<p>You can tell how ignorant I am from the fact that I said "military person" and not whatever they're really called.</p>
<p>My son is studying Chinese, and it seems to me that one career path for someone who speaks Chinese (or Arabic, or other language that few Americans speak) would be military intelligence. This has me wondering what life is like for someone who joins the military after college. I'm thinking of someone with a particular skill that the military wants, as opposed to someone who signs up because they can't find a civilian job, if that makes a difference.</p>
<p>I participate on an engineer’s forum where several of the fellows are some sort of military or other. Primarily Civil Engineers in different types of duty for different branches. Most of them are Captain or higher in rank, and seem to make decent salaries, along with a lot of the perks such as housing allowances, a good pension that allows them to retire young and start a second career. </p>
<p>Most of them are also stationed state-side, although a couple have had to deploy overseas, including to places like Iraq or Afghanistan, but it looks like that type of stuff is going to start winding down, at least from the news.</p>
<p>It looks like a reasonably good deal to me.</p>
<p>Is Chinese his major or minor? What other subjects is he studying? Rather than the military, I think the CIA or NSA would be better than the military. If he’s into business, I’m sure he could find a good finance job with a large firm that needs people to do business in those regions.</p>
<p>I agree about having him look at the CIA or perhaps the foreign service. The military is well, the military. That means soldiers. Yes, the military offer lots of opportunities that can be very useful after a one gets out, but the fine print always says may be called upon to die for your country. If you – or your son – cannot wrap your heads around that tiny little caveat, I’d look elsewhere.</p>
<p>I’ve got to ask what makes people think that being in the CIA is any guarantee you won’t be asked to sacrifice or die for your country? There are a lot of CIA people overseas embedded with military people. There are also a lot of CIA people doing covert activities. Being in the CIA is no guarantee you’ll be at a desk at Langley.</p>
<p>He should join the military if he wants to serve in the military. If he’s not driven to be in the military, then he should look elsewhere.</p>
<p>I’m seeing where anyone said that joining the CIA is guarentee that one will not be asked to sacrifice or die for their country, so I’m not sure what the issue is.</p>
I’m assuming you meant to say “I’m NOT seeing …”. </p>
<p>If so, are you reading the posts? Because when somebody says that if you want to avoid dying for your country you should forget about the military and look somewhere else, and in the same post recommends you try the CIA, that’s pretty much the same thing.</p>
<p>This whole discussion is really a little ridiculous. I’m assuming the OP knows that military people sometimes go to war, and should prepare for that possibility.</p>
<p>The NSA has internships for those who study Chinese and they also have housing. The applications open September 7 for next summer. Students may need to be sophomores before applying; I am not certain.</p>
<p>About life in the military…My husband put in 27 years and we were married for 18 of those. If a young man goes through ROTC, he would be commissioned as a second lieutentant upon graduation and then progress through the ranks. The trick is that you are not guaranteed a branch of service upon commissioning. So even though your son majors in Chinese, that does not guarantee he will use it. Of course, it is currently a highly desireable language. However, a person could end up as an infantry officer if there are not enough military intelligence slots the year your son is commissioned. Foreign area officer is another specialty in the military, but I think that is an area that a person would go into after he had been in the military for a while.</p>
<p>Life in the military is not easy and it is worse now than it was even ten years ago. Soldiers have multiple rotations into war zones and it is very tough on the soldiers and their families. My husband retired as a full colonel, but he never served in combat and he never served at the Pentagon. He went to West Point at the end of Viet Nam.</p>
<p>Our life has been quite nice. My husband is ten years in to a second career and I would say the military was a great life for us. It still was not an easy life because we had lots of moving and separation. My son thinks he wants to go into the military and I am encouraging him to try ROTC with no commitment his first year of college. That might be something your son could investigate. Good luck.</p>
<p>The main difference a college degree will make for someone joining the military is that it will qualify him (but will not guarantee him) to be an officer. And an officer’s life is far different from an enlisted man’s. He’ll still have to get into and graduate from Officer’s Candidate School though (unless he already did ROTC in college). The degree alone will not be enough.</p>
<p>It really depends on what service and career field they get into.
