Starting School

[Hiptotorus]

 Great choice to continue your education and looking forward past your current life.  I applaud you.

I have a freind (though a good bit older than i would guess you are) that went about the same route as you.  Military to civilian and loved to work with computers.  

Basically he traded his Assoc, (provided by Uncle Sam) backed by his Security clearance, in with the DOE and then DOD bounced a few years through different levels of jobs (mostly grunt work).  Of course military or not when working with the gov. you are offered many oppurtunities to fill up your "I love me wall" with certificates of all kinds.  

Long story short he invested under ten years and broke from the Gov.  The certs + clearance level + experience added up to LARGE cash payouts in the end.  

One caution though, if your not ready to continuosly get the next certificate, networking will pass you by real fast.  

Not because the information changes but because the people having you build/maintain a network read a magazine and think the newest version of the same software is must have.  Idiots manage huge companies by following shiny objects around the fishbowl.  

[Volk]

Yeah, I need to get some more frames for my "I love me" wall. I have four certs up there right now, and few more just sitting around frameless. One great thing if I continue working for the gov't, I can keep my military time to go towards retirement. That's one major incentive, and being a civilian gov't employee pays pretty well.

I think my biggest problem right now is that there are so many things I want to do, but I don't think I have the time to do them all. First off, I would like to change to a new MOS (Military term for "job"), such as Interrogator or Counterintelligence. I would also like to try my hand at recruiting, since it is a very stable job with no chance of deployment and I would get to live in the States, and possibly at a city of my choice.

Another thing... oooh, shiny...

[Liladia]

DON'T BE A RECRUITER! You obviously have more experience with them than I do, but nearly every one that I have met has been slimy - one of them tried to convince me that I could become a pharmacist through a 6 month program in the military. When I told him that pharmacists need a DOCTORATE now and that he probably meant a pharm tech, he said, "Oh, I guess so." And then he tried to convince me not to go to pharmacy school.

It seems like it's all about numbers for recruiters and that many of them will do anything that they can to get their quotas, including, unfortunately, lying to high school kids. Don't go there and put yourself in that position. Keep yourself honest!

[Volk]

It's true, recruiters do have quotas, and some will say just about anything to meet that quota. HOwever, there are some honest recruiters out there as well. They aren't ALL bad. From what I've heard from ex-recruiters, it's not that bad of a job overall. Some just don't know quite what they are talking about, unfortunately, and those are usually the combat MOS guys that see themselves as the most important people in the military and don't try to learn about the others.