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If you have a bachelors degree there is no excuse not to enlist with an OCS contract. You're going to be old for your rank regardless, may as well be treated better and make more money while you're doing it. More importantly, what do you want to get out of your military experience? Specifically, if you get out at the end of your commitment because you don't enjoy the military lifestyle, how will your experience help you as a civilian? There's a lot of MOS's that are very difficult to translate to anything a civilian might value.
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Jul 15, 2021 19:38
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| # ¿ May 12, 2024 23:23 |
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Officers of all types spend most of their time doing white collar office work. You will become very familiar with Microsoft office if you aren't already. Life in a brigade combat team involves long days and lots of time spent in the field training for a rotation through one of the combat training centers. Turning red boxes into green boxes will consume most of your time. The Scientist posted:1. Lifelong interest in military history While it may have it's moments, the combat arms life isn't nearly as fun or rewarding as you're likely imagining it to be. You can count on it to be rough on both your mental and physical health. Even the lifers aren't happy, just surviving to retirement.
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Jul 16, 2021 00:17
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Hilariously, as an international relations undergrad I also tried to become an FSO but didn't make it and became an Army officer instead. Hopefully your nerd branch keeps you out of the BCTs. Otherwise, say hello to NTC/JRTC/Hohenfels for me.
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Dec 11, 2021 22:07
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Yeah, I can't imagine I'll find anywhere else I'll want to live more than WA. Not really interested in working for the government anymore, I value my freedom too much. The GI Bill life is great, going to an expensive grad school program and not paying a dime is a great feeling.
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Dec 12, 2021 03:48
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Yeah I've been pretty lucky in dealing with the VA so far for sure. Hope they'll get your stuff worked out before too long, it's insane how slow they are at processing stuff.
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Dec 13, 2021 01:09
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Rent is going up in Seattle but they keep dropping BAH? What's the logic?
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Dec 15, 2021 21:49
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I live in and go to school in Seattle and UW is in the 98195 Zipcode. E5 with dependents BAH will be $2592 in 2022, compared to $2679 in 2021, $2748 in 2020 and $2808 in 2019.
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Dec 15, 2021 22:29
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Your best option is to call a recruiter for the branches your interested in because they're not always accepting all waivers all of the time. I may be mistaken but I doubt anyone in here is currently a recruiter. They all have different ways they process people and a certain waiver might be acceptable in one branch but not another.
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Jan 14, 2022 02:52
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Don't worry about it too much, they'll train you in all of the tactical/technological poo poo you need to know. It's going to be pretty straightforward unless you're naturally an indecisive person. All officers spend most of their time doing white collar office work, you're going to become very familiar with Microsoft Office if you aren't already. If you want to get ahead of the game, get good at excel. Planning and coordinating upcoming events will occupy most of your time. Platoon leaders and commanders get to do more of the more exciting stuff as well but you're still going to be spending a lot of time behind a computer. If you want to make your bosses (and your own) life easier then get into the habit of never coming to them with problems unless you've already come up with some solutions yourself. It's extremely unlikely you're ever going to come across a truly unique problem to solve and your boss is going to feel like they need to micromanage you if you're constantly coming to them with problems but no solutions. Leverage the experience of your peers, your NCO's, or junior enlisted troops. They all have some knowledge or experience that you lack and you'd be a fool to ignore it.
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Nov 12, 2022 20:51
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I've had a brigade commander and a squadron commander that were prior SSGs with 30+ years in the Army. Completely opposite personalities. The brigade commander was a raging rear end in a top hat and kind of dumb, the squadron commander was one of the chillest guys I ever met in the Army.
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Apr 5, 2023 01:26
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| # ¿ May 12, 2024 23:23 |
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Officers do have good employment options outside of the military, as they all largely do white collar office work no matter what branch/speciality they might have. What are you hoping to get out of this experience? GI Bill for a masters? Foot in the door of a white collar professional career? I commissioned at 27 and felt somewhat old compared to the 22 and 23 year olds fresh out of college. When you commision you're going to be over a decade older, with everyone your age being either field grade officers with 10-15 years of experience or NCOs. Will likely be difficult finding peers at a similar stage in life. Your fellow second lieutenants will have only been legally able to drink alcohol for a couple years, and probably spending their weekends getting hammered at whatever lovely military bars are near the base you're at.
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Aug 12, 2023 17:48
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