5 ms·

Yes, because it's impossible to ever change careers or apply your work ethic to gaining new skills. The idea that you don't have marketable skills having been i

• throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  When you leave the military with an infantry MOS and without leadership experience (which is the situation most people who quit after 4yr are in) all you have is a proven ability to work hard and put up with bullshit. You're on roughly equal ground with someone who's been a warehouse laborer or janitor for an equivalent period of time and on lower ground than someone who at least has industry adjacent experience. Being able to show up and work hard confers a much stronger advantage than it used to when applying for entry level jobs but it's not particularly unique. Yes you can apply a your work ethic to learning skills but that requires a kind of self-starting that we both know not everyone in the military develops.
  • dlp211 5y ago
    If you do a 4 year stint in the infantry and don't come away with some sort of leadership experience, the problem isn't your lack of experience, it's you didn't take advantage of the opportunities presented to you.
  • dragonwriter 5y ago
    > When you leave the military with an infantry MOS and without leadership experience all you have is a proven ability to work hard and put up with bullshit. But, from the contact I’ve had with the military (been close to several people who have either enlisted or commossioned experience, did the ROTC basic camp but chose not to contract) that's not particularly likely unless you are either actively avoiding or completely unsuited for leadership. And even then you’ll probably have some leadership experience. > You're on roughly equal ground with someone who's been a warehouse laborer or janitor for an equivalent period of time and on lower ground than someone who at least has industry adjacent experience. Even if you somehow manage to be in that place skill-wise (and I think, leadership skills aside, that's unlikely), you are still better off career-wise, because essentially all public and many, especially large, private employers apply systematic positive preference for veterans in hiring.
  • jollybean 5y ago
    This is kind of a narrow view. You've learned a variety of skills, probably had to face some challenging missions, been exposed to other cultures, learned to work within an organization, probably have highly conscientious posture. Anyone in 10 years and never had a leadership position at all you'd have to question a bit (they should for sure be sergeant) but ideally would be prepared to be a regional manager for retail or Wallmart Center Manager. The more easy going and communicative would work in sales. Almost anything operationally oriented. Contrast that with a sex worker who will unfortunately have a narrow set of options because a lot of companies just won't hire for that reason.
    • deleted 5y ago
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• Aeolun 5y ago
  Just out of curiosity. What are the marketable skills you gain from that? I can think of a few obvious ones just thinking about ‘military’, but wonder if there’s anything specific to being an infantryman?
  • ipaddr 5y ago
    A million jobs related to guns. It would be a good start for a security career transition. Law enforcement.
    • Aeolun 5y ago
      Yeah, that was the obvious one. I was hoping for something that would indicate something other than security guard or cop.
  • dlp211 5y ago
    Leadership, accountability, management, planning large scale operations, cross-team coordination, team building, dealing with bureaucracy and large organizations, dealing with rapidly shifting priorities, etc. There are so many marketable skills that you will gain from being in the military and the infantry has one of the fastest paths to leadership positions.
    • mbrodersen 5y ago
      The worst managers I have worked with were ex-military. They had no clue how to deal with highly skilled knowledge workers. They were probably fine leading grunts but the skills doesn’t transfer.
      • bdavis__ 5y ago
        absolute best managers i have worked with were ex-military. in general, academy grads are all very good. also well connected across society. a lot of difference between a 10 year Staff Sgt and a flag officer.