Designing Your Military Transition
How to find a career that plays to your interests, strengths, and passions while also achieving your financial goals
Disclaimer: This article’s intended audience is officers who already have undergraduate degrees, it may be relevant to veterans who were enlisted, but probably less so.
Leaving the military is often confusing, exciting, terrifying, freeing, lonely, and dizzying all at the same time.
For most officers who spend about four years in college wearing a uniform (especially if you went to an academy) and then four or more years in the military, the prospect of getting out can be quite nerve-racking. One of the largest reasons getting out is so nerve-racking is because you are limited to a known list of options for any major career decision in the military (ie branches or posts). On those lists, it’s pretty easy to then narrow the top couple of choices, which leaves you with only a few options. Most career decisions end up looking like: Hawaii or Germany, pilot or not, Infantry or Armor.
As much as we complain about a lack of choice in the military, it also becomes comforting over time. After all, there’s nothing better than that warm blanket of Tricare Prime. As much as we joke about the military being like prison, this quote from Shawshank Redemption isn’t far from the truth.
These walls are funny. First you hate ’em, then you get used to ’em. After long enough, you get so you depend on ’em. That’s ‘institutionalized.’
— Red
