I joined the Marines - more questions about jobs

[J Jones]

Perhaps you should KNOW you're going to be fine before signing anything else, since it seems that you could've asked everything you needed to know from all the veterans, particularly Marine vets, who are on this board and could've steered you straight to begin with.

Get it nailed down here first and take up the offers to help you already given, since it's only your future you're talking about here. Being a grunt or cook isn't going to have the same impact as getting a strong technical specialty that will pay the bills when you leave the Corps.

 

[LD]

Going open contract is never a good way to go. However, you've got quite a while before you report for boot camp. I'd strongly suggest that you firmly decide on what MOS you want and use the time to work your recruiter for your desired MOS. If your recruiter stalls, don't be shy about talking to the SgtMaj of the MEPPS station. The officers may technically be in charge of the MEPPS station and recruiting offices but its the station SgtMaj that has REAL pull and gets things done. All MOS's are important, but I just can't imagine spending 4 years in the pot-shack simply because some recruiter led me to believe that "you can pick an MOS later."

 

[rayra]

well, TheOTherOne, a couple threads leading up to this, and you blew off all the advice and went 'Open Contract'???
Now you get to learn what USMC really stands for -
U
Signed a
Motherf'n
Contract

Even more lame, in that you've gone delayed / deferred enlistment, 6 MONTHS from now, and you STILL went 'Open'?? With that kind of lead time in your ship date, you could have picked ANY MOS you wanted, and held out for it.

Hope you can fix this situation before it is too late.

 

[cxm]

Marines

Congratulations on joining the service... we all appreciate the service you will give our country.

Being a marine isn't bad... if you can't be a Ranger....

One free piece of advice: "No matter how rough things seem at the time, keep putting one foot in front of the other and you will get to the end."

Rangers Lead the Way!

V/r

Chuck

 

[Lee F]

Here's the straight scoop on your first question. I was a 2841. Spent 1.5 years in school learning a skill that still pays my bills today. Once you leave school your duty station will determine what you do with your education. I was with both the2nd and 3rd Marine Division's and by the time I got out could run patrols, ambushes, etc as good as any 0311 period. Your MOS is important but which type of unit you are attached to is every bit as critical. A 2800 could be anywhere from the airwing, FSSG, or a real unit. Good luck.

 

[G1FAL]

Good advice here.

One more thing to consider.

You're going in in Sept. I did that too.

The fiscal year ends in October. Oct 1, to be exact.

So, they have to get rid of any extra money by Oct 1, or else the .gov, in all their wisdom, will reduce their budget the next year by however much is left over.

So....

Try to get an enlistment bonus.

When I went in, I wanted to be infantry. At the MEPS station, there was a problem with the computer or something. At first, they couldnt get me ANY MOS, let alone the one I wanted. Then the computer came back up, and not only did they get me infantry, I got a $1000 bonus for going infantry. Which was paid after completeion of SOI. After taxes I got like $700, which is still about a month take-home pay for a private.

 

[Mornard]

TheOtherOne -

Thank you for your service to our country, and to us. You are going to become that which bears honor above almost any other title you can achieve -- "U.S. Marine"

Congratulations.

 

[Frohickey]

neato.

You should check out the list of MOS jobs available for the Marines, and cross reference that with your ASVAB score, then list the ones you are interested in, and mull things over as to the peacetime applications of those jobs.

If I had to do my stint in the service again, I would probably go Navy with the Nuclear Propulsion School

 

[G1FAL]

Frohickey, funny you should mention nuclear propulsion....

When I came back from USMC boot camp, my mom handed me a letter and said it came a couple weeks after I left. I opened it, it was from the Navy offering me a slot in nuclear propulsion, automatic E-5 after the school, AND an $85K signing bonus. I was a little mad, to say the least. Yes, I really wanted to be a Marine, but 85K is a LOT of money, and I could always have gone to the Corps after getting out of the Navy.

That was my first experience with the Navy always being a day late and a dollar short (to be fair, though, I guess I was the one a dollar short....more like eighty-five thousand dollars short )

 

[Destructo6]

G1FAL, that E5 and $85k wasn't a sure thing. I served with quite a few Nuke program washouts. None of them were stupid, by any stretch of the imagination, but the program was/is designed to whittle. About as many Sailors cash in on that program as cash in on the DiveFarer program: very few.

 

[TheOtherOne]

Right now I've got DB - Command and Control / Electrician, which could be any one of these jobs:

0612 Field Wireman
0613 Construction Wireman
0614 Unit Level Circuit Switch (ULCS) Operator/Maintainer
0621 Field Radio Operator
0622 Mobile Multichannel Equipment Operator
0624 High Frequency Communication Central Operator
0626 Fleet SATCOM Terminal Operator
0627 Ground Mobile Forces SATCOM Operator
1141 Electrician
1142 Electrical Equipment Repair Specialist

My recruiter said that alot of those end up being out in the field with the Infantry and I was told that 0612 and 0621 definitely are. There are no Infantry jobs available but my recruiter said if any open up and I want one then I can always change my contract.

 

[G1FAL]

No infantry jobs available? Are you sure that you were talking to the Marine recruiter, and not the air farce guy playing a prank on you by borrowing the Marine's uniform?

Try telling him to move your ship date back a week and try again on getting you a job in the 03 field. Or, move it up a week. If one week wont do it, then try two. SOI (school of infantry) picks up a new class about every 2-3 weeks, so moving your ship date back or forward that amount of time should get you the slot you want.

 

[TheOtherOne]

No infantry jobs available? Are you sure that you were talking to the Marine recruiter, and not the air farce guy playing a prank on you by borrowing the Marine's uniform?

Yep. None available. He showed me the paper with all the different jobs that were available from now until September. There was the one that I chose and then a few other things that didn't seem to appealing to me like cook, maintenance, etc. I guess the reason no Infantry is available is partly due to the same reason that they can't even get me to boot camp until September. But that works out okay for me anyways.

 

[cookhj]

if you want to do grunt stuff and can't get 0300, try to go 1371, combat engineer. i'm one and we do almost as much grunt stuff as the grunts, plus we blow stuff up and lot of other things. the only drawback to being an active duty engineer is that you won't find out what kind of engineer you will be until you get almost through MOS school. the corps has division, air wing, and service support engineers. the division engineers do a lot of grunt stuff and engineer recon (similar to what recon units do, but engineer related; slightly different in nature but close enough for gov't work) and a little bit of demo with very little construction. service support and air wing engineers do a lot of construction, a mediocre amount of demo and a little bit of grunt stuff.

also, when i went through MCT, they were offering non-grunts the chance to go to SOI if they wanted. it was kind of a last chance thing. they might or might not do that when you go.

good luck and semper fi.

 

[Frohickey]

Too bad the Navy has an age limit on the Nuclear program.

If I was younger, and my job disappeared, I could go in it.
Should be easy to go through the Nuclear program if you already have a BSEE.

Plus, imagine what you can do with access to the PTO off a nuclear reactor, I bet you can run a few CNC milling machines and churn out 1911s. Would have to ask the captain first though.