How different is a military career than a corporate job?

[treb]

Hello,

I'm currently a Computer Engineering student and have completed a couple of "corporate" internships so far during my education and have really not enjoyed them due to having a hard time adjusting to "corporate culture." I've done some research about commissioning and am finding mixed messages over whether you will be "flying a desk" as an aviator your whole career. My question is if commissioning into the Navy as an aviator or SWO through OCS after I graduate would at least be able to push off the drag and boredom of the corporate world for a couple of years?

Thanks for any help and responses!

 

[AllAmerican75]

What exactly about the corporate world did you not like? There's a distinct culture in the Navy that you will need to adjust to. It isn't all choker whites, dining outs, and port calls in Thailand.

 

[Sonog]

Hello,

I'm currently a Computer Engineering student and have completed a couple of "corporate" internships so far during my education and have really not enjoyed them due to having a hard time adjusting to "corporate culture." I've done some research about commissioning and am finding mixed messages over whether you will be "flying a desk" as an aviator your whole career. My question is if commissioning into the Navy as an aviator or SWO through OCS after I graduate would at least be able to push off the drag and boredom of the corporate world for a couple of years?

Thanks for any help and responses!

Imagine TPS reports, spreadsheets, and buzzword after buzzword. But it takes you 20 minutes to log onto a computer and open outlook just to look at the first email of the day....yeaaa Hi.

 

[JTS11]

There are Lumberghs and the Bobs everywhere.

 

[treb]

What exactly about the corporate world did you not like? There's a distinct culture in the Navy that you will need to adjust to. It isn't all choker whites, dining outs, and port calls in Thailand.

I guess the part I really didn't like was the realization that I would be spending the rest of my life chained to a desk every day and really working with no end goal or meaningful purpose in mind.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

I guess the part I really didn't like was the realization that I would be spending the rest of my life chained to a desk every day and really working with no end goal or meaningful purpose in mind.

Welcome to my new life

 

[wink]

I guess the part I really didn't like was the realization that I would be spending the rest of my life chained to a desk every day and really working with no end goal or meaningful purpose in mind.

Not meaning to talk you out of the Navy. Most commissioned jobs have enough variety and challange to keep boredom at bay and few are meaningless. But, as Mike Rowe says, take the job they allows you to pursue what you love as a hobby or avocation to the max extent possible. In other words, a job that gives you a schedule, and money to do what you truly love. It isn't often you find a job the you truly love. My son is an engineer. Too much desk work and documentation for his perfect engineering job. But the schedule is super flexible, the pay is good and people likable. It gives him time and money to do what he loves, coaching lacrosse, and fine woodworking. Making a lateral move to a dream job would mean giving up coaching. Mentoring and teaching life lessons through coaching is more important to him than the better job.

 

[AllAmerican75]

I guess the part I really didn't like was the realization that I would be spending the rest of my life chained to a desk every day and really working with no end goal or meaningful purpose in mind.

Sad to say but you'll get about 12 years tops as a SWO of operational time, maybe more if you screen for command at sea, but by then you're chest deep in the politics. Even as a Senior LT or Junior LCDR, you'll end up mainly pushing paper with a little bit of standing watch. Really, the coolest non-desk-job stuff you'll do is in the first four years as a division officer. The fact of the matter is that life as an officer is largely an administrative role making sure paperwork is done properly and the division/department/ship/squadron/fleet has a solid plan of action in place to meet operational commitments. That means there'll be a lot of message traffic, e-mail, meetings, writing evals, reading boring manuals, and battling the powerpoint monster in your day-to-day.

If you truly cannot stomach a desk job, then you should go enlisted. Life is hard as junior enlisted, especially with a college degree, but you definitely won't be chained to a desk. Ultimately, by getting a college degree and going the "white collar" route, you've chosen a career path that will inevitably sit you at a desk for the majority of your work. Being an officer won't save you from that eventuality.

But as @wink said, you work to pay for the things you love. I like planes and SCUBA diving and the Navy will likely never pay me to do either of those things, but they do pay me enough to be able to do them in my free time when I'm not at work. And if you work hard enough, get good enough at your passion, and have a little luck, then maybe you can turn that into a business further down the road. Until then, you gotta pay your dues and suck up the tedious portions of your job.

 

[Meyerkord]

finding mixed messages over whether you will be "flying a desk" as an aviator your whole career

Absolutely not. If you get an aviation contract, you're essentially guaranteed 6 years of not riding a desk. 2 years going through flight school, throw in another year for the FRS, and 3 years for your first sea tour. If you're not a complete sack of crap, there's decent odds you can come back as an instructor for 3 more years after that, putting you at 9 total. Yeah you'll have ground jobs along the way, but it's far from corporate. After your disassociated tour, the career paths really start to branch out. Some paths include more flying, some don't, but that's way down the line.

