What Are Some "jack Of All Trade" Jobs?

Seajack

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I checked to see if there was a topic like this, and didn't find one, so I hope I am not repeating anyone here.

In regards to the topic itself, I'm not looking to get my heart set on anything yet, but more-less to see what options I are available to me.

I am sixteen, and I do have my heart set on the military, and my dream is to be in special forces. I've got the drive and motivation, as there isn't anything else I've wanted to become, but I don't really know what is "out there".

What are some "all around" type jobs that the US SOF has? I'm leaning towards the Navy, and becoming a Corpsman (SARC?) in MARSOC or a SEAL medic, but was wondering if there are any other jobs to be had that deal with even more variety.

While I still have a lot of time to make up my mind, I'd like to be able to get an idea of what I will shoot for when my time comes so I can further prepare myself. My dilemma is that I want to "do it all". I'd like to parachute, dive, shoot, work with languages, and anything else I can fit on my plate. I could very well be getting ahead myself, and please let me know if I am. I'm not looking for an answer or directions, just some places I could go.

All in all, the needs of my country are going to come first, but if I can aim for an occupation that I will enjoy doing in the process, I feel it would only add to my enthusiasm and motivation.
 
Have you tried google or bothered to stop by Amazon / Barnes & Noble to pick up a book or two on the subject?

There is a wealth of knowledge on the internet which can be had by reading a bit. There is also a plethora of books which have been published since 9.11 on SOF that would aid in your desire to find what you believe you may want to do.

FWIW::

SOF= Special Operations Forces It is an encompassing term which includes SEALs, SWCC, MARSOC, PJ and CCTs, Army Rangers, 160th SOAR, 1st SFOD-D, and Special Forces.

SF=Special Forces This is the US Army Special Forces - Green Berets
 
Thanks, I apologize for not looking harder. I appreciate the replies.


Way to handle constructive criticism. Most people your age would have gotten their panties in a bunch and stomped off in a huff.

If you want to be a "generalist," consider becoming an officer. Generally speaking, officers are required to know a little bit about a wide variety of topics within their respective fields. If you want to be a "doer," consider the enlisted route. Enlisted personnel perform the majority of the "cool" things that you get to do in the military. If you want to be a subject matter expert in one particular topic (flying, maintenance, intel) consider becoming a warrant officer, which will usually require you to spend some time enlisted first.

And one final thing about the military, especially SOF: "your experiences may vary." There are exceptions to every rule, everyone has different experiences, and not everything everyone tells you on the Internet will necessarily be true in every instance, including everything I said above.

Welcome to the site, congratulations on your desire to serve your country, and best of luck in your military career.

Oh, and if you want to have the absolute best job in the military, SOF or not, become an Army intelligence officer. Just sayin'.

 
Way to handle constructive criticism. Most people your age would have gotten their panties in a bunch and stomped off in a huff.

If you want to be a "generalist," consider becoming an officer. Generally speaking, officers are required to know a little bit about a wide variety of topics within their respective fields. If you want to be a "doer," consider the enlisted route. Enlisted personnel perform the majority of the "cool" things that you get to do in the military. If you want to be a subject matter expert in one particular topic (flying, maintenance, intel) consider becoming a warrant officer, which will usually require you to spend some time enlisted first.

And one final thing about the military, especially SOF: "your experiences may vary." There are exceptions to every rule, everyone has different experiences, and not everything everyone tells you on the Internet will necessarily be true in every instance, including everything I said above.

Welcome to the site, congratulations on your desire to serve your country, and best of luck in your military career.

Oh, and if you want to have the absolute best job in the military, SOF or not, become an Army intelligence officer. Just sayin'.


I plan on going the enlisted route, and maybe becoming an officer later. I hear a lot "smack talk" on "fresh out of the academy" officers that don't know what is actually going on in the field, and I don't want to be that kind of leader. Now I have no evidence or experience dealing with "fresh out of the academy" officers, but it makes sense to me to know both sides. It couldn't hurt, could it?

