Is the military worth it for CS grads? Will it be a complete waste of time? I have 55k in student loan debt. I'm not about to join just for my student loan debt. Shit, I only pay $230 a month on it. Why does it matter? It's nothing but a little credit booster. I'm pretty sure that I would have taken out a credit booster loan from a bank, if I didn't have student loans, regardless. The main appeal, I suppose is getting a security clearance but even then, it might just expire before I leave right? Does anyone have any experience with the military as a CS graduate? I also, am pretty much done with living in my office and never seeing the light of day. I go into work and it's night, I go home and it's night. I'd rather have a more active lifestyle. Someone tell me their story.
Is the military worth it for CS grads? Will it be a complete waste of time? I have 55k in student loan debt...
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Go in the airforce if you want to use some of those skills, otherwise its a waste
Sell your sanity and body for 4 bucks an hour, why not?
If you're not an absolutely useless retard, go civ and make way more money.
If you're a useless retard, go in, get yourself hurt, and milk DV status for government jobs
Navy
Go to officer candidate school.
Become SWO-IW(Surface Warfare Information Warfare) or INTEL officer.
Receive top secret clearance.
Debt wiped away, 100k+ a year job literally anywhere government contractors operate waiting for you when you get out. If you're under 30, do this.
-t 27 year old, no debt, multiple critical language fluent, linguistics grad getting ready to do this because 5 years of office work has made me hate the underpaid corporate life.
>Navy
My cousin is in a long term gay m2m relationship with a navy officer.
Are gay sailor memes actually not memes?
Currently a 25N with a cyber degree. Being a 25N can be great and sometimes dive deep into the networking side of things and lets you work with comsec equipment a lot as well.
A normal day is about 12 hours a day. Sometimes you will be in the field for weeks or months and in those cases the day does not stop. You will just be told what to do that entire time. Meetings will be held at 2100 just to listen to some guy with 20 years in talk about how fucked up your guys are because they're not more brainlessly motivated. You will have days where things are great and you are thankful for the job. You will get to see and do some great shit. I get to travel all over Europe while I am stationed here. They sent me all over the states before this. I make a lot of connections.
With a degree you go in as an E4 making about $1000 a paycheck. Your living expenses are $0. It's all your money plus the student loan repayment option and the GI Bill option. Not only that but you become eligible for tuition assistance and they pay for your masters without ever touching your GI Bill.
Your lifestyle will be active but usually things you don't want to do and morons are in charge that will just create work to keep you busy because they believe that YOU owe the Army your time.
You won't be doing anything CS related in the Army in any field. The closest you'll get is 25N or 17C.a
Most Soldiers I know say "I wish I joined the Air Force" at least once a day. Sure we have a more combat related training setup but so what? NO one cares once you're out. Live good while you're in aka Air Force.
For enlisted, the meme I'm more familiar with is that they will fuck every prostitute they can in any port they can: at any time they can.
The officers are too busy larping as aristocrats. I, for one, am fine larping as an aristocrat for 20 years if it ensures I can actually do something with my life other than making shekelgruber rich.
>>Jow Forumsmeg/
join as a civilian contractor
they still do student loan forgiveness
I'm the Soldier(Army) that posted above.
DO NOT let people bullshit you. You will NOT receive a job just because of your military experience. You need to do things to set you up while you're in. You need industry related certifications, a degree, and to network. Those 100k+ a year jobs are usually in shitty locations dealing with fucking morons. I have a ton of friends doing this now and they hate their lives. They quit these positions all the time when they can't take it anymore. Those contractors churn out people so much it's ridiculous!
>do something with my life other than making shekelgruber rich
>MIC
fuck the troops
Listen here OP. I just got out in the Army as a 25B IT Specialist. If you enter without a plan. You will get fucked buy the military. If you plan on joining any branch. What exactly is your plan? Do you want some working experience and get some pretty cool places to work at? Do you want to work government?
I would just join for the TS/SCI clearance to get a sweet contractor job making like 80K+
clearancejobs . com will be your best friend to what jobs are there. I know for Army 17C and any 35S will be best bet for TS/SCI while still relating with your CS degree. You can always go officer make more too but, it is really competitive. If you are not in the physical shape, you will get a shitty job.
But are you in a m2m relationship with an Asian gay man from SF who works for m$?
Most women do. The uniforms have always been real pussy magnets.
Go on facebook and follow U.S. Army WTF Moments or The Salty Soldier for a while. See if you still wanna join after a month. Ask people in the comments what it's like. Just go Air Force and thank me later.
