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IT Training in the Military?
firehzd1 asks: "Yesterday's article about the new Czar of Security for the Department of Homeland Security raises a very important question, especially lately. What type of opportunities are there for IT work in the military/government. It seems every article I read is bashing the govt/military for terrible IT decisions/systems but I never hear the other side of the story. How bout we hear from those in the field that can give us a idea of what it is like behind the other side of the heavily armed gate?"
Also, you might want to google for "Army Smartforce" for the latest information on computer based training for all soldiers, not just those in IT related jobs.
Get a degree that will actually make you money. An MBA would be a good choice.
Then play with computers in your spare time.
You will have more money, more time to spend on your hobby, and you won't get burned out on technology because of idiotic managers and other riff raff dictating to you.
You will be the idiotic manager. And much happier for being it.
Hell I don't know a thing about the actual state of IT in the DoD, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express lastnight.
From what I've read about system purchasing for the combat arms and aviation the following seems to be important to the DoD when it comes to computing technology.
1. Robustness is important
2. There is growing motivation to buy common systems for all the branches (including Coast Guard) rather than have many specialized systems.
3. Anything you sell the DoD today you have to support for at least 15 years, that includes CPUs like the PowerPC and IA. The new JSF, F-22 and Super Hornet are using Cat-5 and PowerPC chips (in the 132-400 MHz range IIRC) to power the flight computers and to connect systems and buses.
I think the move towards Microsoft isn't so much of a whoring out to MS, as it's a decision based on the fact that MS will be there in 15 years.
What type of opportunities are there for IT work in the military/government.
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The coolest voice ever.
The only reason to work IT-type stuff in the government is to get a clearance so you can get a job doing the same thing for more money and less bureaucracy as a contractor. .mil network isn't enough to get some officers in trouble - I've seen it myself.) You'll enjoy the fact that you can coast on by and leave a mess behind when you move on in a year or two. Your reward for leaving things in decent shape would be that the next guy/girl will change everything (to leave a bigger mark in their short time in the position), making your advances null and void.
90% of the good tech-based jobs in the government sector are performed by civilian contractors. The other 10% are generally far, far behind closed doors, and you'd never even know where to look for them unless you're already "in the know."
In the military, at least, the "401k" plan consists of two easy steps: #1 work for us for 20 years. #2 get 50% of your base pay at the 20 year point for life. There is NO middle ground - you leave before 20, you get ZE-freaking-RO. Sure, the promise of a paycheck for life is a nice thought, but the 20 years of bullshit that you'll have to endure is (IMO) hardly worth it.
Again, in the military there is next to no inspiration to perform well. Unless you royally screw the pooch, you WILL get promoted. (Even printing out porn on a
I've been on both sides of this - govvie and contractor. I can honestly say that I've done more valuable work in just a few months than I did in the 10 years spent in the federal employ. Don't do it unless it's your last option, and for certain, don't fall into the "we give you good komputter and teknichul skilz" trap - it's a lie, lie, lie.
I was an electronics tech for the Navy. Did maintenance on comm gear and other electronic equipment. Went through a variety of schools. I feel the education is very good and the hands on experience is great. I worked with a variety of test equipment, receivers, transmitters, communication gear, etc.
When I was in, the most technologically advanced jobs were CTM (Crypto Tech Maintenance), ET (Electronics Tech), DS (Data Systems), among others (more specialized).
One individual I met while in was a Senior Chief ET at Treasure Island. As far as I know, he was one of the people to first develop laser listening devices for civilian purchase, or at least one of the first that I've heard of. I didn't see a working model, but he explained what it was and how it worked to me.
At yet another installation, I met a group of Navy Petty Officers and Air Force Sgt's that were developing a means to render video to CD, at the time, it wasn't common place (I hadn't even heard of the technology at the time) to find video on CD's.
There's many "cutting edge" tech gadgets being used in the .mil, of course these are the ones you never hear about until they're released to civilian use.
