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Why Military Personnel Make the Best IT Pros

Posted by samzenpus on from the office-army dept.

Nerval's Lobster writes Every year, approximately 250,000 military personnel leave the service to return to civilian life. When the home front beckons, many will be looking to become IT professionals, a role that, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, is among the fastest growing jobs in the country. How their field skills will translate to the back office is something to ponder. With the advent of virtualization, mobile, and the cloud, tech undergoes rapid changes, as do the skill sets needed to succeed. That said, the nature of today's military—always on the go, and heavily reliant on virtual solutions—may actually be the perfect training ground for IT. Consider that many war-fighters already are IT technicians: They need to be skilled in data management, mobile solutions, security, the ability to fix problems as they arise onsite, and more. Military personnel used to working with everything from SATCOM terminals to iPads are ideally suited for handling these issues; many have successfully managed wireless endpoints, networks, and security while in the field. Should programs that focus on placing former military personnel in civilian jobs focus even more on getting them into IT roles?

10 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. Some would be well suited. by ErichTheRed · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In my field (systems engineering,) discipline, troubleshooting skills and attention to detail are pretty critical. I would think an ex-military person would be the ideal antidote to the cowboy sysadmins you see at a lot of places. Those guys get a lot done, but can cause a lot of damage by not thinking through things to their full conclusion. Good military people (and I'm not one) aren't just rule-followers -- they're good at seeing where they fit in a bigger picture, something that really is lacking in a lot of folks' skill sets.

    1. Re:Some would be well suited. by tc3driver · · Score: 2, Interesting

      In my personal experience, ex military IT pros are far too rigid for coming up with solutions that are outside of the norm. This is a good thing when you need NOC jockeys. Not so good when a service goes down at 1 AM and you need to get that service up, and an unconventional manor is the only way. It may be less than ideal, but it buys the time necessary to fix it correctly. I cannot say this is only ex-military that have this problem of rigidity, I have seen it in a lot of other people as well. Especially those who have come from a call center, where all they do is follow a flow. I would say it is more prevalent in those who are ex-military.

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    2. Re:Some would be well suited. by s.petry · · Score: 2, Interesting

      On the other hand, bad former-military people were cogs in a machine, and don't see past their prescribed task at all.

      Sure, generalizations are usually bad. That said, the Military does provide training that Civilians do not get, so what you should be asking is "what does the Military training focus on?"..

      I don't think that having been military or not really gives much of a sign of how one will work out.

      I'm guessing that you are not former Military and/or lack exposure to veterans (intentionally pluralized), so let me give a few things that all military people will have.

      1. Self motivation. If you don't have it, you won't get out of boot camp. There are plenty of people that get out during boot camp under various hardships, they can't handle the training. Self motivation is essential for "good" IT people, we usually call it "self starter" in the civilian sector..

      2. Perseverance. Same with above, even when things get tough you learn to cope in the military (or you exit). As with above, this means that Military people are less likely to give up on a problem, and will continue debugging for a much longer time.

      3. Understanding of Hierarchy and chain of command. No need to teach this to a Veteran, we know what it is and how it works. Give a Military person a flow chart, and be amazed at how they can follow the proper chain of command for any department in your company.

      4. Willingness to follow orders. Sometimes this can be seen as a downer, but as a veteran I have no issue following orders after I give my assessment of the situation. Management knows that they have to live with their decision if I'm overruled. I'm fine with that, and I have yet to see a manager that fails to live up to their decision (though it may take a bit memory jogging via email chains, etc..)

      5. Understanding the importance of teamwork. The military teaches this by example all the time. You don't succeed in missions as Rambo (surviving an encounter is not a successful mission most of the time).

      Given my first comment about generalizations, there are certainly exceptions to the rule. Similarly, there are certainly people without military experience that have the same set characteristics. Overall, I have almost never had to worry about these characteristics when working with Veterans. I can give hundreds of examples of non veterans that lack all or most of these characteristics.

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      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    3. Re:Some would be well suited. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As I understand it this especially applies to USMC who are NEVER free from service and can be called back any time.