If all goes as planned, I will be able to enter the service at at least an E-2, possibly an E-3 or higher, so I am hoping I will still be able to

The JROTC CO at my school was an 0-6 intel officer in the Army. Pretty cool guy, very quick witted. I decided to join the Sea Cadet Corps instead, I sort of regret not sticking with that program. Shoulda, coulda, woulda....

Again, thank you for the reply, Marauder. I'll take any advice I can get.
 
My advice is if you want to be an officer, get on the career path to becoming an officer as soon as you can; if you want to be enlisted, then get on that path. Both are essential to the effective functioning of our military, but they are separate for a reason.

Being enlisted prior to becoming an officer might help, or it might not help. I felt being enlisted prior to being commissioned would help me be a better officer so I tried to enlist in the Guard when I was in college, but the conditions of my scholarship did not allow it. Having been in the Army for some time now, I'm not sure how much better prepared I would have been doing two years of enlisted time and then OCS compared to the five years of officer prep I had through ROTC. Franky, I think the Army was better served having me do ROTC. Others will disagree and say that in their experience former enlisted make better officers; their opinion and experiences are equally valid and you should consider both points of view before you make a decision.

Something else to consider is opportunity cost. Will you be ready for college when you graduate from high school? Can you afford to go? Can you afford not to go? You could join the military and find that the conditions of your life do not allow you to leave the service and go back to college. You may find a girl (or a boy, whatever) and decide you need to stay in the service to support your family. Or you may find that the GI Bill and/or the Army's Green to Gold program are incredible opportunities for you. And, you may find that enlisting for two years may give you a "taste" of the military (and some job skills and college money) without the long-term commitment of pursuing a commission.

Why are you looking at becoming a medic? Is that something you have some training or experience in?
 
Why are you looking at becoming a medic? Is that something you have some training or experience in?

Specifically an SOF medic/corpsman, because of the variety of things I can do. They shoot, dive, jump, etc. plus get medical training. All things that I would like to try. It seems like one of those jobs I spoke of in my OP. Once I get on my feet as a corpsman (should I complete the necessary steps to become one), I could have a variety of places I could end up, i.e. MARSOC, SEAL's, EOD, all things that I would like to possibly reach for.

I plan on (if all goes according) spending twenty years in the military. With that said, I am preparing myself to attend one of the military academies, should I change my mind my junior or senior year. I've got good grades, active in sports, Sea Cadets, clubs, community service, etc. I reckon all of that stuff won't hurt, whether I take the officer route out of high school or not. I will probably try and get into an academy preparatory school if I decide that I want to become an officer post-enlistment.
 
Or this

jackofalltrades2.jpg


Jeff Kraus offers some interesting perspective and insight having completed all 3.
 
I hear a lot "smack talk" on "fresh out of the academy" officers that don't know what is actually going on in the field, and I don't want to be that kind of leader. Now I have no evidence or experience dealing with "fresh out of the academy" officers, but it makes sense to me to know both sides. It couldn't hurt, could it?
.

Check it out man, what is the percentage of prior service officers? I ask becuase your theory is flawed, our officer corps is either from ROTC, OCS, and the academies. And the majority of people in those programs are not prior service. So hence are military has been functioning at a high level for 200 years without a bunch of hard charching former NCO's at the reigns.

I applied to the Academy Prep school out of Basic training as a backup in case I did not get selected at SFAS. I did and then was face with a pretty hard decision, go to the prep school or attend the Q course. I say this because both are 100% commitments. Don't halfway do anything. If you are a junior in High School right now, I would not be worried about what you are going to be in the military. I would be out playing sports chasing tail and getting really good grades in order to get into the academy straight away. That is going to be a better thing for you career wise than being a corpsman. PLus if you really want to be SOF you can always do it as an officer.
 
If you are a junior in High School right now, I would not be worried about what you are going to be in the military. I would be out playing sports chasing tail and getting really good grades in order to get into the academy straight away. That is going to be a better thing for you career wise than being a corpsman. PLus if you really want to be SOF you can always do it as an officer.


Good point, I never thought about the percentage of them.

I understand that the standards are higher for officers, and while I don't doubt my abilities to rise to the occasion, I have heard that SOF out of an academy is a crapshoot because there are X amount of slots, and they get taken quickly.

