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Oded3011
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15 Jul 2011, 6:03 am

I am about to finish serving in the military and I find myself paralyzed by fear of what the future holds: I have no fields of interest, I am almost entirely driven to just make money so that I don't have to suck on my parent's bank accounts anymore and I have always been motivated to do things through fear rather than interest and / or curiousity.

What should I do?



Aspinator
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15 Jul 2011, 7:32 am

You shouldn't feel like the Lone Ranger. The majority of the people who have served in the military feel the same way as you do now. You just have to have faith in yourself and always believe you will land on your feet. I think you will be pleasently surprised to find out that there are a lot of businesses that covet ex-military. Our self discipline and self motivation make us stand out. Another avenue to consider is a government job. That way you can use your military time towards tenure and retirement.. By the way, I am ex-military.



DoniiMann
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15 Jul 2011, 7:52 am

I'm curious as to what you did in the military, if any of it is transferable skills or trade related. And/or if it would be possible to continue in the military for a while in order to take advantage of any military sponsored training that might be useful on the outside (e.g. electronics, engineering corp, warehousing...


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memesplice
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15 Jul 2011, 8:15 am

Hey I've worked with some ex military guys. They were OK- one had been a driver in the engineers and got to drive vans. I think it's great you want to be totally independant and orienate your skills and positive attitude to finding work.
I'll PM you what I think is maybe a great well paid job some military guys I know did, and has all the cameraderie and the good of the military without the potential warfare.



AngelRho
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15 Jul 2011, 8:31 am

First of all, I just want to say "thank you" for serving in the military!

For the most part, military service gives you somewhat an edge in the job market. The expectation is that you have an uncommon sense of discipline that most new employees lack. Military service is your "foot-in-the-door." Personally, I started out my career by "name dropping" because, quite honestly, I'd studied music with someone who had a solid reputation and who gave me a bulletproof recommendation where ever I went--be it a job or a school.

This only gets you just so far, though, and once I was on the job my weaknesses finally caught up with me. Just living, working, and making mistakes taught me a lot of lessons, one being that teaching in the school classroom--at least at that point in my life--is not what I'm best suited for. I'm doing what works best for me, which is basically running my own small piano teaching studio (in two locations, looking at opening a third aimed at a certain type of piano or music student as opposed to my more traditional, classical approach elsewhere). My real passion is writing music, so for the time being all the free time I have goes toward expanding my range of abilities and building a good reputation in the immediate community as a performing musician, private teacher, arranger, songwriter, composer, and current leader of my church's instrumental music program. The point here being I never could have gotten where I am without having a small number of contacts from my education and work experience speak for me.

Now, YOUR particular problem is the only foot-in-the-door you have is your military training. Generally your skills will be transferrable to "real-world" job skills. What you need is some field of interest, but more than that you need time to figure out what that is.

My advice: You're going to be eligible for GI Bill benefits for, I'm guessing, the next 10-15 years. (Assuming you're in the US) Take advantage of it. I think that will pay for up to 3 years of college or an apprenticeship. I say enroll in a public university, declare a "liberal arts" major for the first two years, and give yourself that much time to decide on what you want to do.

The two "hot" academic areas right now seem to be education and nursing. I don't really recommend education, though, because hiring in public schools is really volatile and unless they really have a reason to keep you, you may not last long at one school. Personally, I went through 3 teaching jobs in 5 years. I probably could have tried to stay in it, but I just decided it wasn't really worth it. Depending on what you teach and how good your social skills are (as well as how good you are with politics), you might do better than I did. But I think the number of new teachers that graduate is probably disproportionate to the number of available jobs (which can evaporate at any moment) as well as the number of graduates who are genuinely prepared to teach. There is a reason that the worst teachers in the system are the ones keeping their jobs while the best-qualified are the first ones let go come budget time. Never, EVER take a job in an election year! A year later the politicians will all forget their promises and you'll find yourself starting all over again when legislatures fail to pass budgets.

If you go into nursing, you've got a good chance at keeping a job. And you don't need a 4-year degree to do it, either. Just enroll in a community college nursing program, which given the GI Bill you'll probably be able to do virtually for free. You're going to work your butt off and you'll be up all night studying for exams, but it will be worth it in the end because the money is really good. If you like it, hang in there long enough to save some money--live in squalor if you have to--until you have enough to put towards a bachelor degree in nursing. The programs there are a lot tougher, but you'll have the edge of actual work experience going in. The advantage is that you'll get higher pay after graduation.

One of my side interests is law, which is an expensive field to get into. I would say start out in either pre-law or paralegal studies, then look for entry-level work with a lawyer. There are good lawyers and there are bad lawyers. My wife is a bankruptcy paralegal and works for a good lawyer, but she started out as a receptionist for one bad lawyer before doing bankruptcies with another bad lawyer. She then took a job working for yet another bad lawyer (poor ethics in this case) specializing in maritime law, and went back to the previous bad lawyer after she got fired for having a baby. At that point, she started going to court to observe bankruptcy proceedings and assist her employer. Now, I mentioned she worked for a bad lawyer--bad in the sense that this person had poor organization skills and did not encourage unity among her staff. My wife really tried to hold things together and justify staying, but in the end she was feeling pressure from yet another lawyer who knew her reputation for bankruptcy work and wouldn't hold a job open forever. She finally gave in, and within a few months the rest of the office staff there quit.

