So graduation is like 4 months away.. i've been thinking about joining the US military but everyones telling me not to so its basically either community college or military.. your thoughts?
The military is a solid bet, you can work on aircraft in any branch which imo is an awesome job but I would avoid the army, it seems like its for people who can't hack it in the marines. You can get a civil service job when you get out and make a good living with the skills you learned.
with this economy, join the military, it would be one of the few jobs that you would have job security with. hell, i'm 25 and it's crossed my mind once or twice to join just so i have that job security.
Ignore this. They're not the only options. You could work full time and save up money until you figure out what you really want to do. Also, Cali has a 4 tier college system and the Cal State's are pretty easy to get into, though it's late to apply for fall semester. That said, if you're not sure what you'd do in college or if you want to go, don't go. It'd be a waste of your time and money if your heart wasn't in it. This is pretty much the reason to join up. Job security, you'll get a trained skill, GI Bill when you get out, and discipline that based on your posting history I think might do you a world of good. There's plenty of individuals on these boards that are in or were in the military at some point so I'm sure if you've got more specific questions they could help you out.
i hear alot of good things about coming out of the military(if you make it out) and getting a good job. honestly, i wouldnt even goto college right now unless your family is paying for it all completely i'd either go into the military or work my way up in a trade or for a company. get into HVAC, everyone needs heating and cooling, get into medical, thats the only job security thats gonna be left once the world falls apart. college is a joke unless youre going to MIT.
In military there are alot of times you get moved soo much that your studies will get really dissrupted. I have seen kids who thought they joining for one thing but ended up somewhere else. You get certain level of security, but your average life will be very different. Depending on your personality you will either love that life style or hate it. Take your time and decide which path in life you want to walk. Armed forces isnt a kind of world where you can turn back easily from. So as Juballharshaw said you can work and save money while you decide on your future. And if you can go to community collage to get your AS that will help too. Because companies usually will pay you to finish the last two year to get yours Bachelors.
Military is not a bad bet right now. At the very least, you'd get three years to decide what you don't want.
Military is NOT for everybody. It is a place to learn, you do get full medical benefits, 30 days vacation per year and these are hard to come by in the private sector. These benefits start as soon as you sign up. They do play a lot of head games in the military, so be cautious if you choose this route. It always seemed to me that the Army and Marines were always in the middle of the mess when it came to enlisted personnel ( not officers ). The Navy has real good training for electronic techs and they are usually on a boat somewhere. The Air Force also has some good training in electronics and usually it's the officers that are in the middle of everything (flying fighters, bombers and cargo planes). If you do decide to go make sure you understand and try to get in writing the training they will provide before you sign anything. I know I freaked when I found out the specialized training I was going to when I got through basic training. I signed up for radar school and saw they were sending me to fire control systems school, which turned out to be weapons control systems mechanic which was really radar on F-4 Phantoms. So it worked out for me. The military does not move people around as much as they used to, trying to save money to buy more bombs, I guess. Good Luck They also have different terms for enlistments, it's not always four or six years.
I went the college route .. and to this day i think if i could go back in time i would have enlisted(even though i would have been in the front lines of Iraq).
Hello! I had a prior Marine and Navy person tell me to join the CG, and I did. We like to say it's the "Military" because realistically it's more like a regular job with duty. If your on a ship it's 3 months out and 3 months in on average. Plus people don't have that mentality that the military is your life and should be #1 like some other services. I have worked with prior Marines, Army, Navy, and Air Force guys. How many people in the other services have worked with someone who was prior CG? Very few. I went for a job that would get me a good amount of college credits, and now I have 96.5 Credits. 61.5 of those are from the military. Tuition assistance has paid for my classes and a large portion of my books.
That's a hard deal to beat when it comes to financing college. just ask people on here with huge assed student loans to pay back with interest.
yikes..... can't belive how many people how many people suggest going to the military :O the idea of commiting a period of your life to them, not necessarly having control over your life and them basically owning you certainly doesn't sit well with me. I don't think taking a year to just think about things is a bad idea at all. take some time to think about what you want to do and be. I went into school right away, and well it all worked out pretty well for me, I had no idea what I really wanted from school and just too somthing that I knew would get me a job and I was good at(I took business) rather then really explore my passions. Honestly I probably made a good decision, but everyone will have regrets, its natrual, grass is always greener on the other side. if i could do it all over I would certainly take a year off, work for the first 6 months at a job in a field i might consider studying to see if you really like it and save as much as I could and then travel europe or asian for 3-4 months, then come back and decide what I want to do with my life. one word of advice. if you take a year off without knowing what you really want to do, DO NOT GET INTO ANY DEBT. probably 80% of the people I know who took time off did this and every one of them are stuck in jobs they hate with no prospect of going anywhere because they will never be able to go to school or do what they really want because they can't afford to stop working to pay for there car's and TV's and stereo's and all there other nice stuff tha they bought with all the credit everyone started offerin them the moment they started getting paychecks. You'lll have your whole adult life to enjoy that kind of stuff, if you want to take time off to decide what you want to do, benifit from that time and save. even if you arn't going to travel, school is fucking expensive. If you end up deciding school isn't for you after a year you'll have saved a nice nest egg towards what ever you want, possibly even a house down payment. iif you dont go to school I suggest starting to investing right away, the sooner you start the easier an better your later adult life will be.
