/hanger, and a pile of ethernet and hdmi cables in the first week. I guess I have a new hobby here because people are so wasteful.
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Dec 4, 2023 00:47
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FrozenVent posted:What’s your favourite rock, taste wise? Realgar. FrozenVent posted:The children do yearn for the minerals In paleontology, the way to tell fossilized bone fragments from pieces of plain ol' rock is to lick it. Fossil bone sticks to your tongue because of tiny hole structures called tribeculae. I can confirm this from experience. Lemniscate Blue fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Dec 5, 2023 |
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Dec 5, 2023 02:00
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Great time to be a Godzilla fan.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV1OOlGwExM
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Dec 5, 2023 02:33
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I'd been having shoulder problems since I got home from Iraq in 2009, in 2015 I filed a claim and in 2018 the VA kicked it back saying "nothing's wrong with your shoulders, here's the MRI that says so." By then my shoulders were basically tight balls of pain and immobility, so I went to a non-VA doc who referred me to physical therapy. They measured out an extreme loss of range of motion in my shoulders and neck, asked if I'd ever had any imaging done, and gave them the MRI report from the VA. That's when I found out that there's nothing wrong with my shoulders but everything wrong with my neck. Bone spurs and arthritis in all of my cervical vertebrae going down to the top of my thoracic spine causing pinched nerves in pretty much all three nerve channels in my neckbones in all my neckbones, plus a damaged disc. My shoulder problems were caused by pinched nerves in my neck. So I filed a disability claim for my neck in October 2018. The VA said "you've never complained about your neck before. Denied." So I lawyered up and we've pursued the appeals all the way to the VA appellate court. I got a text today saying a decision was made. The judge has granted me service connection for degenerative arthritis of the spine and paralysis of the upper radicular group. Now I'm frantically  the VA website waiting for the decision letter to hit my account. I gotta know what my new rating is gonna be.
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Dec 5, 2023 17:41
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McNally posted:I'd been having shoulder problems since I got home from Iraq in 2009, in 2015 I filed a claim and in 2018 the VA kicked it back saying "nothing's wrong with your shoulders, here's the MRI that says so." I recently found out that I have some bad discs in my neck, through the VA. This reminds me to make a new claim on that and probably some mental health stuff. Glad to hear it worked out for you.
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Dec 5, 2023 17:43
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Pine Cone Jones posted:Glad to hear it worked out for you. I mean, it's a little early to say that, they may have just rated me 0% lol
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Dec 5, 2023 17:45
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McNally posted:I'd been having shoulder problems since I got home from Iraq in 2009, in 2015 I filed a claim and in 2018 the VA kicked it back saying "nothing's wrong with your shoulders, here's the MRI that says so." How long did it take from appeal to decision if you don't mind me asking? My dad was denied everything for his back - he has 5 levels fused in his C-spine and has a documented back injury on active duty and did 30+ jumps including hitting a vehicle on a jump zone. I helped him file a few years, they denied, we appealed with the help of a county rep and it's been almost two years with no decision or response from the panel review.
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Dec 6, 2023 00:32
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Mustang posted:I used half of my GI Bill on a top 20 MBA, outside of the core classes I focussed on entrepreneurship and global strategy/cross-cultural leadership, though being located here in Seattle my program was heavily geared towards tech anyway. What else do you have besides that? Because "former company-grade army officer, MBA" tells me absolutely nothing as a high-end white collar employer on why I should pick you over someone else with a technical background that I can train into basic tiers of management if I needed to. Can you do analysis? analytics? technical writing? project management? acquisitions? logistics? It sounds to me like someone lied to you horribly over what constitutes a high end six figure job. We hire people with masters and overall low/no experience as level 2s (~80k) and we're absolutely swimming in them.
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Dec 6, 2023 03:43
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Even without the MBA those are all things I've done in the Army, plus other things on my resume that I've added to it since then. Just using my time in the Army my professional experience is over 5 years, not sure why I would be applying to entry level jobs, makes literally zero sense. Employers seem to agree with me, considering I literally just finished my second interview for a senior program manager role at Amazon, and one for a Business Program Manager at Microsoft tomorrow. Doesn't make any sense to me to accept a pay cut and less responsibility for an entry level job. Regardless, the Seattle job market is tight for white collar jobs right now after getting hit hard by layoffs, every job posting having intense competition is a fact.
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Dec 6, 2023 04:06
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You need an MBA and 13 years experience for entry level jobs now, haven't you heard?
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Dec 6, 2023 05:03
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