Confused at Infantry and Lateral Move to Recon/etc

[rheinmark187]

Another insightful post! I'm looking more into HUMINT straight when I join. I'll need a year to qualify for it. Thank you for another eye opener even if it didn't seem like it. This kind of experience and opinion helps a lot.

The Army has a linguist program for Non-citizens. I think you have to be in one of the critical languages, but the list is pretty diverse. You'll do transcribing and be on a fast track to citizenship. Mind telling us what country you're from? Is it a NATO country? Is it Anglophone? If you're it's a Anglophone NATO country, you might still have a reason to consider the Marine Corps, because you'll have an easier time getting a citizenship and moving right into 0211 that way.

You won't need to finish an enlistment to get accepted into 0211. That went away a few years back. You can go ahead and get an MOS, any MOS and then go ahead and submit a package for 0211 to the Intelligence battalion in your MEF. You'll have your board interview etc.

You can't do 35M,N,L etc. until you get your citizenship and clearance anyway, so until that gets squared away, there's no advantage to the Army other than that O9L, army translator aide.

[RecruiterDan]

One great reason to move into CI/HUMINT or another line of work that gets you a Secret or Top Secret clearance is that after getting at least 4 years of experience under your belt, civilian companies will hire you for great pay in a heartbeat. My company is actually looking to hire almost 200 HUMINT folks to deploy to Afghanistan for 12 months, and the pay will likely start from $80,000- $120,000 without a college degree. Practically no other jobs in the military can pay like that. The hiring will start in Sept and continue for the next 2 years. Drop a line if interested.