I worked as a software developer for a few years after college before I pulled the trigger on joining. I had similar trouble adjusting to the corporate culture, so I just decided to send it. I know full well that there's gonna be hard times, and time behind a desk, but I have a unique "once-in-a-lifetime" job that does some pretty cool stuff, and the opportunity for this doesn't last long.

Zero regrets.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

Sad to say but you'll get about 12 years tops as a SWO of operational time, maybe more if you screen for command at sea, but by then you're chest deep in the politics. Even as a Senior LT or Junior LCDR, you'll end up mainly pushing paper with a little bit of standing watch. Really, the coolest non-desk-job stuff you'll do is in the first four years as a division officer. The fact of the matter is that life as an officer is largely an administrative role making sure paperwork is done properly and the division/department/ship/squadron/fleet has a solid plan of action in place to meet operational commitments. That means there'll be a lot of message traffic, e-mail, meetings, writing evals, reading boring manuals, and battling the powerpoint monster in your day-to-day.

If you truly cannot stomach a desk job, then you should go enlisted. Life is hard as junior enlisted, especially with a college degree, but you definitely won't be chained to a desk. Ultimately, by getting a college degree and going the "white collar" route, you've chosen a career path that will inevitably sit you at a desk for the majority of your work. Being an officer won't save you from that eventuality.

But as @wink said, you work to pay for the things you love. I like planes and SCUBA diving and the Navy will likely never pay me to do either of those things, but they do pay me enough to be able to do them in my free time when I'm not at work. And if you work hard enough, get good enough at your passion, and have a little luck, then maybe you can turn that into a business further down the road. Until then, you gotta pay your dues and suck up the tedious portions of your job.

Even as enlisted you eventually are sitting behind a desk quite a bit, especially once you make CPO, over half my career was mainly behind a desk with little periods of excitement, it was going overseas and all the operational things that kept it fun.

 

[MattWSU]

I was a software engineer for four years and have been a naval aviator for the last five. I left a nice income and a pretty cush life to join this weird fraternity and as I stare down an EAS I can tell you that it was worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

You will have the time of your life and will not regret it. That being said, you’ll suffer and you’ll sweat and you’ll probably work and think harder than you ever have in your life, but yeah—it’s worth it.

I say go for it.

 

[IKE]

Absolutely not. If you get an aviation contract, you're essentially guaranteed 6 years of not riding a desk. 2 years going through flight school, throw in another year for the FRS, and 3 years for your first sea tour. If you're not a complete sack of crap, there's decent odds you can come back as an instructor for 3 more years after that, putting you at 9 total. Yeah you'll have ground jobs along the way, but it's far from corporate. After your disassociated tour, the career paths really start to branch out. Some paths include more flying, some don't, but that's way down the line.

I worked as a software developer for a few years after college before I pulled the trigger on joining. I had similar trouble adjusting to the corporate culture, so I just decided to send it. I know full well that there's gonna be hard times, and time behind a desk, but I have a unique "once-in-a-lifetime" job that does some pretty cool stuff, and the opportunity for this doesn't last long.

Zero regrets.

I was a software engineer for four years and have been a naval aviator for the last five. I left a nice income and a pretty cush life to join this weird fraternity and as I stare down an EAS I can tell you that it was worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

You will have the time of your life and will not regret it. That being said, you’ll suffer and you’ll sweat and you’ll probably work and think harder than you ever have in your life, but yeah—it’s worth it.

I say go for it.

These are the best answers so far. If you're kicking ass in school, and it turns out you're gifted with good monkey skills (natural flying ability), you could also shoot for Test Pilot School after your first tour. TPS is a truly unique experience stacked on the already unique experience of flying military aircraft.

I'm not a SWO, but I've spent time with them on a DDG as the Air Boss. From the outside, I think that community is what you make it. There are lots of opportunities to make tactical decisions/improvements, and SWOs enjoy more flexibility in their careers, because they don't start with 3-4 years of flight training (flexibility = in-residence grad school, cush shore tours, etc. without tanking your upward mobility)

 

[Griz882]

All of the above are good responses so all I will add is this...as I approach full retirement (about four years away) I can report that I have always had one job or another but in the end it’s not what you do but why you do it. To be fair, money is good stuff and I am happy with my income, but I am actually proud of military service.

 

[OscarMyers]

As you can tell from the responses above, everyone's experience has been vastly different. For me, that variation in careers is what I have enjoyed. The ability to do different things, be part of different organizations and work with a lot of different people all while being under the same pay and advancement structure. Sometimes the decision to do something different may hinder your advancement as you get to the promotion bottle necks, but there is almost always a creative way to keep serving and/or keep flying. The Navy is with out a doubt what you make it and it doesn't go without some hardships.

 

[Hair Warrior]

@treb if you are fluent in C (not just C++) and want to do cool shit, join the Navy as an 1840. You will later have plenty of corporate recruiters in certain sectors bashing down your door to hire you if/when you decide to get out. PM me for more info.