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Why are so few professionally recommended to OCS? IWC.

Hair Warrior said:
A better question would be: Why do so many Navy applicants seemingly want the IWC? If you’re young and single, go fly helos or live on a submarine or do SOF stuff. Intel work is kinda boring to be honest. You can always go do it later in life.
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Someone's gotta make sure the quad-slide no one reads doesn't have any jitter, and it sure as shit isn't going to be me.
 
Could someone explain what the obsession with INTEL is? Do people watch movies and think it's the most amazing thing ever, or is it actually that amazing? I'm legitimately curious.

Also why is the general advice on this forum to avoid the SWO community like the plague? Is being an SWO as miserable as it's made out to be? Aren't most Navy officers SWOs? I've known a fair number of SWOs who hate their lives and a few who have enjoyed it, but the reasons for disliking it do not quite describe a nightmare scenario. Does the ship life just bear down on people?

I've known a couple SWOs who were based in Rota for a while who just do not like being an SWO, and I'm just scratching my head wondering how people who had all expense paid work trips (which included more tourism than work) to a dozen different countries in Europe could hate their lives so much. Is there really something so discomforting about being an SWO?
 
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RUFiO181 said:
This is who I imagine @Sculpin looks like in real life
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Tell that to the Marines at MEPS who accused me of "lying" when I said I wasn't a Marine before. ;) Unless there's some obscure Navy joke that the Marines look like Nemo or something.

Anyways, are my questions not legitimate? Why is the 'general advice' here to avoid the Navy's largest officer community?
 
Sculpin said:
Anyways, are my questions not legitimate? Why is the 'general advice' here to avoid the Navy's largest officer community?
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I think the picture was meant that you're naive.

Intel I believe is highly sought after for numerous reasons but I suspect most people have the wrong impression of the field. Data Science is a field everyone wants to join - in the private sector. I have people ask me how they can work as a data scientist. I proceed to ask them - do you enjoy mathematics/statistics and computer science to a level you enjoy reading academic math/stats and computer science papers understanding 80% of what is being presented to then implement those ideas on real world data? Most then respond, I was never good at math or I hate math or programming is confusing etc... I then proceed to tell them they would not like working as a data scientist as this is what the job entails. I suspect Intel falls into a similar situation - obviously not due to the math/stats or CS aspect.

SWO I've only read why people dislike the career so I can't speculate on the validness.
 
What I find amazing about this is back in the 80s and 90s when I was on active duty, the majority of intel officers I knew were flight school attrites or med NOQs. Very few joined wanting to be intel.
 
HAL Pilot said:
What I find amazing about this is back in the 80s and 90s when I was on active duty, the majority of intel officers I knew were flight school attrites or med NOQs. Very few joined wanting to be intel.
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That still happens. My last Intel O was a Primary attrite, but she was a phenomenal Intel O.
 
People probably think Intel is like Hollywood spy movies. For a few people, on a few days out of their career, it is. Whether Intel work is “cool”/“interesting” or not is subjective. But then again, 99.9% of people in the world will never experience it firsthand.
 
Sculpin said:
Could someone explain what the obsession with INTEL is? Do people watch movies and think it's the most amazing thing ever, or is it actually that amazing? I'm legitimately curious.

Also why is the general advice on this forum to avoid the SWO community like the plague? Is being an SWO as miserable as it's made out to be? Aren't most Navy officers SWOs? I've known a fair number of SWOs who hate their lives and a few who have enjoyed it, but the reasons for disliking it do not quite describe a nightmare scenario. Does the ship life just bear down on people?

I've known a couple SWOs who were based in Rota for a while who just do not like being an SWO, and I'm just scratching my head wondering how people who had all expense paid work trips (which included more tourism than work) to a dozen different countries in Europe could hate their lives so much. Is there really something so discomforting about being an SWO?
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Yes, ship life does bear down on people. And SWOs get a lot of ship life. (Also, constant work trips can wear you down, too, even when they're to cool European destinations.) Intel offers, generally speaking, get more shore duty, which equals a better quality of life. People are probably attracted to intel precisely because of the low selection rates. It's the same reason tons of people apply to Harvard - it seems prestigious because not many people get in, even if a majority of the people who apply would succeed if selected. I'm an intel officer who enjoys intel, but I've also known plenty of people who've come in from other communities and not liked it at all, so the amazingness of intel really depends on who you're talking to.
 
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