Marine Officer to Federal Government

[Citadel0602]

First of all, Semper Fidelis Marines! I would like to take this opportunity to tell everyone a little about myself, I graduated from The Military College of South Carolina: The Citadel in May of 2008 with honors and am currently serving as a First Lieutenant stationed with Marine Wing Communications Squadron-18 over here in Camp Foster, Okinawa. I was promoted to 02 back in August. Recently I have seen a lot of my fellow Lieutenants get skipped over on the career designation board and its, unfortunately, forcing me to look at my options if I am not selected for Career Designation. I am a Communications Officer and have participated in multiple MEF and Coalition level exercises (PHIBLEX, ULCHI FREEDOM GUARDIAN, RYUKYU WARRIOR, KEY RESOLVE, COBRA GOLD. Since I am married and have a young two year old son I have to look at the horizon and take into consideration what options are available for someone with my qualifications. I am currently looking at CIA, FBI, or NSA. However, I really don't know where to begin to make myself more competitive to the other applicants. I would appreciate any feedback on this topic

[AAV Crewchief]

Sir,

If you are looking to work with the three letter agencies, Intel would be somewhere you might want to be. I had a friend of mine with a kid who joined the Corps after college graduation and he got an Intel job moving right up the ladder with the fast burners and had tons of offers for the aforementioned groups once he separated.

[USNAviator]

Lt. there was another person on here yesterday who was interested in the FBI. I looked their web site and in red letters they announced there was a hiring freeze due to the Federal Budget cutbacks. I didn't check out the NSA nor the CIA

My advice would be, while you are still in, try and become proficient in another language, preferably Chinese or Arabic. Make yourself more marketable by being multifaceted.

With the Corps downsizing, the climb up that pyramid will become far more difficult than in past years

Good luck to you

[tripledog]

Marry a high ranking politican.

[Burke7051]

First of all, Semper Fidelis Marines! I would like to take this opportunity to tell everyone a little about myself, I graduated from The Military College of South Carolina: The Citadel in May of 2008 with honors and am currently serving as a First Lieutenant stationed with Marine Wing Communications Squadron-18 over here in Camp Foster, Okinawa. I was promoted to 02 back in August. Recently I have seen a lot of my fellow Lieutenants get skipped over on the career designation board and its, unfortunately, forcing me to look at my options if I am not selected for Career Designation. I am a Communications Officer and have participated in multiple MEF and Coalition level exercises (PHIBLEX, ULCHI FREEDOM GUARDIAN, RYUKYU WARRIOR, KEY RESOLVE, COBRA GOLD. Since I am married and have a young two year old son I have to look at the horizon and take into consideration what options are available for someone with my qualifications. I am currently looking at CIA, FBI, or NSA. However, I really don't know where to begin to make myself more competitive to the other applicants. I would appreciate any feedback on this topic

I agree with the Commander, you should start learning another language if you haven't already or don't know one already. I would recommend either Arabic, Korean, Farsi, Urdu, Pashto, Spanish, or Russian. Many government agencies whether they are at the Federal, State, or Local levels look favorably upon this nowadays. Plus you can get more pay if you are bilingual. Also the FBI is on a hiring freeze right now, and I'm willing to bet with the current administration in the White House, many other agencies are as well.

You could also look into even any police or fire department, although. There are many cops nowadays who have degrees and are ex-military. I am a firefighter, and the City is currently pondering whether or not to lay off more firefighters and cops, so that would be another challenge to you. Depending on what your Bachelor's Degree from the Citadel is in, that might also be of good use to you, not just your military experience. Well, that's all I've got for now, you've got a treasure trove of information here on this site. Hope all works out for you. Good luck brother.

[Covey_Rider]

First off I would like to say that I am not a SME nor do I have personal experience with this. Having said that I'm going to through in my .02 on the topic anyways.

I would decide what it is that you're wanting to do with your life. Each agency has a separate mission to carry out and there are much more out there than the ones that you have listed. In regards to making yourself more marketable, I would do my best to get on a combat tour and get experience in that type of leadership role. Learning a foreign language is another outstanding thing to do, however you have to find a language that you enjoy learning as well as one that will be useful to you at any given point in time. Personally, I feel that Arabic would not be a great choice. Plenty of languages out there that would prove to be more beneficial then Arabic. Just utilize a little foresight, combined with your goals of work placement, and I'm sure you can figure out which language would be best to learn. Being a Comm-O I'm certain you already have a clearance, however if you can get a TS/SCI clearance then you'll be golden for work outside of the Marine Corps. It is cheaper for a company to train somebody to do a job, then it is for them to hire somebody who knows the job, but does not have the security clearance for it. Everything is a numbers game and if hiring you will fulfill the requirements and minimize company spending, then you're a better fit.

Again, I am not a SME and this is just my .02.