It's like the old story about the guy that invented the first "radar gun" for highway patrolmen, he also invented the first "radar detector" for civilians. :-)
Jerry Fletcher,
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If you want IT, go with the Air Force. If any of my nephews decide to join the service, I will strongly counsel them to go in the Air Force instead of the Amry (where I spent 7 years).
I agree. I just finished my third year in the U.S. Chair Force and do not regret it. The pay sucks, but...
Check out the Defense Finance and Accounting Service for pay information. I am a three year E-4, so I make roughly $23,000 per year with food allowance, but I also get 100% free housing and utilities on base. I.e. no rent, no mortgage, no electricity bills, and I do not pay sales tax at the base exchange or liquor store (also no sin tax).
Of course, in return, I have to work. But in my job I probably will never go to a combat zone. The farthest I deploy is Atlanta or Washington, DC, for training.
24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not!
I've been in the US Air Force for just over two and a half years. A few weeks ago I finally sewed on my third stripe (for you civilians out there that means I got promoted). The entire time I have been a 3C0X1, Communications-Computer Systems Operations, or Comm-Ops for short. Along with two or three other career feilds we handle the vast bulk of the Air Force's military IT. Honestly, that's almost an oxy moron. Just about every military network out there, regardless of classification, is run by civilians (often trained by Microsoft, certified by Microsoft and knowing only Microsoft in my experience. That causes a heckuva lot of problems in and of itself). As military there's very little else we actually can do with the networks. Why? Well there's two main reasons:
1) Some big wig about a decade ago (you do the math) decided that it would be a good idea to start running the military like a business. So, he decided that instead of focusing on training the troops he would hire contractors and civilians to replace troops on the pretense that it was cheaper and would provide better service. When it was clearly proven and accepted that neither of these were the case they used the excuse that they're "freeing us up" for more combat-oriented positions. Well they sure are spending a lot of money on "freeing us up" and there aren't many contractors out there (in my personal experience) who'll work the same shifts we often do.
2) Let me tell you a little bit about military career training in the USAF. Before I begin, this is not a complaint but a straight portrayl of what it is. First, you go to Basic Military Training (BMT) at Lackland AFB in San Antonio for six weeks or so. That's all well and good and then you're sent to your tech school. For most IT career feilds that happens to be Keesler AFB, MI. There you go through a course that is not only taught by voluntold instructors, but is extremely outdated and poorly presented. It's divided up into various blocks, each block having a certain instructor with a certain set of slides. Many of these slides are extremely dull and feature the same monotonous background over and over and over again. I've been out of Keesler for over two years now and I still have nightmares about the slides with the light blue backgrounds and plain Times New Roman font. Anyway, the material, though not effectively taught, is simple and easy for most to learn. All well and good right? Well, not really. You see at the end of each block you take a test. These tests are written by I beleive a Senior NCO (Sargent for you civilians) who probably made up the CDCs (see below) or what have you as well. This individual received no training on how to write a test. All the tests are multiple guess however, in my experience, they have no actual bearing on the individual's knowledge of the material. Your level of comprehension in no way equates to your score on any of the these tests. This is such a prevelant phenomena that there is a well known saying in the AF explaining our tests: "There's four possible answers. Two of them are wrong. One of them is right. Then there's the AF answer." When I went through Keesler I went through a course that had been used for six years. I was taught 98 and NT. My class was the first class in that courses history to graduate without anyone flunking out of it. I've been told that the course has recently been rewritten but personally I don't hold much faith.
Well, for argument's sake, lets say you make it out of Tech School and arrive at your first duty station. Well you haven't really learned much yet have you? How can you progress further in your career knowledge you ask? Your answer: Career Development Courses, or CDCs for short. These are a series of manuals written by a senior NCO in the career feild who again is usually voluntold for this and receives no training on how to write a manual. Rather than describe the entire horrid process of testing on CDCs I would like to describe for you my personal experience with the 3C0
I did 4 years (95-99) in the USMC in an Information Systems Management Office (ISMO) before they started consolidating all the Communication Occupations with the Computer Operators.
