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Why Military Personnel Make the Best IT Pros
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?
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.
Former military person seeking IT job.
...than most people who haven't served in the military.
In the military there are no excuses for failure, yes - everyone can get it wrong, but if you're a military man...you don't complain, you get it DONE!
That attitude alone solves a LOT of problems. I've been working in the IT Sector for a LONG time and no matter what field you're in, I could spot a former military man MILES away, because they have a positive go-getter attitude, and I've yet to ever hear an long boring attitude related discussion about an issue with such a man, they listen - and work until the problems are solved.
I'd hire people like that in a heartbeat!
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
I haven't had good luck with ex-military I.T. people. They want a manual that they can follow step-by-step for every little thing. "Figure it out" is not something they want to hear.
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.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
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.
I served in the Navy and trained as a cryptolinguist (Mandarin Chinese), though after my language training I decided military life wasn't for me and left for academia. I've kept in touch with a lot of my former service members who stayed in for their whole 4-year or 6-year enlistment, and it amazed me to see how almost none of them were able to transition to similar employment in the civilian world. On the language side, the sort of texts they were working with were limited and not at all like the business communications and government forms that drive the civilian translation market. On the technology-using side, they may have been whizbang operators of specialist military software, but they didn't get more experience in e.g. Office than anyone else out there. Consequently, my peers either entered whole different fields (one Chinese linguist became a marriage counselor) or entered IT only after doing a whole 4-year university degree in the civilian world to make up for what they lacked.
The military might train you to do things, but they might not compare to what the civilian market wants. And sure, military people have a reputation for working under pressure and learning new skills, but in this day and age ever fewer civilian employers have the patience to keep paying you while they wait for you to learn new tricks.
A lot of IT positions are with the federal government, and many military members parting from service already possess the security clearances required for those positions. It's often cheaper to train someone that already possess a security clearance to be an IT professional than it is to get an IT professional their security clearance.
Sig withheld to protect the innocent.
I am in the military and it is hard to say how I compare to civilians since I haven't had an IT job on the civilian side yet (I did work in manufacturing before I joined). However I can say that in the few short years that I have been in I have worked on a plethora of systems. Possibly more than I ever could have with a civilian job. Furthermore the military can be very demanding and anyone who has been in can tell you that. Also everything you do someone’s life depends on it so it is more stressful than anything I had to do as a civilian. So those few things right there are probably why companies like to hire veterans. Especially when you think about the fact that we have great experience, work like mules, and can handle stress far easier than most of our civilian counter parts.
We've tried hiring ex-military, and it very, very rarely works. If somebody's fresh out of the military, then they're not even considered. If they're not completely brain dead, then they tend to have an attitude of needing everything to be done for them.
It's kind of true. My job in Army was SATCOM, got out almost 4 years ago, about to finish Bachelor's in CS early next year. SATCOM was pretty much IT in the army. Imaging computers, setting up and maintaining network, running cables, troubleshooting software/hardware, etc. Once I got out I did a few years part time in IT while going to college.
I have to say that all training in the army was kind of half@$$ed. Impossible to fail, short, and not particularly relevant. At least when I went through it around 2003. The actual on the job experience differed significantly from training. Arrive at location, there's either nothing set up, or something that's about to leave with the group you are replacing. Often had to set up 10-50 users from scratch on generator power. Luckily there always seemed to be people around that knew what they were doing, so most of the relevant training was on the job. Monkey see, monkey do. Which is probably the best kind, since classroom can be too abstract. Civilian contractors were always reachable in case we got stuck. There was none of that cutthroat stuff that you might see in business, everyone actually tried to pass on what they knew and the whole organization was oriented towards developing new specialists.
That said, there were plenty of opportunities to fade into the background and pretty much learn nothing. So not everyone was on the same level. The ones that put in the effort got promoted quickly, the ones that coasted along stayed at the same level much longer. No magic there, same as anywhere else.
250,000 per year seems a bit high. Signal core isn't that big, at least active duty. Reservists were somewhat less often as good at their jobs as regular army on average, excluding those that worked in same field at home. Which wasn't that that common. Seemed like a lot of reservists did something totally different for a living. Outside of signal we'd meet plenty of people that didn't even know how to turn on a computer, but I guess that's how a lot of people in IT feel. So if they mean a total of 250k people get out every year, much fewer have military experience in IT.
so government accessories to murder aka accomplices.
As former military, can I just please have you BLOW ME you ignorant little leech on the ass of my country?
People who go into the military with the idea that they want to meet interesting people AND KILL them usually get weeded out in basic training/boot camp. If not, they get weeded out in AIT (occupational training). People like that simply aren't stable enough to get through training in the modern army.
Nobody else really goes into the military with the notion that they want to go out and kill people.
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.
There are over 1.4 million people on Active Duty with another million in Ready Reserve (includes National Guard).
The vast MAJORITY of those troops are in military occupational specialties (MOS) that are NOT front-line combat (infantry).
