<p>I am a sophomore at a Big Ten school and I am in Marine Corps ROTC. My GPA is >3.6 and I am a Finance major. Lately, I have had a difficult decision to make. </p>
<p>Due to my success at college and in the ROTC program, I have been asked to apply for an Aviation contract in the Marine Corps. It sounds too good to be true, but the only thing holding me back is that if I sign the flight contract, I am committed to 12 years in the Marine Corps instead of 4. I have no problem with any service commitment, however, I also had aspirations of receiving my MBA and becoming an Analyst/Associate for a financial firm in NYC.</p>
<p>So, by the time I complete my 12 years in the Marine Corps and my MBA, will it be too late for an I-bank/financial firm to hire me because I would be in my mid-thirties? Or will they look at the high-stress environment and my leadership skills and hire me despite the long period of service?</p>
<p>I appreciate any feedback in facilitating this decision for me.</p>
<p>You are a sophomore at a Big Ten school. You have only the vaguest idea what being an “Analyst/Associate for a financial firm in NYC” means, other than it’s in New York and well-paid. No one’s long-term ambition is to be an analyst at a financial firm – that’s a stepping-stone to something else, and unless you have your heart set on managing a mutual fund there’s probably multiple ways to get wherever it is you really want to go.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that you couldn’t come out of the USMC, go to business school, and get an analyst job on Wall St. You could. You probably won’t, though. All kinds of water is going to pass under the bridge while you are flying jets as a Marine for 12 years. You are going to learn a lot more about yourself, about the world, and about what you want to do in it. Your personal circumstances will change. There’s a reason all those analyst jobs are filled by childless 25-year-olds who are not in relationships (or soon not to be, whether they know it or not), and that may not be the kind of job you want when you are 35.</p>
<p>Don’t make your plans around silly goals that you barely understand. If you want to be a Marine pilot, go be a Marine pilot, and accept that it will probably take your life in directions it wouldn’t have gone if you had a more limited active duty commitment following graduation.</p>
<p>JHS, even though I understand that it is 12 years down the line, do you have any ideas of job opporunities that would arise for me as a Finance major after I retire from the Marine Corps?</p>
<p>Having an undergrad degree in any subject and not using it for 12 years, could be useless! In 12 years if you still want to go into finance, you may need to go back for a masters or at least take some current finance courses. However, this is coming from a biologist, so I’m not sure…</p>
<p>Mid-thirties isn’t even old! I think that if you really wanted to be an analyst after 12 years flying with the Marine Corps and an MBA from a good school, you could. Mid-thirties is nowhere near too old. However, like JHS said I think you may find that you don’t want to do that after you’ve got 12 years of experience as an aviator.</p>
<p>I agree with mantidguy…even though your degree will be in finance, you’ll have 12 years of experience in something else that’s not finance and 12 years’ distance from everything you learned about finance. You’ll probably be able to get an MBA in finance after that time, but getting a job in Wall Street finance right out of the box from 12 years as an aviator may be difficult. But after 12 years flying planes in the frickin’ Marines…why would you want to go to a boring financial analyst job? Not only that, but after 12 years in the USMC you’d be at least in the middle of the officer ranks with a lot of responsibility, only to be knocked back down to the bottom of the barrel and get managed by people who will probably be 5+ years younger than you and will NOT have the leadership experience you have.</p>
<p>SIGN THE FLIGHT CONTRACT. I think you’ll regret it if you turn down an opportunity in aviation (which I understand is extremely competitive) for a financial analyst job!</p>
<p>BRose – At its core, the military is a ginormous management problem: a huge, ultradiverse workforce, tons of expensive equipment, viciously difficult politics, stakeholders (some of whom are trying to plunge their stakes into your heart), and jobs that need doing ranging from laundry and infant care to killing people and blowing stuff up. Knowing how to do a range of military jobs well – say, not just flying jets, but buying them and keeping them in top working order, too – gives you lots of experience that private, nonprofit, and government sector employers value. In 12 years, you would probably have just “made partner” in the Marines – gotten past the bottleneck and been promoted to a full colonel – or you would be stuck at lieutenant colonel. </p>
<p>If you were a full colonel, you would probably want to stay in the military until retirement (and you might well have gotten the Marines to buy you an MBA along the way), and you would have really significant management responsibilities of a type that high-level private sector managers also have, as well as lots of engagement with private sector suppliers and partners, all of whom would be potential employers when the time came for you to “retire” in your early 40s. Unless you became a general officer . . . . </p>
<p>If you got stuck at lieutenant colonel, you would probably have been counting the days until you could leave (and – I believe – absent something like the current multi-war environment you might well have been relieved of some of your obligation), and you probably would be applying for that MBA program. What you liked in your MBA program might well determine what kinds of permanent jobs you sought. You don’t have to have so much leadership ability to study spreadsheets and construct models all day, so being an analyst might not seem like such a great use of your talents at that point, compared to actually BEING a leader – something that’s always in short supply.</p>
<p>I would heartily recommend the aviation pipeline. </p>
<p>1) This is a limited time offer. While going into finance later in life may be more difficult, going into aviation later in life will be impossible.</p>
<p>2) While finance is very attractive for the pay, aviation will open up a lot of doors for you as well. In particular, defense contractors hire a lot of military officers - I work personally with around a half dozen former aviators and pilots, and the pay and work are pretty cool. Also, Marine aviators can become test pilots, astronauts, airline pilots, work in Hollywood, etc. Opening these doors does not shut any others.</p>
<p>3) The aggressiveness and drive you will learn in aviation will be very attractive to most employers. Remember that business has a lot to do with attitude and image, and “former fighter pilot” helps with both.</p>
<p>4) All the primary doors will remain open to you - MBA programs are more than happy to take military officers, and finance companies will be less concerned about your age than your ability.</p>
<p>5) Its just cool.</p>
<p>Additional points:</p>
<p>When you compare apples to apples, you are talking about a difference of 6-8 years, not 12 - as an NROTC grad you automatically have a 4 year active duty commitment, aviation adds 4 years of duty and 2-4 years of training (depending on what you end up flying).</p>
<p>At 12 years you will likely hold the rank of Major. The up-or-out promotion system means that up until O-6 you will almost certainly hold to a certain timeline, and that timeline has you hit Major (O-4) at 10 years of service and Lt. Colonel (O-5) at 16. Since “below the zone” promotions are exceedingly rare, I would not count on going any faster than this.</p>
<p>Or you could roll the dice and compete for an equally sexy ground option MOS like intel/infantry, do your 6, and decide where you want to go from there. Otherwise, JHS has offered great advice which I heartily cosign.</p>
<p>First, where’d the 12 year requirement come from? I know a few Marine pilots who have gotten out with under 12 years. Second, you can get your MBA while serving in the military. In fact, grad schools gobble it up. Third, while it’s true you wont really be using your degree in the military, finance is finance and it’s not changing while you’re serving.</p>
<p>So my question for you is do you WANT to fly? Dont do it because someone else wants you to, do it because you want to.</p>
<p>I think 12 years is the “max-min” - the longest training pipeline (strike, 4 years) plus the minimum commitment post training (8 years). I think the shortest training pipeline in aviation (C-130?) is only 18 months, so he could be out in 9 1/2 years going that way.</p>
<p>Sorry it has been a while since I’ve logged on. But to add to that, yes, 12 years is the maximum amount of time for for training (such as AH-1’s and Harriers, and around 9-10 is the minimum (if I were to get C-130’s).</p>
<p>All of you have provided great insight, and I just need to find out if I really want to fly or not. Either way I go, a couple doors may close but many more will open up.</p>