Back then the ISMO was a new animal and they pulled officers from all the other fields to staff the place. They opened up the computer field and sorted out the recruits based on good math skills, and logic to fill those positions. The peons really knew what they were doing. We were technically proficient, even though the tech was obsolete. Back then there was no budget for this stuff and the brass though we should be fine with the desktops they bought 5 years ago.
What really drove military IT into the ground was that you were paying a low ranking private first class about $800 a month to do what equally skills civilians where doing in the real world for $50-75k.
Everyone I knew that had any competence would leave the service after their first 4 years, grabbing jobs with major Telcos, Fortune 500's. These corporations didn't even try to hide it. They would spam our office, send headhunters on base, and negotiate salaries with you in front of your staff officers.
The ones that couldn't get the civilian jobs, loved the corps like it was an Elvis fan club, or were too dumb to make it in the real world. They would re-enlist and eventually become your superiors. Still making dumb mistakes and still having a poor grasp of technology. And it killed all of us to know what had to be done, knew what was technically feasible and what wasn't, and you couldn't make any kind of statement or suggestion without someone saying it was insubordination!!!
I don't know how it is now, but my guess is that they are doing a little better. Sure the budgets are still getting cut, and you can't speak unless spoke to, but the brass is more tech savy now, and with the economy in the toilet, just have a job is a luxury. Having one that can't fire you or lay you off is where its at. Hell, I'm probably making as much as they are now with the paycuts I took.
Here's the straight scoop from the USMC:
/26 net. Officers get an even more watered down course because they are also trying to soak in LF/HF/VHF/SAT radio principles and other management related skills. No background is considered whatsoever other than the math score on the ASVAB. You will often find officers with history degrees in charge of IT budgets.
Enlisted and Officers alike receive bare minimum training. The junior enlisted are divided into two pipelines, but mostly came from the old consolidated MOS of 4066 - Small Systems Computer Specialist (Name varies depending on who you talk to). Their course is about 2 months of learning how to install windows and other basic software, run basic network management tools, and generic introductions to major end uses of computers i.e. web, database, exchange, etc. They also receive a very quick course on the basics of networking with switches and routers, although most PFCs give you a blank stare if you ask for the Broadcast, Gateway, and IP range of a
The junior Marines get out into the Operating Forces and are promptly bombarded with distractions. Mess duty still exists in places, Camp services to keep the base clean, Camp guard, rifle range for two weeks a year, and a whole slew of minor classes, seminars, and stand downs that have no bearing on IT at all. Add in deployment time where they are stuck working a help desk, or worse, an admin related billet. Then add in weekends, holidays, and vacation time. We did the math out here in Japan where most single folks only stay for 1 year and out of 365 days, we only get 142 days of work out of someone. Unless they are spending their free time keeping up with the industry, they are rapidly growing into an NCO who knows just enough to bullshit his way past any problem, but not actually solve it.
Senior enlisted are even worse. The junior enlisted who are legitimate geeks almost always spend their 4 years focussing on their own education, often during work hours playing with production servers. After they have pissed everyone off by bringing the exchange server down once every other month, they have learned enough to get certified and get out for a "real job". This produces holes in the ranks which are often filled by senior enlisted from other job fields who have to find an open MOS, or get out. My last two comm chiefs were both infantry up to the rank of Sergeant. Of course a few good geeks who love being Marines stay around and generally become the Miracle workers of their commands, but for the most part, the quality of service garnered is grossly lacking. Hopefully, my description of the system is evidence that it is not the people's fault.
NMCI brings a small ray of hope in just getting a level of corporate knowledge. I don't know how many times I've called the server farm to hear, "Cpl Smith is the database guy, but He's on deployment until next month."
Here is an example of how the general level of inexperience hurts. The Blaster Virus attacks via DCOM RPC calls on port 135. The Base networking solution was to simply scan all computers for activity on that port and shut down any subnets that had activity. HELLO!!, port 135 is one of the key ports that NETBIOS communicates over which is a legitimate service. We've spent the past 3 days responding to reports that computer X has the virus only to find the machine clean. I haven't even begun to add up the lost man-hours as a result of NETWORK managers not understanding BASIC NETWORK protocols.