On that note, what are the differences between an SOF NCO and an SOF officer?

I should probably worry less. I hear a million different things from retired military guys that I have talked to in the past, each one saying something different in regards to their advice. I guess it'd be better to be prepared all around, in case I change my mind or something doesn't align when the time comes.

Thanks, cback, very insightful. I appreciate it.
 
I don't know who's giving you your information, but going straight out of an academy (or any commissioning source for that matter) into a SOF assignment is exceedingly rare, at least in the Army. It does happen, but I'm guessing that statistically speaking, there's not a large enough population of "this is my first gig in the Army" officers to make good comparisons.
 
Good point, I never thought about the percentage of them.

I understand that the standards are higher for officers, and while I don't doubt my abilities to rise to the occasion, I have heard that SOF out of an academy is a crapshoot because there are X amount of slots, and they get taken quickly.

On that note, what are the differences between an SOF NCO and an SOF officer?

I should probably worry less. I hear a million different things from retired military guys that I have talked to in the past, each one saying something different in regards to their advice. I guess it'd be better to be prepared all around, in case I change my mind or something doesn't align when the time comes.

Thanks, cback, very insightful. I appreciate it.

I'm just a wannabe like you, but...
Like you, I've always just wanted to serve. And I went through HS without much of a plan. I applied to the academies, 1st choice was USNA, didn't get in, got into USMAPS, went for a while, wasn't where I wanted to be, and now I'm at civi college.

I can honestly say, that the past 4 months or so have been a huge period of personal growth. Between going to school full time and working, I've grown up a lot.

The cut off age to become a SEAL or enlist in the USMC is 28 years old- lots of guys have waited to enlist. I hate to use this as an example but- if you read the bios of SEAL warriors who have given their lives, most of those enlisted guys did a year or more of college and then enlisted. CPO Harris was 28 when he went in!

What I'm saying is- don't worry too much. I felt like my life would be over by 30 and that I'd need to be doing big things by 22 to be successful in life when I was 16. Figure out what you want to do now- if you feel like you need some time to have fun, civi college isn't a bad holding tank. Like everyone's said- have fun in HS. Don't take it too seriously- it's a small part of your life lol. You've got a lot of time to do cool stuff and live a Teddy Roosevelt life!

Good luck on everything man.
PS If you do decide to go to an Academy, you don't HAVE to decide now. Hal Moore did two years of college before going to USMA.
 
I understand that the standards are higher for officers, and while I don't doubt my abilities to rise to the occasion, I have heard that SOF out of an academy is a crapshoot because there are X amount of slots, and they get taken quickly.

I believe the Navy will take O's straight from a commissioning source and into BUD/S. I am not sure how the AF runs the CCT/ CRO pipeline. While I'm not saying it hasn't happened, because I'm sure a few prior enlisted managed to pull it off, going to an operational slot in SOF right out of a commissioning source is nearly impossible in the Army (to reinforce Marauder's view). You CAN go directly into a SOF unit as a support O (Comm, Quartermaster, etc.), but the number of available slots when your Year Group commissions will be very small.

In general, you need to make your bones as an O before moving over to a SOF assignment.
 
AF side of the house. You can jump right into CRO, but need to put some time in before you will see time in a STT. As for the STO/CCT. You actually have to go through a selection process. You can go through the selection process PRIOR to OCS/OTS but you will still choose a different AFSC prior to attending OCS/OTS. If selected then you would proceed through the STO pipeline and not the original AFSC.

Source: specialtactics dot com
 
AF side of the house. You can jump right into CRO, but need to put some time in before you will see time in a STT. As for the STO/CCT. You actually have to go through a selection process. You can go through the selection process PRIOR to OCS/OTS but you will still choose a different AFSC prior to attending OCS/OTS. If selected then you would proceed through the STO pipeline and not the original AFSC.

Source: specialtactics dot com

You cant just jump into to CRO. You have to go through CRO phase I and II selection...then to the Pararescue/CRO Selection and Indoctrination Course.
 
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