It can vary from leading special forces teams through Afghanistan, to sitting in a missile silo, to commanding a ship, to flying, to developing new materials for satellites.</p>
<p>If your son has a degree, he can go through a commissioning source to become an officer or he can enlist. Enlisted tend to do more hands-on work, but also do not recieve as much pay as officers. Officers more often are in leadership or management roles.
In intelligence, enlisted members may do the collection and translation, while the officer compiles information into a form that can be passed on to those who need it, as an example.</p>
<p>If he is interested in the military, he needs to research what he wants to do and the best way to get into that career field.</p>
<p>The U.S. military offers the finest leadership training in the world. In addition to that, you get the honor of working among a team of sefless Americans who are capable of working seven days a week with little sleep to accomplish any mission. If you are good enough to function in that environment, whether it be in logistics, medical, communications, intelligence, information systems, etc. - you can do anything - and corporate America knows it. Don’t even think about joining the military because “you can’t find a civilian job.” You won’t make it as an commissioned officer or NCO. If you love your country and know in your heart that you owe her something, fine - visit your Officer Selection Officer at a recruiting office. If not, stay the hell away from the U.S. Armed Forces.</p>
<p>I served in military intelligence as an Arabic linguist. Those were all enlisted jobs, although many of the enlisted people in that career field had college degrees. The military taught the language skills and didn’t seek people who already had those skills (although maybe that policy has changed now). Career linguists did stateside rotations at NSA, but there were lots of jobs there for civilians as well, which sounds like it might be a better fit for your son if he isn’t interested in the military per se. </p>
<p>My brother is a retired Colonel who served in four different combat zones and at the Pentagon for his last tour. His daughter, who graduated from high school this spring, has enlisted and will head to basic training in November. As you can see, our family is OK with being enlisted or an officer, which is not a widely held opinion I see on cc where there is often a bias toward being an officer. His other daughter just married a marine officer last Saturday. At the wedding toast, my brother said people who serve in the military must always put duty ahead of their families. When they get to the point they no longer want to do that, it is time to get out. Every marine in that room nodded their heads in agreement.</p>
<p>I’m an army “brat”, my brother also served in the military as an officer (engineer) and my cousin studied Chinese at GW. The military can offer a great career if you are interested in being in the military. It’s leadership training is par to none. It is not a wealthy lifestyle, but it provides travel, medical care, and other benefits. I grew up traveling the country and lived in Europe for 3 years as well. I had a great childhood. My father loved serving our country and it paid for his BS, MS and PhD. After 20 years he began a second corporate career. My brother went ROTC and served for 6 or 8 years and is now a Director at a rather large corporation. The military has it’s benifits. Having said that, you really need to want to be in the military, not just use a particular skill. It’s a life style and mind set, it is not a job. </p>
<p>My cousin studied chinese at GW and spent a year in China as well. He now works as a computer programer. The military, CIA and NSA really use native speakers for their intelligence work. There are alot of fluent American born citizens of Chinese origin. Chinese is too complicated to “study” and become proficient enough to be used for the kind of work intelligence agencies do. They have to be able to pick up nuances that a studied speaker just can’t in that complicated language. </p>
<p>geo, that is very useful. My son studied some Arabic in school and I kept having people tell me he should look at the military, CIA or State Department. He considered it at one point and decided it wasn’t for him. Even if you fit the profile of what is “wanted” by these organizations, you shouldn’t try to go that route unless your heart is really in it. I have the utmost respect for our military and have known lots of military families and seen their sacrifices. It isn’t something to do just because you think it will be a job and the economy is tight right now. AND there are lots of applicants for the CIA and State Department programs…it is just as competitive as the open job market everywhere else.</p>
<p>FWIW, and I know this is off-topic, graduates of the service academies were EXTREMELY well-regarded and sought after by the blue-chip corporation I worked for and others I was familiar with. We talk about “smart stamps” here on CC and a military service academy was certainly a “smart stamp” equal to a Harvard or MIT.</p>