Don't even get me started on the complete lack of UNIX knowledge and support.
I could also rant on the officer side, but it boils down to the same thing....too many distractions to keep up with modern IT and not enough education/background to rapidly grasp the information. To a certain extent, the Marine Corps has hired civillians to manage the Enterprise and we do have one of the most stable and secure Nets in the DOD, but the system could be so much better if IT staffing was completely re-engineered.
The flip side of course, is that Network manager is capable of taking the network into a forward environment and competently defend it as a riflemen. The last time I saw members of the AF and Navy with guns, it scared me.
I've dirtied my hands writing poetry, for the sake of seduction; that is, for the sake of a useful cause. --Dostoevsky
This is based on my 6 years of experience as a USAF network guy (3C0X1 - Computer and Communications Systems Operator)
The Pay - Contrary to what other may say, the pay isn't horrible. I'm 24 and a SSgt, been in 6 years, I gross over 50K a year, most of it tax free. There's also the free health care, etc... I have a new car, a nice place to live, and lots in savings. Those who complain about how much they make in the military don't know how to budget (or when to stop having kids).
(10) Don't join the military because you want training and experience. All the good jobs are filled with civilians and you'll spend more time training on fire extinguisher saftey (or homosexual policy) than network operations. The training you do get will be of marginal quality. And of course, you never know if you might end up spending 2-3 years doing something non computer related (ex. driving a forklift). Sure you can never get fired, but you're much better off getting a job in the scary real world. History favours the bold (or something like that).
(12) Civilians. These people fall in to two groups:
Contractors - work for a company that has a contract with the governemnt (SAIC, Lockheed, etc...)
DOD Civilians - work directly for the government.
DOD civilians are good at heart but incompetent. Many of them are retired military and wanted additional income. They have minimal training and work inside of an impossible bureaucracy. It really isn't their fault.
I love Contractors. Most of them are knowledgeable and hard working. As opposed to everyone else in the system, they can actually lose their job. People complain that they are taking away all the good jobs. It's true, but they do them better. What do you expect when they do their job full time for years in a row instead of the military guy who spends half his day shining boots and writing EPR's as well as changing jobs ever 2-3 years. When I call the distant end to troubleshoot a problem, I want to be talking to a contractor, the only people I've met so far who know what a 3 way TCP handshake is (god bless them). If you absolutely must work for DOD, do it as a contractor.
(1) As noted above, your first tech training will take place at Keesler AFB. Most of the information is outdated and the teachers lack any real world experience, simply repeating what they have read. For instance, when I went though in 1997 my network training was in Windows for Workgroups and Novell. I was running windows 95 at home already and haven't seen a DOD IPX network since leaving Keesler. Hardware training was on 386's running DOS something or other. I was running a cheap Pentium at home. In the end tech school was a waste for people with any prior experience but usefull for those still learning about HD's, IDE Cables, and Motherboards.
(2) After leaving tech school and arriving at your first base, you will start your CDC's (Career Development Course). OUtdated and overgereal are the key words. In 98 they told me that DOS was the most popular OS, thicknet was A-OK, and the motherboard is the green thing at the bottom of the case. They are also riddled with errors.
(3) During your first year or so at your new base you won't get much real experience. There is alot of meaningless work to do and not much good stuff. Those who have been there the longest will be doing the good stuff, you (as a new recruit) will be mowing lawns, sweeping floors, and picking up trash from the side of the road.
(4) If you are fotunate, you might get sent to some sort of in-house training. Usually this is where they sent one guy to a class and when he got back told him that he was going to be teaching it to other people. Who the teacher is depends as much on rank and name as it does knowledge. These classes are generally ok. The information is mostly current and you spend the whole day learning ithout distractions. You'll probably get a good foundation of IP addressing and Windows networks here but also some bad inf