Nobody wants to have to be out there killing people. That usually means that pretty much every other option for negotiation (other than outright appeasement, and Vichy showed us how well THAT went over), has pretty much FAILED. And, even then, the objective of warfare by modern doctrine is NOT about body count. It's about removing the tools and resources necessary to successfully wage warfare against us.
Does that mean we, eventually, wind up killing people?
Yep!
But better them than us.
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.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
(former Navy nuc operator here) Although the direct technical skills from my time really don't apply. The idea of the "block diagram level" knowledge in your mind and the basic troubleshooting process instlled in me there in my training has served me VERY well over the course of my IT career. Not to mention the broad (not necessarily deep) mechanical system knowledge of things like power, HVAC, emergency generators, UPSs, etc. Data center infrastructure has a lot of similarity (at a smaller scale) to safety systems at a nuc plant. Yeah, not broad based the way the article says, but for my more specific part it worked for me!
Perfect for the greedy CEOs of tech companies
because any other job is really different ? You just don't do it with bullet, but try hard to make the next guy a homeless so that you can thrive. You won't succeed in a capitalist world if you are not ready to leave, figuratively, some cadaver along the road... might it just be a co-worker for a higher-paying job you are competing to get...
Many military IT admins leave the service and attempt to find a job in the same field but they have two major hurdles.
1. The same job they were doing in the military requires a 4 year degree in the private sector.
This is an issue time and again with not having a degree. There is plenty of debate around here about whether a 4 year degree is really beneficial to everyone. However, you cannot debate the minimum requirements for a DoD contractor position. I have seen plenty of people kicked out of a job that they were good at because the requirements changed and they don't qualify for their own job. This issue is exacerbated by predatory for-profit technical colleges who are preying on those same technicians in order to claim their GI bill $$.
2. Education does matter when it comes to writing skills.
The biggest thing that is lacking for enlisted IT admins is the ability to solve problems in a new way and document the resolution. In the military everything has rules and you are not allowed to write the rules yourself. In private industry everyone is responsible for helping to write the rules for their own position and ensure that the existing processes stay updated. Prior service personnel tend to be very bad at this part of the job and require extensive training in professional writing.
I am also a former military person (Army, 14yrs) I can say that it very much depends on the individual. I have seen people that I wouldn't hire to take out the trash, and on the other hand I have seen people that could, and have, walked in to very nice jobs when they get out. Just because someone was in the military doesn't mean anything. Some of the best, and worst, IT personnel that I have worked for have been in the military. All the comments about military personnel "needing a manual" to get things done, at my current workplace I have heard more "this isn't my job" bullshit from the people that never served. My take on it is, it needs to get done so figure it out and get it done. I might not act in the way some veterans act, but counting us all out because of some duds seems like you are missing out.
This describes my work reasonably well. I'm a civilian, but I work almost exclusive for the military and my work can be summed up to get all their ideas, organize them into something cohesive, trim the loose ends and fill the gaps with my own ideas when necessary. Then present the results and together with them I'll trimming the edges until I have the best possible outcome that meets their needs.
And the best part is that political struggles are virtually nonexistent: If you show them that one idea will not work and explains why, they drop the idea without much fuss (and they are good at giving me good ideas to add too).
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Only if you're a vet.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
but at least when it comes to Army IT guys, anyone that went to school after 2005 is a coin-toss.
The dumbing down of specialist fields has been ongoing as the military has switched from custom hardware to COTS (Common/Commercial Off The Shelf) systems. This really accelerated in 2003 and the transformation was almost complete by 2005. Troubleshooting down to the component level and resoldering circuit boards was standard procedure in the old days. Soldiers had to really understand how their systems worked and how they interacted with other things. As the equipment has gotten smarter, the requirements for the soldier have decreased.
I watched the knowledge base drain away while I was in the military. I spent my final three years as an instructor/subject-matter-expert (Brigade level) for all things IT and satellite communications. Every year, the students were less and less prepared for the training. This applied especially to my students from a communications career field. This was expected when it came to my students from non-IT careers, but in the end, the students that should have been the most well prepared for my classes did no better that those that had never seen a satellite dish before.
I spent an additional two years as a contractor in Afghanistan. I did everything from convoys out to remote FOBs to troubleshoot and repair systems, to training, to theater wide Tier-3/Engineering Level satellite support. I worked with hundreds of contractors at all levels and over 95% of them were veterans. The quality of work/knowledge level was a complete crapshoot. There were many that I dealt with that should have been fired or at least not had their contract renewed. One of them was my boss(gross negligence/mismanagement), the other was a CCNP that couldn't even create a basic NAT configuration for a 2800 series router(fired for reasons unrelated to his lack of technical competence). There were the occasional superstars (my replacement boss). There was everything in between.
In the end, I honestly see very few advantages to hiring veterans other than that they have a higher chance of being on time/early than a non-veteran. I see a distinct disadvantage in hiring anyone that was a First Sergeant or Sergeant Major(Don't worry, the ones you need to worry about will let you know they were one). Those are the ones most likely to have internalized the military and demand that those around them do the same.