IT Workers In The US Military Reserves?

A semper-fi Anonymous Coward asks: "I've been seriously thinking of enlisting in the USMCR ^[?] for a while now and I think I'm pretty set except for the question of how it will affect my civilian IT career. I'm planning to leave my current job when I decide to go to boot camp, but I'm wondering if my having to be away one weekend/month, 2 weeks/year will adversely affect my job prospects. Theoretically my being in the Reserves can't be held against me when applying for a job. Also, if I ever need to be deployed my position is supposed to still be available when I get back. I was wondering if any readers out there could give me some of their experiences with being in the Reserves and working in the IT field?"

"I've never had any problems finding IT jobs ever since I graduated high school (I'm 21 now) so I'm hoping that my experience and knowledge will balance out the fact that I might have to pick up and leave in the middle of a project. I'm also thinking that maybe I could just become a freelance consultant so that I could at least try to work around my drills (the scheduled Reserve training each month and once a year)."

Comments

They'd be fools

[cybermage]

What you're saying about how it's supposed to work is spot on. But there are always people operating in ignorance of the law and it's hard to tell when someone is actually descriminating on a hiring choice vs. just not picking you, unless they're dumb enough to actually bring it up.

That said, you wouldn't want to work for someone who would descriminate on that basis anyway. It has been my experience as a past employer of ex-military/reservists that they have the best work ethic I've seen and present the least trouble when it comes to things like following policies and taking direction. I'm convinced that these traits are a result of military service making them the better candidate.

Employers should realize that even with slightly reduced availability of the employee, greater overall productivity is more likely. Yeah, it might be inconvenient if your two weeks fell in the middle of a big project, but it's not like it's a surprise. And as for active service, well, that's the risk you take. You could just as easily crash your car and be out as long (and at greater expense.)

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I've been in your shoes! - Read this! (USMCR vet)

[Atomic Punk]