She's very happy with her job now and is certified through ABJA. Her degree is in psychology, ironic given she's not active as a psychologist and that she's had to put up with so many crazy people! However, she knows so much about legal proceedings and has dealt with family law (adoptions, divorces, estates) in addition to her regular work saving poor people from foreclosures. If she wanted to, she very easily could get into law school, open her own practice in a small town somewhere, and have all her loans for it paid off within a few years. Unfortunately this is not what she wants--but it's good knowing she's good enough to do it!

The point being you have a number of avenues to explore, and the first step is taking the time to figure it out. Don't be surprised if where you end up is not where you planned. Neither I nor my wife ended up where we planned to be. In my case, my career was on a particular course that didn't really allow me to do what I wanted to do, so getting out of education was the best thing I could have done. Right now you have time on your side as well as your military background. Good luck!



Oded3011
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15 Jul 2011, 12:03 pm

Thank you all for your kind responses - I greatly appreciate your input on the matter!

I was somewhat inaccurate regarding my lack of personal interests: I find comfort in spending time with dogs, so I am considering taking it to the next level and becoming a professional dog trainer and therapist - the therapy being WITH dogs on other people rather than on the dogs, themselves.

I live in Israel, so GI Bill benefits - whatever GI Bill means - are not an option; as for my occupation in the military, I am currently serving as an English-Hebrew / Hebrew-English translator, and while I have considered the option of making a living out of it, I find myself more attracted to training dogs.

My first post was basically the result of a talk I've had with my parents, one which left me with some serious soul-searching to do; if I deal with the social and financial issues in my life one step at a time, I think I'll be ok.



Oded3011
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26 Jul 2011, 8:30 am

It's over a week later, and I'm still in a rut.

Sure, training dogs sounded fun in hindsight, but when my parents asked me if that's something I could actually see myself doing and enjoying, I just froze. Right now, I feel too burdened by guilt (not being interested in anything else) to play games, because that makes me think of the future I could end up in: without friends, no job, playing on my PC, wasting away.

I sometimes wonder if I should just make my way to the ocean and let the waves carry me to a calm and quiet death.



AngelRho
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26 Jul 2011, 9:50 am

Oded3011 wrote:
I sometimes wonder if I should just make my way to the ocean and let the waves carry me to a calm and quiet death.

You mean the United States? I wouldn't call it a "quiet death," but where I live it's really nice!

I didn't realize you're not in the US. The GI Bill is a program that does a number of different things, like pay for college, interest-free loans to start a business, disability if you're injured in combat, and so on as well as survivor benefits. But mainly the point is to help former military transition to civilian life.

The thing I've found about jobs is that you really have no guarantee that you'll ever actually enjoy ANYTHING you do. Rather ask yourself if you're comfortable doing whatever for a long time. When I got out of college, I really wasn't comfortable with classroom teaching, and it didn't matter how qualified I was on paper to do it. Getting fired was actually the best thing that could have happened to me since it forced me to look in other directions as far as work went. I'm doing a LOT of things above and beyond the call of duty in the one job I have that I really do love, but, God willing, the payoff will be a better life for myself and my family when we decide to leave this place--and that only really being just a matter of time.

If you really think dog training and translating is your "bag," do it and pour yourself into that work. Even if you don't think you're good at it, experience is always the best teacher.



DoniiMann
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26 Jul 2011, 4:44 pm

My advice isn't worth much, otherwise I'd know exactly where I want to be and I'd be getting there. However, it seems to me that if you could identify which kinds of companies work with dogs (for example) and just get into the company (including repeating a military term), then just navigate from within the company over to the dog kennels as part of a career strategy, well you might just get there. That's the dream job, til then it's just survival jobs. You and me both.


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26 Jul 2011, 11:42 pm

therapy dogs are great but at least in the USA right now there aren't a lot of jobs in the recreational therapy division. One of my sisters got a degree in that - she's a customer service manager for a website that sells stuff.

If you were in the USA i would jokingly say that you sound like a good candidate for a career in long-haul trucking.

Not having a vocational passion is a hard thing to come to terms with. I grew up in a family full of advanced professionals and it never occurred to me that it might be ok to just get a job i can do well that doesn't result in me coming home angry or stressed every night. The presumption was that i should be excellent at something.

My job isn't my life. It's the biggest time suck in my life but i come home at night and don't think about it.

It also finances my life. so that's good.

I suggest starting by finding a part time job that won't piss you off. Meet people and think about the future.



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27 Jul 2011, 1:02 am

Oded3011 wrote:
It's over a week later, and I'm still in a rut.

Sure, training dogs sounded fun in hindsight, but when my parents asked me if that's something I could actually see myself doing and enjoying, I just froze. Right now, I feel too burdened by guilt (not being interested in anything else) to play games, because that makes me think of the future I could end up in: without friends, no job, playing on my PC, wasting away.

I sometimes wonder if I should just make my way to the ocean and let the waves carry me to a calm and quiet death.


That brings the question: What do you enjoy doing? What is your lifelong interest/passion?

You could also look into entering the private sector as a translator. Tourism operators, government agencies (woot for gov. benefits!), schools...there's many entities that might hire you due to your skills and experience.