I'm leaning towards Navy. If I joined for student loans and top secret clearance, would reserves be a better approach? I would have my security clearance and be able to use the security clearance as soon as I got it. I read that it's unlikely that you would keep the security clearance if you leave and you're Active Duty. Usually they just let it expire before you're out.
Sometimes I feel like a useless retard. I work with a bunch of Indians at a government consultant company as a software engineer and we have 4 hour meetings over the placement of a checkbox. It's pretty mind-numbing. Can't be any more mind-numbing than the military. Pay is at least better than a 4 year Captain in the army though. I'm terrible at interviews and I don't have a portfolio because all the work I do is under NDA already. I did theoretical computer science, so it's not like my college prepped me for web application portfolio making, but for some reason everyone wants to see my Github or my portfolio. I just picked up all the technologies just by understanding computer science concepts. But the people that hire don't seem to understand that if you have 6 years of experience in C++ you're more than capable of writing C# or Java code. It's nonsensical honestly. I think they mainly frown upon the fact that I work at the company I work at. It's like if you have Amazon on your resume. A lot of people won't hire you just for having it on your name. I know that because it was the advice a manager gave me at an internship.
My plan is to do something cyber security related. Get my masters online through GaTech, the cyber security program that they have. Get a cyber security civ job afterwards. I do want a TS/SCI clearance. I'd also like to learn Korean or Portuguese. I'm really big into BJJ, so it'd definitely be worth it for my lifestyle.
Another reason for joining, I suppose. For whatever reason, girls will show interest in me until I tell them I am a software engineer and suddenly I can almost visibly see their peruvian puff pepper shrivels up like raisin.
well, I've always watched liveleak videos of afghanistan and iraq. I mean i'm on fucking Jow Forums lol. Of course I've seen every beheading video and all of that shit. Even the recent footage of those 4 green berets in Africa. I don't think some stupid hazing or inner army politics BS is going to affect me.
also thanks anons for giving me legit advice, and thank you for serving.
Find a recruiting station, take the ASVAB and see how you score. You don't have to sign any papers.
you fucking enlisted when you have a bachelors? ROFLMAO
Nah I got it while I've been in.
I'm from a poor area and was working in the literal cotton fields before I enlisted. It worked out great for me. I get job offers all the time now and I still have a year left on my current contract
>getting ready to do this
You will have a different opinion if you actually fucking do it.
t. west point grad
Is it worth it? I've been scouring the internet about people's experiences, I saw on reddit everyone said it's a terrible, terrible idea. A terrible idea or path for a CS graduate. But reddit is mostly s0yb0y bleeding heart liberals, so I take what they say with a grain of salt. I'm beginning to think this is a nonpartisan opinion.
I hope he comes back and posts a year from now about how much he hates making PowerPoints for dumb fuck seniors that can barely understand half the shit and worrying about getting top blocked all year long! Haha he doesn't even know what he's asking for.
A guy I work with now got his EE degree from Georgia tech. He's a 1LT now and he regrets it. He hates it.
Every Soldier out there is only enlisted to get to where you already are. Most come from poor backgrounds and couldn't afford to go to school or just had no other options. In those cases it's great and improves our lives. You are not in the type of need to make the military a great fit. You WILL regret it. Fuck this shit. I hate it every damn day but it's helping me get out from my poor upbringing. It's just a stepping stone.
I told you earlier go follow US Army WTF Moments on Facebook. It wasn't because they're political or post fight videos. It's because it's the real side of the Army posted and shared by people actually in. Not the glorified bullshit you see everywhere else.
Our vice principal is a former Army Sargent who's built like a tank. He's well liked and an amazing role model in a community where many of our kids don't have a good male role model.
On several occasions I've seen mothers step well over the line and make very sexual comments to him directly in front of their kids. I mean in plain site of their own children and in ways the kids notice. He's always very respectful and often asks another staff member to join him if he sees one of these parents coming to talk, but it's pretty damn trashy when it comes to some of the innuendo I've overheard.
These aren't jokes either. They try to get handsy with him too.
