Military/Criminal Justice

What are people's thoughts about these fields, regarding being with someone? Is this something you would like, dislike, be turned away from? Why? I personally am going into Criminal Justice, and possibly before that the Military. Regardless or my opinion on politics and politicians, I have thought about joining the Military before and am meeting with a recruiter to talk tomorrow, but nothing is guaranteed. So, I guess the big thing for me is there is an issue if the person I am with does not approve,for one reason or another.

I have a lot of friends in the military, it's a good thing. The military has a lot of the jobs that people do not want to have, and give you training for. They pay you a salary because you are a government employee and doors open for you because of experiences in the military. One of my co-workers is a part of the Air Force and because of his experience as an mechanic he landed an awesome job at American Airlines. Depending on what you are placed in and or qualified to do work for in the military, there are a lot of opportunities that can open up for you.

I have an immense amount of respect for everyone that are serving in the Armed Forces. My best friend recently joined the Navy, and all of my closest friends are serving in the Marines and Air Force. I contemplated enlisting after I went through Highschool like the rest of my friends, but decided to wait after I completed my undergraduate education. I can safely say that I have not changed my mind either, I plan on completing the Army's Leadership Training Course and finishing my Graduate School as a Reservist Officer for the Army. We should try talking, I have very close friends in the Marines, Navy and Airforce, if you'd like some non-biased information from them, I can provide. By the way, I'm in a similar boat as you, after I serve my five years following Graduate school, I also plan on going to law school.

I would think very very carefully before joining the military. Recruiters have a quota to meet, and they'll tell you just about anything for you to join. There's a lot they don't tell you, and there have been scandals in the past of blatant lying. For example, you can choose 3 fields you are interested in, but the most popular ones fill up very quickly. If you do poorly on your tests you may end up doing something that you had no interest in, but you're pretty much stuck. From what I've heard, it's extremely difficult to switch. Military training (esp. technical) does NOT transfer over to the private sector very well. This has been an ongoing problem for a long time. In many cases, you'll have to retest to get the civilian-equivalent certificate/license. This includes the mandatory classroom hours, associated fees, etc. I highly suggest doing ROTC if you're serious about joining the military. This gives you far more options while still gaining military experience if that's what you're going for. Just do your own research, and to be honest, the last person I would trust is the recruiter.

^^ one of the biggest tips my friends had given me was to bring someone who already signed up with you when signing anything from a recruiter. Those guys do lie in order to get you to sign so its better for you yo bring someone to check your paperwork over your shoulder. Though tech experience should transfer over no? I was unaware that military experience would not transfer over to civilian side easily. That really makes me sad actually.

It depends on the field, but many jobs require specific certificates/licenses, not just "equivalent" training, which is utter BS. My friend went through an appeal process so that he'd only have to take the final examination and skip the mandatory classroom hours, but ended up being rejected because the reviewer had no idea how much the training covered. Another friend was rejected simply because the reviewer had no idea that military training transferred over. He literally had to print the page out and show it to her the next day to get into the accreditation process. Anyhow if it transfers over in your field, more power to you. If there's anything specific written about transferring credits, certificates, licenses, training hours, etc., I would save those documents for safekeeping. My friend had to scour the website and found stuff about military transfer in a 2 year old archive... lol