      Ex-Marine here. When I left active service ("transferred to the 1st Civ Div" in milspec lingo), I was given an option of converting to reserve, or being completely discharged, free of any future obligation. I chose the reserves mostly because I needed the money (I was going back to college), but also because spending one weekend a month riding helicopters and shooting machine guns didn't seem too bad.

      In 1990 my reserve unit was mobilized for Desert Storm. Of the 120 Marines, 119 showed up on the mobilization date. But 18 ex-Marines showed up, because they heard about the mobilization on the local news. We interviewed them, re-enlisted 16 of them on the spot, gave them a haircut, handed them a rifle, and put them on the bus to Camp Pendelton. So we shipped out at 112% strength. When we returned stateside, I decided I was getting too old and was likely to be assigned to a desk job, so I dropped out and became a 100% civilian.

      Semper Fi

    4. Re:Some would be well suited. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I haven't seen that much footage. Admittedly, everything I have seen is usually with semi-automatic firing, but it almost always looks like suppressing fire. For example, they're walking along on their way to some mission and all of a sudden bullets start whizzing by. They take cover and try to locate the origin. Then they volley fire for awhile while they wait for air support to toast them. The enemy is usually spread out and quite far away.

      It's not a video game. They don't get extra points for spending 4 hours hunting down every random idiot who starts shooting at them. That's a complete time suck.

      You rarely see footage of soldiers pursuing the enemy or while in the middle of a mission. No fool is going to bust out his camera in those circumstances. You only see footage when the soldiers just happen to get pinned down in some random location. And while they're waiting around, exchanging pot shots, somebody busts out the camera--or keeps it out--because they've got nothing better to do. They're just biding their time until they can resume their original mission.

    5. Re:Some would be well suited. by Sepodati · · Score: 3, Interesting

      As a soon-to-be retired job seeker, all I want is what's in your last statement. Being military doesn't make me more or less suited for the job. Evaluate me based on my experience, achievements and skills I can bring to the job in question.Just give me a fair chance in the interview so sink or sell myself.

      Although this is a crap dice propaganda article and many of the comments scare me, they are enlightening, also. You guys are helping me prepare for interviews.

  2. It's a mixed bag by TWX · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For every former-military IT-pro that's a true expert in their field (of whom I've worked with a couple) there's a former-military IT-pro that was trained on one very specific system and cannot handle even basic common-knowledge tasks.

    I worked with someone that was former-military that started on the helpdesk like most people in the organization, and workorders were created with descriptions like, "Computer does not start." This description meant everything from the computer wouldn't power on to the user couldn't remember their password to log-in.

    I worked with someone else that was a communications cabling specialist that probably forgot more about cabling than I ever knew, and could deal with phones, copper ethernet, and fiber ethernet without batting an eye. So at least there's that.

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    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  3. Good attitude but rarely much aptitude by butchersong · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I work with several IT guys that are former military. They're good guys and work hard but not one of them is an actual geek... If it isn't something they're trained in they just don't do very well. Small sample size in (my office) but I don't see it.

  4. Re:Alternate title by lars5 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ~40% of the IT dept where I work is ex-military. We run circles around the other IT depts in our company (where the ex-military % is 0 - 10%).

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    Don't Panic.
  5. Re:Just what we need in our server rooms by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The military's a place to serve one's country, get some occupational training, and rack up money for college. Maybe even find a lifetime career.

    and you know.. kill people if they're told to

    Nobody wants to have to be out there killing people. That usually means that pretty much every other option for negotiation

    And yet they put them selves in a position where it may be required. And lol yes america only wields its military might if its absolutely necessary. I'm not even going to address that just lol

    If YOU, in particular, don't happen to like it, TOUGH FUCKING SHIT. Find some way to serve this country that minimizes the future need for armed conflict and deployment of soldiers into combat that doesn't involve bending and spreading for a bunch of delusional fanatics. I can GUARANTEE you that the very FIRST people stepping up to thank you for your contributions will be the people you've just put out of a job.

    I don't want to serve my country aka the desires of the rich elite. Nor do i want any thanks from the sheep that do their dirty work. Perhaps if america didn't just use the world 'democratizing' for an excuse to conquer things of financial gain.