I was one of (U)ncle (S)ams (M)isguided (C)hildren for six and a half years in the reserves. (Sergeant (E-5), MOS 2531 - Field Radio Operator) (Oohrah, radio operators do it with frequency til it 'hertz) I've been in your shoes, not quite the same situation, but very similar and I fully understand your anxieties. Difference between your situation and the one I was in (I got out in '95) is that I'm a blue collar worker, most of the jobs where I live in Indiana are factory/industrial. Anyhow, most places I worked at never gave me ANY problem whatsoever about reserve duties. Even the one technical job I had, (temp/manpower for EDS for a year) respected my reserve duties with no questions asked. Most jobs I held had policies that they would pay you the difference from your regular civilian pay to what you got in the military during your two week summer duty if that pay was less than your normal paycheck. My employer, DaimlerChrysler does this as well. The only time I was really worried about losing my job was when I was I first got a call to work for Chrysler (before the Daimler takeover[H[H[H[H[H[H[H[Hmerger fiasco, ahem) after trying to get on there for about 4 years *FINALLY! WoOt!* For a bit of perspective for my situation, getting hired by Chrysler or Delco Electronics (as it was then called, now Delphi Automotive) was like hitting the lottery in comparison to all other jobs in my area. Anyhow, I was hired by chrysler just one month before I was to go on a major combined arms exercise (CAX); note: get used to acronyms...you think you see alot of acronyms or buzzwords in the IT world you haven't seen shit til you get in the military. I was really worried about asking my supervisor for two weeks off when I had just got hired and it was a closed union shop, but you dont get in the union til you get 90 days in, and until then you have to walk on ice, be on time, all eyes are on you, and basically you cant screwup or miss/be late for work at all. Period. Well, everything turned out ok, my supervisor was a hard ass type (think of Hitler and Mini-me from Austin powers genes in one person), but only jokingly gave me a hard time about it and wished me luck. It wasn't til a bit later that I found out that it was MANDATORY for them to let me go. I found out from my commanding officer that the U.S. government highly frowns upon employers who dont give their reservists some accomodation and can come down with a vengeance legally and hammer them for noncompliance. I also found out later that at least in cases like mine where working for a major company it would have looked real bad for them to not cut reservists some slack if they have major purchase contracts with them and could jeopardize future business. Of course it helped that one of my commanding officers from one of my reserve units I was in was a attorney in his civilian job, and he meant business...Noone was going to fuck with his Marines, or they would have hell to pay for it. Anyways this point is moot for me, because Chrysler gives me better benefits (education included) than GI bill benefits and they ACTIVELY SEEK OUT VETERANS for their employees. As one other poster touched upon, alot of employers realize that most vets have an excellent work ethic, are honest, intelligent, more disciplined, have developed or have been trained in a variety of skillsets, able to work easily with nearly anyone (military people move around alot, heh) and are more mature generally than the average joe sixpack whos last job was either flipping burgers or working the slurpee machine at a 7-11 store. I was really shocked to find out that where I work (Kokomo Transmission, UAW 685 - close to 6500 people), a vast, vast, vast majority of them are veterans. Lots of vet support groups there, every thursday was "Marine day" and we all wore marine corps t-shirts, and in my old dept we still celebrate the Marine Corps Birthday every Nov 10th, EVERY MARINE IN THE WHOLE PLANT shows up on that day to sing the marine hymn, cut the ceremonial cake for the youngest and oldest marine, etc (You'll learn soon enough if you are joining the marines as you say, that the marines are VERY heavy into tradition). Noone in the plant, supervisors, managers, I mean NOONE gives us any shit about it. I've been there for 6 years and tradition still holds strong. That says something when you have that many employees to begin with. The only points of advice I give to you is that (1) Dont worry about your job. (2) If you do join the marines, get used to "hand me downs" from the army and very stringent training budgets. The phrase "marines do better with less" is a widely held view and not far at all from just being a "stereotypical service rivalry thing". I would have to say that the Navy is *THE SHIT* when it comes to computer and/or electronics training. The few ex navy guys in my classes thought what we were going through was comparitively grade school material after their training in the navy. Also, the Marines in comparison have a budget comparable in worth to the value of a cracker jacks box prize. I nearly aced my ASVAB (armed services vocational aptitude battery) test and scored in the top 10% of the Marine Corps when I entered and they put me in MOS 2841, which is electronics/ground radio repair. To make a long story short, I may have had the aptitude, but I didnt know jacksquat about electronics past the meme of "..flip the switch, the light comes on..." nor did I have any interest in it. It was a year long course, and about 4/5th's of the way into it I failed ONE test below 70% (and I believe that was due to a really fucked up oscilloscope (test once, voltage there, try 5 secs later, it wasn't and no parameters had changed) and was kicked out of the program. Why? Not enough money in the budget. In the Navy or Air Force where budget money is passed out in crates the size of texas they have nearly infinite chances for retaking a test or course. One other pro and con for you to consider. Promotion in the marines is almost like watching flys mate. Only other service that is worse is the Coast Guard (both are very small as I'm sure you are aware). However, TECH's in the marines get very nice sign on and retaining bonuses and certain fields get promoted FAR faster than other MOS's (military occupational skill). Case in point: I was a lance corporal (E3) in my reserve unit when I witnessed a a guy join my unit temporarily for a week or two as a civilian (forgot what they call this classification). 12 months later after boot camp, and ground radio repair schooling he shows up same rank as a lance corporal, I got promoted to corporal, then just a few short months later he was promoted to corporal in way less than half the time it took me. I picked up the rank of sergeant right at the end of my contract and by that time he had already been promoted to staff sergeant (E7). Pissed me off. He was a pencil carrying desk jockey (albeit very, very intelligent) with way less time than I had, never carried a radio on his back, and always stuffed in some air conditioned portable tech bench/lab. Turned out to be a very good friend of mine, but it still gnawed at me. Well, enough of my rambling post. I hope I have given you some insight.