0651 Data Network Specialist

[KBailey1734]

Hello,

My name is Kevin Bailey, I am a poolee from RSS Princeton in New Jersey. I enlisted on November 14th, 2007 as a reservist with a MOS of 0651 - Data Network Specialist. I have been assigned to the 6th Communications Battalion, 4th Marine Logistics Group which is located at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York. I am scheduled to leave for boot camp with two of my best friends on July 7th, 2008, both of which are going active duty for Security Forces and Presidential Security.

I have searched the forums and google about my MOS, but haven't found too much. I was wondering if there are any other communication guys out there that can shed some light about my MOS. I would also like to know more about what kind of advancement is involved in this field.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[Haffner]

I'm an 0651. Make your questions more specific, please, and I will answer them.

[KBailey1734]

Thank you for responding so quickly.

1. Do you enjoy what you do as a Data Network Specialist?

2. As I am a reservist, do you think I will be able to find a civilian job (related to networking of some sort) using my qualifications/certifications from the Marines?

3. I have heard that certain MOS's promote extremely fast versus other MOS's, is this the case with 0651?

Any other information would be greatly appreciated.

[Haffner]

1. I enjoy it. Since technology is always changing, things don't stay the same constantly in terms of our gear, troubleshooting methods and our training; in that sense, it's a dynamic MOS.

2. You'll have a good foot in the door. The NCO level advanced course for 51's gives you your CCNA cert, your A+ cert, and some misc. ComTIA certs. Alot of people in the civilian world that have them have a hard time even getting a ****ty helpdesk operator job. Networking is a field that is hard to get into without prior experience, even with all sorts of crazy acronym certifications. You won't be getting something awesoem in the civilian world right away with this, but once you have some time under your belt you'll be good to go -- especially after you pick up Cpl and get to the NCO level course.

3. 0651 / 0656 go through random periods of high and low cutting scores without ever being in between. It's always usually around 1490 for Cpl (all you have to do is BREATH to have that) or 1590/1600 (you have to work for that if you want NCO when/soon after you rate it).

The 065X field has been more commonly lowering it's cutting scores due to retention problems. This is a wonderful field that transfers to the civilian world once you have an enlistment under you, because you'll have had so much damn training and experience. You'll look really well in an interview afterwards, imagine the scenario.


7 people go for an interview for a job as a network system administrator at a local Amazon.com warehouse. You are one of them. Six of them are disgusting, fat, stereotypical run of the mill computer nerds. They probably know almost as much as you, hell, even more. They just got their Associates in networking technology and they have the same certifications you do.

You go for your interview in shape, clean cut, freshly shaved, telling the interviewer that you've been actually working in the field for 4 years, constantly training (learning NEVER stops in the Corps), etc etc.

See where I'm going with this? You'd be ahead of the game easily.


...and that's why we have retention problems lol.