I understand you. I'm from a poor background. I almost enlisted for college benefits when I was 17 or 18 but some good people helped me get college credit for networking classes and I transferred into my university instead of applying as a normal high school graduate. I had fucking 0.7 high school overall GPA. I was truant all the time. They only let me graduate because during my senior year of high school I ended up getting a 3.8 GPA, so they realized that my high school GPA wasn't quite my fault. My life was shit then. I barely made it through college because I was poor and my family is mostly all drug addicts that I have completely disowned. I graduated with an overall 3.4 college after 5 years. Just a state school. Like I said before, my student loan payment is literally a credit booster. When I made my first payment my credit score went up by 200 points. Anyone can afford to go to college (maybe not the one they want), they just have to take out student loans to do it. And maybe they'll have to go to community college first too. But heck, if you speak fluent spanish you can go to school for free in many places in latin america. although you'd probably be stealing a spot from a poor peruvian kid who lives in an unfinished house and worked as a wage slave for a year to save up money to apply to the university, but y'know. butterfly effect.
but anyway i'd still like to serve, is even the reserves or national guard a mistake? National Guard says it will pay for 50k of my student loans, for example. I read that people basically go there, do their drills and sit around and go home once a month. Seems pretty fucking monotonous but wtf am I doing on the weekends? Playing WoW?
>Putting yourself in 55k of debt as a 'credit booster'
Someone this dumb is a sure thing for the military, go for it user.
Don't go to the army to get your loans repaid. With a job in CS, you can easily get a job in the 6 figures range almost immediately (if not after a year or two of experience) and wipe that debt away yourself.
Do you even understand how debt works? Most people are billionaires because they took on massive amounts of debt. As long as you make a monthly payment on the debt, it doesn't matter. Most people flip houses on credit. How do you think the housing bubble popped in 2008? Why do you think no one cares about the national debt but the libertarians? The richest people in the world are in mountains of debt. Debt doesn't matter. Federal student loan debt especially doesn't matter that much bud. Debt is a tool to accomplish a goal. It's pretty shitty that we, as Americans, have to get into thousands of dollars or debt or join the military to go to college but it's not the end of the world. If I didn't have the student loans, I still would have had to take out a credit booster loan to fix my credit, if I wanted to buy anything or live anywhere that isn't a sketchy craigslist ad because I started out with a 313 credit score and now after a couple years i'm already at 720 all by paying $200 a month. It's literally nothing for someone with a STEM degree lol.
What about not enlisting in the army, but working for them?
I may or may not have talked with some recruiters from one of the naval warfare centers about working there after I graduate from college with an applied CS degree. Good idea, or bad idea?
This appeals to me mostly because I want to work on things that are actually important and get used. I would off myself after a few years of working on the next big consumer-side web application that some overzealous businessmen think is going to make them bazillions of dollars.
I don't know, one other thing is that I traveled a lot. The perks of being a lonely computer nerd, I guess. You have a lot of expendable income. I went to a lot of shithole countries and just learned about other countries ways of life. It made me appreciate the United States of America more. It really is the greatest country on Earth.
I obviously touched a nerve, I'm at 780 by simply paying my bills in full every month and I have never had to carry any debt.
Just go into military and do whatever the fuck you want, only a fucking tool would come here and ask how to live their life, you are obviously making weird ass choices.
And don't bother going to a school for cyber unless it is on the NSA list of excellence, otherwise you are simply wasting your money.
sure thing bud
>he actually believes this
lmao
Why does working for Amazon look bad?
You did, I blame my coffee. I appreciate the advice about cyber though. It makes sense. GaTech seems to be on the list though;
It's not just if you work at Amazon. It's if you worked at Amazon for like 10 or 15 years. He told me that that would be career suicide and to never do that. Maybe because he worked there before and thinks their software development process is complete shit. But I think the point was that if you have what you consider to be a shit-tier code monkey job.. try to keep it to a minimum of 3 to 4 years and always be looking for something better.
Army Corps of Engineers will have a place for you.
A lot of people have a misconception that working for the DoD pays great. You would most likely end up working for CeCom or General Dynamics. They are low on the payscale...very low. They don't just sit around. They get moved to all of the locations we do every 5 years and have to go out there with us at times if equipment is not functioning properly. Trust me. Just find a better job. If you really feel the need then yeah national guard is better than reserves in terms of benefits. If I was you I would wish someone had told me this. I would never want this for my children after experiencing it.
Yeah if you work at one place for 15 years straight, there's no confirmation that you'll do well outside that company.
Going off what this guy said
Your best bet would be finding a branch that does local work. AFMC bases have pretty good software jobs, new ones are advertised with GS 7/9/11/12 path. Pay is pretty low but you get the FERS pension. Only hurdle is competing with vets on usajobs.
Source: DoD employee
> A lot of people have a misconception that working for the DoD pays great
> Pay is pretty low but you get the FERS pension
They made this clear, that I could get better pay working in industry. Just generally making sure I'm not walking into a shitstorm for my first career choice while you all are here.
> If you really feel the need then yeah national guard is better than reserves in terms of benefits
I'm not touching enlistment in anything with a 69 foot pole.
