Joining the military reserve and getting ahead in career?
Joining the military reserve and getting ahead in career?
(OP)
I will be graduating next year and plan to join Marine Corps Reserve. I really want to join, but wonder how it will affect my mechanical engineering career?
When I will be deployed, how will my company take that (I will probably work for a midsize-to-large company). Will my co-workers be pissed because suddenly they will have to take over my work? Does that mean less promotion and pay raise?
I am not afraid to put in the hard work, but if someone who has gone through the same experience can provide their insight. Thank you.
When I will be deployed, how will my company take that (I will probably work for a midsize-to-large company). Will my co-workers be pissed because suddenly they will have to take over my work? Does that mean less promotion and pay raise?
I am not afraid to put in the hard work, but if someone who has gone through the same experience can provide their insight. Thank you.





RE: Joining the military reserve and getting ahead in career?
As far as advancing your career: I believe that every experience can be useful. Serving in the military is no exception. You will be exposed and have to work with a wide variety of people (a positive), likely gain leadership experience (another positive), and have a HUGE set of contacts when you are done should you ever need them (third positive). If you work for a large company, they will likely survive without you when you have to serve. It is much easier to serve when working for a large company.
On the downside, some will view it as a negative since you will be missing time from work. It is, but I feel that the experience you will gain far outweighs the time missed at work.
Just my two cents.
Reidh
RE: Joining the military reserve and getting ahead in career?
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RE: Joining the military reserve and getting ahead in career?
Other disadvantages that I see now (was Army Reserve and switched to regular Navy) would be associated with the well publicized extended periods of deployment in Iraq now. The days of monthly weekends and 2-4wks annual training are gone. I doubt employers would be willing to hire a Reservist at the present time since they are being deployed just as long as Regular soldiers. I think your timing is off a few years.
That being said, employers can't fire you for being deployed as a Reservist, I don't think you have to worry about your co-workers getting mad, and your pay could suffer since you can't be around to do your hired job.
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RE: Joining the military reserve and getting ahead in career?
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RE: Joining the military reserve and getting ahead in career?
RE: Joining the military reserve and getting ahead in career?
pyro - so I guess govt. agency has enough people to take over your work once you are deployed?
RE: Joining the military reserve and getting ahead in career?
RE: Joining the military reserve and getting ahead in career?
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RE: Joining the military reserve and getting ahead in career?
Get free help with employment-law issues regarding military leave at workforce.com/03/01/feature2
I was going to join ANG shortly after I graduated but knew it would not be received well with my employer at the time. So I decided if I could not commite to doing it fulltime then I wouldn't do it at all......I wished I had followed through with joining. Best of luck
Heckler
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RE: Joining the military reserve and getting ahead in career?
The people I work with (I work for a Dutch–owned international chemical manufacturing company) have been incredibly supportive; they have thrown me going away parties each time I left, and have helped my family (wife and three kids) while I was gone – they even helped my wife move out of state while I was overseas (yes, I knew she was going).
The company has continued to pay the difference in my salary each time I was deployed because they support the Guard-Reserve. On top of that, the company continued medical insurance coverage for my family while I was deployed – at no cost to me. That is a significant amount of support.
On the flip side, I had four men under my command (four of 64 total, a Psychological Operations company) whose employers were completely unsupportive and vocally antagonistic about their employees being gone for a year. They each had their jobs when they returned, but in two of the cases, I had to contact the Judge Advocate General (military attorney’s office) to have them “chat” with the company’s management before the soldiers could have their civilian jobs back.
All that having been said, my absence creates an additional workload, obviously, and I have been exceptionally fortunate in that the site I work at can draw on additional support from our sister sites in the U.S. and Europe if needed. Not all companies can or will send an engineer from Germany or France to the U.S. for six months to cover the completion of a major capital project, or to complete a plant turnaround.
It’s never too late to make a commitment, unless you are too old, which is up to about 40 now, for military service. I’ve managed to be an engineer and a military officer for 21 years, and it’s a pain sometimes, but its been worth every sacrifice.
RE: Joining the military reserve and getting ahead in career?
I worked for a small UK Defense company. One of my colleagues was in the Royal Auxiliary Air force (kind of like ANG). He got called up for 6 months when Afghanistan first went off and around the time of the initial Iraq invasion for slightly less than 6 (he was released early because is absence from work was delaying programs needed by the service).
It caused a real problem. Not just in manpower generally but also due to certain specialist skills only he had and the fact he was the most senior design engineer with associated duties.
In some ways reserves in certain Defense jobs isn’t a good fit. In the even of conflict/an emergency it may be that both the company and the military need the skills of that individual to meet critical requirements.
That said I’d hope for a larger company it isn’t as much of an issue.
KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...