And in poor economic times, not having just the right education could leave a person working in the private sector suffering the exact same conditions. The thing about taking a year to soul search is a great idea, if you can do it, it's what I too, would highly recomend. Just don't let the grass grow under your feet if you opt for that tack. In that sense, to avoid getting 'used to' mediocracy, getting right back into continued education is the best coarse. I've seen alot of guys put off getting into colledge and end up working the rest of thier lives at some mill or factory.
If you really want to go military, Go Air Force or don't go at all. Fuck all that gung-ho shit everyone makes you believe. All my friends that have done 4-6 years in the Marines regretted going. In the USAF you stick to your MOS even in wartime where the other branches hand you a weapon and tell you to go fight. I know a couple of guys who were in Finance in the USAF and when they got out got 60K-70K jobs to start. If you can go reserve, do it. You can go to college while Uncle Sam pays for it and if you like the USAF, you can always sign on active duty. May even get a signing bonus. I was signed up to leave for the AF myself but had to opt out at the last minute for family affairs. I was lined up for finance aswell.
Yup, I agree with the airforce or navy being the place to be if you are inclined to get into millitary service. More technical fields to choose from and job experience that transfers to private sector.
Two friends of mine were in the USAF and said it was easy as hell. They got AC in the desert while everyone else was sweating plus the pay was nice as Lurker said. I think if I had to do it again I'd join the AF and do my 20 years, retire and double dip.
wtf is that supposed to mean? obviously you don't know me very well. If you were to ask my friends and family, they would say I"m one of the most disciplined people in the world." me being "too disciplined" is what causes me to have problems in relationships. Because I can't loosen up. I'm very disciplined with money. Yes, I'm in a lot of debt but I didn't personally spend all that money. It was my ex-wife. Yes, I made the mistake of marrying her and I accept that but if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have a dime of debt. This is also the main reason why I had to break up with my g/f last month because she wasn't enough disaplined in money like I was. I bust my ass to pay off my debt as quickly as possible. Not a lot of people are like that. Look at america. Most people just shrug off their debt. My ex-wife hasn't paid a dime of hers. She constantly moves and changes her phone numbers to dodge collection calls. I put all my extra money towards paying it off. i'm obviously disciplined or I wouldn't had lost 85 pounds in like 7 months by exercising and eating right EVERY DAY. And I continue to maintain that weight but now build muscle. I'm just trying to think why you think I'm not disaplined. Maybe because I'm unemployed? Not my fault that there is a recession and I was working for a freakin newspaper company (which is in its own recession in itself). Every single day, I go to every job site I can think of and apply to jobs. Ones that even pay way less than I think I deserve, ones that might be too hard for me, etc. I could easily mooch off the government on unemployment if I wanted to. But that's not me. Yes, I have struggles in my life but it's not because of a lack of disapline. It's because life can suck. Life is a game. Good people are struggling. Bad people are flurishing. And visa versa. It's just the luck of the draw. So please, enlighten me on why I should join the military because I'm not disaplined enough... sorry for the slight thread hijack by the way...
Um, all the services get paid the same. All it depends on is your rank. Also I wish they would give me a gun, but nooooooooo. My bonus for going to the A school I did was 8k, about 5k after taxes. When I was in San Diego I said to my friend why do all these Navy people seem so angry. She responded "You would be too if you had to go underway for 6 months at a time."
+1, to a degree. Juball, I don't even know where to start regarding your posting. Yet again you ride into this thread on your high horse with your heavily opinionated attitude shining through. Who the FUCK are you telling one user to ignore another user? Oh really, you're a moderator? I'm quaking in my fucking boots. Is this "holier-than-thou" attitude really necessary? Funkgab, unless you have the burning desire to join the armed forces to serve your country, I'd suggest applying for a bunch of colleges now and see how much financial aid you can get. It's NOT too late to take action.
Good lawd. The comment surely wasn't directed at the high school senior that posted the thread. Nope, not at all. Sounds like you got some issues there chief. I quoted you to agree with you, guess I should have cut of the part of the quote where you talked about yourself so you didn't think I was referring to you. Yet again huh? Guess I'll water down my opinion for you all next time. Of course, the thread was created asking for opinions so I'm not sure why I should refrain from posting mine. Ok, let me expand on my "ignore this" comment. Funkgab, ignore Giggidy's statement that whatever you do you should not join the Army that was not backed up by any argument what so ever and read like a knee-jerk, the military is bad statement. Wait, so you agree with my heavily opinionated attitude? I'm pretty sure I mentioned in my post that he should look into the Cal States.
