I’m 30-something inexperienced hawsepiper. After many months of not being able to find work, I started looking into joining the Navy. If I join, I will barely make their age limit, so it’s my only chance to do it.
While in the enlistment process, I got a call from what is probably my #1 choice of all the companies I applied to. I was never in my life open to joining the military but since I’ve looked into it (and because job opportunities have been so scarce) it’s looking pretty attractive. Skills training, being able to pick my work, exercise, job security, money for school. The low pay isn’t so bad since I have no family obligations or bills to pay except for a few thousand of college loans to pay off.
If I take the civilian side job, I’ll be able to make $10,000 of pure savings in 6 months, which will be nice because I’m completely broke. But I’ll just be doing pure labor and customer service. I suspect that’s all I’ll be doing for a while. I’ll get to go to some cool places (without ever getting off the boat), but the work will be grueling. I know I’ll be doing plenty of painting and cleaning in the Navy, too, but I’ll also have the duties pertaining to my main job/rating. I’m fine with hard work, but I need a mental challenge or to be able to learn skills, too. And if I don’t get a 2nd job relatively soon after, that money won’t last long.
Anyway, to over-simplify it, it seems to me there’s money (maybe) and freedom on one side, and education and security on the other. I know there’s more to it than that though. Can y’all give me more perspective?
To be clear, the whole point of me becoming a sailor is to travel internationally. Whether it’s with cruises, yachts, sealift command or whatever. I hope I’ll get a better idea of what specific path I prefer once I get some experience. That is, if I don’t go Navy.
So, since everybody around here is on the civilian side, why shouldn’t I go into the Navy? Or to the guys who have experience in both the military and civilian side, what are the pros/cons that I should be considering?