> AFMC bases have pretty good software jobs
I may as well check that out while I'm looking in that sector, thanks
OP- if you have a degree in software engineering then that puts you, probably, in the top 10% of people in the military based on cognitive ability. Imagine taking orders from people who flunked their way through high school (not because they had a life situation like you) but because they were just stupid, and so the military was the only option. Imagine mingling with tards who laugh at fart/bathroom jokes unironically and are in those facebook groups where people post epic maymays.
I'm not in the military but I know people who are in, and I've honestly heard nothing but negative or bittersweet experiences. Things such as: "I don't regret leaving my dysfunctional or poor home to go out and see some shit, but I didn't make any money with the time in, and now I have figure things out." Basically the gist of it, is that for most people who join the service, their lives don't really start until AFTER they leave. I'm not talking about lifers. People like you who want see some shit, maybe get some skills, or a security clearance, a.k.a. the mercenary types.
I don't know. I ain't got any recommendations for you, since I wasn't in the service. And more importantly, you have to live your own life and make your mistakes.
All I know is that you're gonna earn a McDonalds wage while inside, with the trade-off that you'll get the loan debt paid. But at what cost? Minimum service length is 3 but usually 4 years. 4 years out of you life where you are not making bank in the civilian world with your fancy degree. That is what economists call an opportunity cost. Think about this shit intensely, and don't make a rash decision. Get more opinions. Don't let recruiters fool you. Get a feel for the job market and know where you want to end up in a few years. If the military can be a stepping stone then so be it. Things like these are hard to call as good or bad. You don't get to replay your life, so all the more reason to go with decisions that feel right to you. Alright, peace.
If you have a degree definitely go officer, you'll make some pretty crazy bank and get a shit ton of connections and if you go chair force or navy you'll most likely just be a desk jockey and never see a firearm outside of your initial training
Join the Air Force. Retired MSgt here. Life in the other services is horrible. We are not at war, just constabulary operations, and even if we were at war most of ANY career is spent under peacetime conditions. AF peacetime conditions are comfy and corporate. If you aren't a dumbass you can make most of it fun.
AF life even as a maintainer (which I enjoyed but I'm a hardcore techy/mechanic/gearhead/welder/machinist) was fun for me but as an officer you'll have a profitable career with which you can build many connections. Retiring at 20 years and never having to work again is amazing. Ignore anyone who hasn't done that. The military industrial complex at officer level is even better post-retirement.
Ignore the other services. Their lives are so bad I've only known a couple of 1Lts who switched from blue to green because they were RIF'ed. OTOH I met many folks who went AF after their initial Army or USMC mistake.
youtube.com
The food, goddamn this is the strongest reason I wouldn't.
From everything I read on Jow Forums being an officer is the least terrible way to be in the military in america.
In canada, every enlistees get a decent wage but there is no 20 year pension while america you get paid like shit and have to live in barracks which is why tons of soldiers get married to avoid barracks.
if you do join up, be warned. if you go for anything with a fat signing bonus, they'll try to scam you on shipout day. they'll approach you saying there's some issue with your paperwork and try to get you to re sign with a much smaller signing bonus
>military
>pic of army
show's how much you know
well anyway if any kangaroofags want questions answered I'm here
also go air force you worthless faggots.
How would you guys say the NG compares?
Used to be people joined the NG & CG because you were least likely to deploy. Could be the gov discovered this loophole and covered it. Now you're more likely to be deployed & multiple times at that.
On a positive note when your contract is up you're out. They don't stop-loss you like the 4 main branches have been known to do.
Huh, Actually I was hoping to be deployed at least once so I don't mind.
Imagine being so cucked that you actually think living your life in debt just to boost your goyim score is a winning strategy.
Compound interest is a bitch. How long until you pay that thing off with those measly $200 payments? How about you crunch some numbers and see how much money you’re losing by doing that.
(Spoiler: it’s probably the full amount of your loan and then some)
Also. Don’t join the military. Armyfag here. Uncle Sam doesn’t give a shit about you. I enjoyed my time when I was younger and I didn’t understand why all my older buddies couldn’t wait to get out once their contracts were up. Well here I am in their same position just waiting for the clock to run out. The people who stay in are only doing it for the insurance or because they’re on a power trip and get a hardon screwing people. And as retarded and stuck up as you sound, even you don’t deserve the clusterfuck that is the modern military
>I'm not about to join just for my student loan debt.
They pay the funeral too says google:
"All funeral expenses will be paid by the military—body preparation, casket, transportation to the place of disposition, and marker. In addition, next-of-kin are entitled to a “death gratuity” of $100,000."