Army vs Navy (crypto question)

Army has Warrant officers...

Cyber Warfare Technician(170A)
Electronic Warfare Technician (170B)
Information Services Technician (255A)
Network Management Technician (255N)
Information Protection Technician (255S)
Senior Network Operations Technician (255Z)
Signals Intelligence Analyst (352N)
Voice Intercept Technician (352P)
Signals Collections Technician (352S)
 
It depends on your goals. Do you want to work the gear and go out with infantry/SOF/other units? Or do you want to send those teams out? From my experience me and my team were out doing patrols and working the gear at COPs and OPs. Even when I became a team leader I was pulled back to the base while my guys went out on operations - and I was an enlisted guy. I only saw our officers maybe 2 or 3 times while on deployment. Keep in mind that my unit was very conventional and your experience as an Officer may vary.
 
I was a 35N, (SIGINT) but when I joined the Army, it was a different job, and the entire series was being reorganized, and the closest equivalency to 35Q (at the time) was at one point, absorbed into both my MOS (35N), and another MOS, and the second MOS went away, a couple other things happened, and 35Q came about.

Now, Novembers and Quebec's are separated, but since I'm from that time, I've known both.

For 35Q in the Army, you'll be going to Pensacola for AIT. It's a highly technical job and requires a lot of brains, with extreme attention to detail.

As for Novembers, it's about the same, as what I've just described above, however, in my experience, Novembers are Quebecs funnier, more physically fit, more tan, cousins. However, keep in mind, physical fitness is relative in Conventional Forces Army MI (at a strategic unit), because, let's be real-- anyone without a permanent profile, who can run, is a PT stud. That's a quote from a recent conversation with a November. Another plus, is all of this can translate to more "out of the office and into the motor pool, more."

I say this only in a half-kidding, but descriptions like this are about as real as you can get for two highly sensitive series.

That being said, all of the 35 Quebec's I know are as close to mathematicians as they come, and historically (and currently) spent a lot of time inside.

If you are seriously interested in pursuing the Army cyber route (35Q), and speak to a recruiter to find out what they say, I'll talk to a Quebec and a November, and a prior-enlisted 35 series-turned Advanced Instructor, and have them weigh in and post it here, to see what they say about what you find out. So that's three people.

I'm warning you now- you won't get a lot of information. If not being able to get a lot of information is a problem, I would say the Army in the Cryptologic Community is probably not a great fit for you, in either of these jobs.

However, what you can do though, is --before speaking to a recruiter, I would suggest comparing Army 35Q and 35N jobs, and also list out why you are joining the military, and what you hope to accomplish.

Next, keep what you wrote to yourself, or post it in this thread. What it's not for is for you to call the recruiter and explain your list of wants and needs to.

It's to help you get a solid understanding of why you are pursuing these opportunities in the military, versus the private or government sector, after just graduating college, and assist you weighing the pros and cons for whatever you decide you want to pursue.

Whatever you do, you have to be flexible.

Or you can ignore all of this, sign a contract for the job you want, and you may end up with the job you get which is not the same as what you want.

I've seen that multiple times IRL, usually from recent college grads. I think it may happen because it's not like on tv and on paper both activities may look comparable-- but college and cryptology are two vastly different cultures.

I mention this specifically because this exact scenerio has happened to several of my lifelong friends and made their civilian to soldier transition quite rocky, and if a little bit of planning on your part can avoid that, I thought I would throw it out there.

For example, you mentioned that you don't want to be in an office. This may be an indicator that 35Q occupation is not a good fit for you.

One final note: If you are interested in cyber community military enlistment incentives, I would say be very careful-- because the more you are getting from the Government, the more you will be required to pay it back tenfold, and in the world of MI-- it is usually with mind numbingly boring activities and tasks.

But like most things, life is what you make it, and the cryptologic community is no difference.

Another quick note: For 35N- If you have exceptional people skills, it's a huge positive. But, if you have adequate people skills, that's also fine.

If I were you, I would track down a 35N or 35Q series on Recruiting detail and speak to them.

Best of luck!
 
I would also cast your search a littler wider and look at all the services. Each one has their own hidden gems when it comes to the SIGINT/Cyber world. I never heard of Radio Reconnaissance until I stumbled across units that also went through Recon training. All the SIGINTers who were not linguists were in my class in Pensacola - they all just apply that skillset in different ways.
 
Going through this thread, are you interested in Cyber or SIGINT? I know most like to think they are same but they are not.

Cyber warfare and SIGINT are two different professions that have a few overlapping features. I've done cyber for the Air Force for a few years now and can say we lead the way in OCO and DCO. Our 1B4/3D0/17S have a dedicated cyber mission versus some sort of zombie step child mix of ints that other services have, that frankly don't need to be combined.

Cyber is new and still not understood.
 
That doesnt mean you cant have a rewarding career as an officer. Particularly in the comm feild (which you'll be in.) Besides, you may pull a solid staff duty anyway. Regardless, if you stay in, you'll be filling a position outside of your feild. Any branch will get their time from you regardless if you wear flat black or shinney stuff on your collar. Dont let a potential crappy billet determine your career. Not only that, the most rewarding part of the military imo is being a mentor and feeling like you imparted some knowledge or made a difference in someones life. As an officer, you'll have more opprotunity to do that. As an enlisted you'll remain on the light side, be loved by your peers, and generally live a wonderful life slaying dragons and driving mustangs. Trade-offs
 
That doesnt mean you cant have a rewarding career as an officer. Particularly in the comm feild (which you'll be in.) Besides, you may pull a solid staff duty anyway. Regardless, if you stay in, you'll be filling a position outside of your feild. Any branch will get their time from you regardless if you wear flat black or shinney stuff on your collar. Dont let a potential crappy billet determine your career. Not only that, the most rewarding part of the military imo is being a mentor and feeling like you imparted some knowledge or made a difference in someones life. As an officer, you'll have more opprotunity to do that. As an enlisted you'll remain on the light side, be loved by your peers, and generally live a wonderful life slaying dragons and driving mustangs. Trade-offs


I don’t know about you but that was not what I experienced with any Officers I worked with. NCOs and SNCOs were the only ones mentoring enlisted. I don’t know about Officers since I was enlisted all the way. The only time I really spoke to an Officer was for FITREPS or when I worked for Company HQ.
 
I don’t know about you but that was not what I experienced with any Officers I worked with.

My experience was somewhere in between yours and CommSgt31's.

To be honest, I don't want to take away from the officers and warrants who did/do mentor, but personally, as a general statement, I saw more NCOs, everywhere, who mentored constantly.

I feel lucky/glad/appreciative to have had Officers with who mentored, and some Warrants did, too-- with DISE and similar elements.

A couple of company level Officers were very motivational and were really tapped into the people of the unit.
 
I know, for me personally, I worked closely with 2 officers that shaped me as a Marine and as a citizen, but I had two equally as influencial sncos as well. I loved doing all I could to make my Marines better. Its easier to do that if they have to listen to you. The trick is making them want to.
 
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