You are having an "early midlife crisis".
This is exactly what I came here to post.
I work for a state agency building web applications for public services. I am married and we have a toddler. Wife is a stay at home mom and my job pays well.
America has given me everything and I’ve always wanted and still want to join the Army and serve. It sounds selfish but I want to keep my current job to support my family but serve at the same time. I am 29 years old and would like to get some input from the Hide, before I talk to a recruiter. What can or should I do to stay with my family and continue my full time job and serve at the same time?
Not sure if this will help anything if I join the Army, but I have a master’s in computer science, bachelor’s in electronics and communication engineering. 7.5 years of experience in information technology.
Thanks
What do you want to
DO in the Army??
The Army has everything from doctors to water purifiers to guys who drive tanks... and all of them perform janitorial services at one time or another.
Do you want to be a door-kicking ninja, applying controlled violence upon our adversaries, in support of our objectives?
Do you want to be a Software Developer, who gets handed a crappy application with a critical purpose... written decades ago on a monochrome monitor... and creates a new one- then hooks it in to a MASSIVE historical repository of data and seamlessly cuts over with zero downtime?
And wait... you're married with a small child- are you taling about joining the Army, or joining the Guard or Reserve? There is a HUGE difference.
Since you said "keep your job," I assume you're thinking about part-timing. You should know that when that job goes "full time" you will have a very long and painful ramp up with- not taking a shot at our Weekend Warriors- less motivated, less competent folks (on average) just to get to the party... and then serve the same year or year+ in theater followed by 90-day stabilization.
On the plus side for you, the State will hold your job while you are away under USERRA and offer it when you get back at the same rate. For private companies- especially small ones- it greatly complicates operations to have a person who is in... then out.
They will play games with you, and being in the Guard or Reserve will effect your ability to hold roles of higher importance/ responsibility and will effect your ability to get selected with new private companies. Nobody is allowed to admit to this, but it is true... and like I said- there are all kinds of games they can play.
You asked "what can I do to stay with my family" but that's on you to figure out. You will need to have a solid family care plan. If your wife has a career of her own- that's a big complicating factor. If your wife is social, attractive, and has hobbies? Gooooood luck, and I'm sure she's great, honest-and-true, but you know what I'm saying.
You also have that part at the end about all of your quals... this might make you nuts, but.. no joke- the Army flat out does not care.
If you are an intelligent person, you will almost always be led by less intelligent people. You will come across adjacent people in higher positions (not in your chain of command) who are also far less qualified in something-you-know-about. This is the normal way of things. It might drive you nuts, but moving up is all based on doing time.
