<p>I'm currently a freshman mechanical engineering major and I was curious about thoughts on joining the military after getting my 4 year degree. Which branch exactly i'm not too sure on, but I was thinking the Marines for a number of reasons ranging from the leadership skills i'll gain to serving the country to potentially travelling around the world. </p>
<p>After serving for a few years, would I have any disadvantages as compared to getting a job straight out of college related to my major? Or would engineering employers possibly see military experience as a benefit?</p>
<p>Officer is an Officer. that said if you want to be enlisted (enlisted is different than officer) and work a combat engineer MOS or construction MOS, dont go into marines. they get you in and they put you into whatever they want. even Band MOS gets forced to do missions sometimes. Unless you want to say “im a Marine” and be bad*** to everyone you meet i suggest another branch as the others have better lifestyles.</p>
<p>not knocking marines but, if your smart enough to pass engineering your smart enough for airforce which is far Better in terms of dorm,food, and lifestyle. and a mech engineer enlisted gets to work on air plains as a mechanic (probably as a supervisor)</p>
<p>if you want the best chance of seeing the world navy is a great choice. sailing the high seas is a good choice.</p>
<p>for the best chances to do all the specialization schools you want (airborn,sniper,rangers,etc) the army is a good choice. its a happy medium between all the branches.</p>
<p>But remember, in all branches an officer has the same duty of leading his soldiers in battle. and with that said your branch comes to personal preference. as the lifestyle is basically the same for all (besides navy where you will be commanding on a ship for most of the time lol)</p>
<p>for further reading; <a href=“https://www.goarmy.com/”>https://www.goarmy.com/</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.marines.mil/”>http://www.marines.mil/</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.airforce.com/”>http://www.airforce.com/</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.navy.mil/”>http://www.navy.mil/</a></p>
<p>Take anything I say with a grain of salt, as I am not in the military, only someone who’s spent a lot of time reading about engineers in the military.</p>
<p>From what I gather, Air Force OTS (Officer Training School) really seems to like people with engineering backgrounds. On the other hand, so does Navy and Navy OCS, and the Navy seems to put its engineers to better use, ie, you may get a significantly better chance to use some of that engineering knowledge as opposed to Air Force, where you may find yourself doing relatively menial tasks in positions that require you to liaise with defense contractors. Again, these are the general impressions I get from reading about engineers in the military on various military forums. I don’t have firsthand experience and haven’t actually spoken to people with firsthand experience.</p>
<p>If you’re not concerned about actually getting to use your engineering knowledge/education in the military, and are more concerned with serving and leadership, then you can probably ignore most of that. I don’t know how service will affect post-military prospects and employment.</p>
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You should talk to the ROTC at your university soon. There are two-year programs that you can still enter that will get you in as an officer. Otherwise you will need to enlist and hope that you can get posted to OCS if you want to be an officer.</p>
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Just remember that the Marines have some of the toughest physical requirements, AND that they have the “Every Marine is a rifleman” rule - regardless of your actual job, you will spend substantial time training as a platoon leader, which has NOTHING to do with engineering!</p>
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That depends a lot on what you are doing in the military. Bear in mind that none of the services have real engineering jobs at any level, your engagement with technology will be either operating it, repairing/maintaining it, or supervising people in the previous two roles. Nonetheless, some jobs will give you some technical chops that can be worthwhile in the civilian sector, and those are probably what you should steer towards. Most of those jobs are in the Air Force and Navy, relatively few in the Army or Marines. If you have one of those jobs then you will come out of the military rusty in a lot of areas but very advanced in a few others. Otherwise, you will just be rusty.</p>
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You will see a mix - most employers see military experience as a plus, but not all. Best bet would be to work for a defense contractor.</p>
<p>If you are seriously intent on the military, do ROTC. Getting in through OTS or OCS is far tougher as it’s generally only used to fill vacancies if there aren’t enough offices. Most officers come from service academies or the ROTC program. A majority of those who are in the OTS or OCS programs are enlisted not civilians.</p>
<p>Also consider the NAVY’s NUPOC (Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidatr) program. </p>
<p>“Or would engineering employers possibly see military experience as a benefit?”
That depends on how you frame it. Ideally, you’d be doing engineering work in the military and that would count as engineering experience.</p>
<p>Almost nobody serving in the military does any real engineering work; especially mechanical engineering. The Army Corps of Engineers does do a lot of civil engineering, but even that is heavily dependent on their staff of civilian engineers.</p>
<p>Having said that, both the Navy and the Air Force love mechanical engineers. The Navy loves them for submarines in particular, but also on other ships. Navy officers don’t do engineering work, but knowledge of engineering is very useful throughout the Navy.</p>
<p>I never advise people to join the military for simply a few years. If you do not think that it sounds like a good career, then it probably won’t be a good short term job for you.</p>
<p>“the leadership skills i’ll gain to serving the country to potentially travelling around the world.” This is a lie told young impressionable students like you and me to join the marines. Veterans at my CC all gave me solid advice regarding joining after getting your bachelors. Strongly consider the airforce or navy; they actually go places around the world people would pay to go to. Europe, Japan, Australia and the like. Do the OCS officer program as well. </p>
<p>I am military vet who was in the Air Force for 10 years and I am going to school now for aeronautical engineering If you want to join the military the #1 rule is to do what you want to do for the reasons you want to. Don’t let a recruiter, your parents, gf/bf or anyone else tell you which branch to join or why. You need to do if for your own reasons.
Having said that each branch is very different. They all have engineering jobs but what each branch is based on is different. Being in the Air Force was like working for a company not really being in the military. The physical standards are the easiest compared to the other branches but the mental standards (quality of work) is higher.</p>
<p>Do your research and ask veterans or active duty people then weigh your options. Its like picking a school all over again but once you in your can’t just drop out</p>