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Hey OP, remember, there are 5 branches. Navy, Air Force, Marines, Army, and Coast Guard. I would speak to all 5, and see what they have to offer. Remember, officer recruiters are different from regular recruiters. The difference in pay, benefits, and living conditions, and opportunities after your military service, heavily favors officers. By a very large margin. As an E-3, your pay would be $1,931.10 per month. As an O-1, your pay would be $3,107.00. So just starting out, an officer has a financial advantage. You would have to be an E-5 with 8 years of service before you reach the starting pay of an officer. Most officers that reach retirement are earning over $10,000.00 a month. An enlisted person would never be able to earn that amount. Most enlisted retire at E-6 which tops out at $3,944.00, or E-7 which tops out at $5,291.00.
You would be selling yourself short just going in as enlisted. You will be working with a bunch of recent high school graduates. Some may have attended technical school, but a large majority will have no post secondary education. I'm not knocking being enlisted, I was enlisted. Buy you invested a large amount of money, time, and effort into your education. Why start all over?
Being enlisted is the best thing a person who has no interest in attending college after high school can do. It isn't the best thing for a more mature person with significant education.
Hey OP, remember, there are 5 branches. Navy, Air Force, Marines, Army, and Coast Guard. I would speak to all 5, and see what they have to offer. Remember, officer recruiters are different from regular recruiters.
Masters of public administration, the public sector version of an MBA.
You need to talk to a HP recruiter, a health professions recruiter, about healthcare administration or MSC (Medical Service Corps). You have exactly the type of degree they want, and the process is totally separate from normal officer selection boards. It has it's own process, own timeline, etc. Go on www.airforce.com and tell it you have a healthcare degree to find the right recruiter. Very little competition because people don't know about the field!
Hey OP, remember, there are 5 branches. Navy, Air Force, Marines, Army, and Coast Guard. I would speak to all 5, and see what they have to offer. Remember, officer recruiters are different from regular recruiters. The difference in pay, benefits, and living conditions, and opportunities after your military service, heavily favors officers. By a very large margin. As an E-3, your pay would be $1,931.10 per month. As an O-1, your pay would be $3,107.00. So just starting out, an officer has a financial advantage. You would have to be an E-5 with 8 years of service before you reach the starting pay of an officer. Most officers that reach retirement are earning over $10,000.00 a month. An enlisted person would never be able to earn that amount. Most enlisted retire at E-6 which tops out at $3,944.00, or E-7 which tops out at $5,291.00.
You would be selling yourself short just going in as enlisted. You will be working with a bunch of recent high school graduates. Some may have attended technical school, but a large majority will have no post secondary education. I'm not knocking being enlisted, I was enlisted. Buy you invested a large amount of money, time, and effort into your education. Why start all over?
Being enlisted is the best thing a person who has no interest in attending college after high school can do. It isn't the best thing for a more mature person with significant education.
I have to agree with this, and I, too, was enlisted, retiring at E-8. I'd also point out that for someone who already has a degree, enlisting is not a way to "get a foot in the door" to a commission.
I had a BA and joined the army, started off as an E4.
There isn't anything wrong with that. For some degree fields, you don't have any chance of getting commissioned as an officer. In that scenario, you either go back to college to change your field, or go in enlisted. But until the OP has chased every lead to becoming an officer, I will not recommend going in as enlisted. Enlisted is meant as an entry level into a technical field. Sure you can get a degree to become more competitive to make is past E-6, but you can retire as an E-6. So plenty of enlisted never get a degree, until they start thinking about life outside of the military. The people I served with that had advanced education were miserable. A couple were light years smarter than the officers they served under. They hated it, and got out after 4. Only one person I knew got accepted into the Seaman to Admiral program and got a commission, and that was only because he qualified to be a pilot.
I really feel that this is the reason that retention is so hard for the military. After seeing how well officers are treated, people who are really smart get motivated to be more than just enlisted and leave to complete their education. The sailors that reenlisted in my squadron weren't the college type.
Respectfully, somehow I got the idea you are talking Navy. That culture may be different.
I found the Army to be a different dynamic. But that was just my observation. There are lots of educated people throughout the ranks as lafemme said. It is more about what you want to do. My favorite NCOIC in my S 3 shop had a PhD in Math. He just loved mentoring and helping people grow.
Not to say that officers don't get paid more than enlisted. Managers generally get paid more than workers in most fields. CEOs get paid more than supervisors in most places.
So agree with the 5 branches comment if you (the OP) are driven to manage. If you are looking for a job (as your OP says) be flexible with your location or look around you for a job.
Good luck
Last edited by theoldnorthstate; 02-01-2018 at 11:31 AM..
During my first enlistment many of the crewmen I served with were men who had finished their BS degree during the draft. When they graduated, their deferments expired so they enlisted [and volunteered for subs] to avoid being drafted [and being sent to infantry]. At that time it was common for most enlisted crewmen to be college grads.
For my second enlistment, I had an EE, when I returned to the fleet it was still not unusual to meet other crewmen who already had a degree.
The climate changes all the time. What programs are being offered are always changing.
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