# Career thoughts...



## sephblack (28 Apr 2004)

Hey. I'm 17 years old, and am considering career options right now. One of the things that came up was career military - air force or army. 

I'm here to get information from people who have been there and are there right now. I've done searches through the forums, but I still have questions. 

I personally am not that interested in the 'infantry' life. JTF-2 is just a dream that I don't think is in my reach - so I'm going to ignore that. What I'm interested in is Counter-terrorism and National Defense. I'm pretty good with computers and plan on going to university. I'm not sure what I'll take, maybe Computer Sciences. 

Are there jobs in the military that excel with people who have Computer Science degrees? I know that if you do join the military, education is given... are computer courses included, or is it mostly medical and engineering?

Like I said, I'm interested in counter-terrorism, national defense and basically helping my country. Travel is a big factor, too. I don‘t want to stay in one place for really long periods of time. Infantry is not out of the question, I just don‘t know a lot about it.

I've searched the web and from what I've found, Military Security (The Officer form of Military Police, I believe) seems to be appealing to me, and I've read about it, but I still don't actually know that much about it and how I get there, and what I do when I get there. 

Any help you give me will be appreciated. Thank you.

Seph


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## Michael OLeary (28 Apr 2004)

You should consider the possibility of being a signals officer:

A Career as an Officer in Signals Officer (Sigs O) (84)


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## nULL (28 Apr 2004)

Don‘t "plan" on having a computer science degree. It‘s deceptively difficult, and the math in the first and second year is a real b****. Take the time now to learn some elementary C++ and Java, depending on what uni you are going to. You should make sure you have an escape plan in case you decide that debugging code and programming multi dimensional arrays isn‘t your thing, cause it‘s fu_king boring, and there will be no girls to chat up either.

I don‘t want to be doom and gloom here, but the way you said it you weren‘t sure if that‘s what you really wanted. Do what you like, not what you want, or you‘ll get caught. 2 years ago, I was registered for computer science, and now I‘m dabbling in poli sci.


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## winchable (28 Apr 2004)

Have you considered CSIS?

Counter Terrorism, Computers etc.

Keep your options open.


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## sephblack (28 Apr 2004)

Well, my initial thoughts a few years ago were Law or Law Enforcement. I read up on Law School, and after a while I‘ve decided that I‘m not really interested in being a lawyer - it seems sort of boring to me. 

From what I‘ve read of the various CF occupations, what interests me most is Security. So, this being the case... has anyone been down that road, taken Criminology and became either Military Police or Security? I‘ve read up on the job and still, it doesn‘t give me the sort of information I want. I‘m looking for personal info.. like what you just gave me, nULL, thank you.

So another route is Criminology-DEO Security... this appealed to me because from what I‘ve read of them, they seem to help deal with national defense and major crimes, not small-town stuff like normal police officers.

Anyway.. Thank you for the information so far, guys.

Edit: Che, I‘ve been to the CSIS website, and I know to intern you have to be in college/university and have a 3.0 grade average. But do you know what university degrees you can have to be employed at CSIS? I wasn‘t able to find any information on what area of education they prefer...


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## portcullisguy (29 Apr 2004)

CSIS will hire you as an intelligence officer if you have any university degree and have second language skills.  It must be a minimum bachelor‘s degree.

If you do not have the minimum, you can apply regionally to join as a surveillance officer.  The pay is less, but the pay for int officers is crap anyway (relatively speaking).  Surveillance officers only require a college diploma, and the second language is not a requirement either.

I applied to CSIS, and was screened out right away on the degree requirement.  I wasn‘t sad about it ... I would‘ve been taking a pay cut.  And in any event, I am doing int work right now with customs, from a tactical perspective.

Another customs officer and friend of mine was a surveillance officer before joining customs, and he is also a Sgt in the local army Int unit.  He expected to get on customs intelligence with no problems based on his experience, but unfortunately because we are government, we have to stick to selection board silliness and he didn‘t have the "time in" at customs.  He would be a good int officer there, no question, as he has the skills from the army and from CSIS, but... that‘s the way they do things at my work!


I guess my point was that CSIS isn‘t all it‘s cracked up to be.  There‘s no Walther PPK‘s and tuxedos either, although they are now issued badges and sent off to do a lot more field work than before.  Perhaps with the new anti-terror funding, they will expand their role.  But covert int work can‘t be easy, and I don‘t think we have a strong experience base for it in Canada, so we will probably end up sending career civil servants to the US for training courses.


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## koach (29 Apr 2004)

I am assuming that you are in high school and about to graduate.  You are looking at post-secondary possibilities and you would prefer to be an officer.

Have you looked at ROTP as a career path to a university degree?  Each region in Canada has a co-ordinator made up of X-RMC graduates that now work with recruiting centres. These co-ordinators are there to provide answers to questions like yours.

If I am correct in my assumptions then call the appropriate Red and White Co-ordinator under ‘contact us‘ on the following link:

 http://www.rmcclub.ca/www/rawp/rawp_e.html 



> Are there jobs in the military that excel with people who have Computer Science degrees?


They can answer that question.

They may also be able to answer your other questions or put you in contact with someone who has "been down that road".


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## kbowes (29 Apr 2004)

Do CSIS agents carry sidearms? Maybe I‘ve been watching too much ‘24‘.


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## sephblack (29 Apr 2004)

If I was to join CSIS, how would it affect my job and position if I were to either

1) Join as a civilian with a university degree.

2) Join as an officer in the Military (Security, perhaps) with a degree?

And if I do join as Military, will that mean I have to wait considerably longer to do so? The military has required terms of service (years) after you finish your training, so... I don‘t know whether CSIS would be included in that service. If I was DEO-Security, would I have to do my term of service or would I be able to apply to CSIS?

It‘s not pay that really worries me, I just want to do... what I want to do. If I wanted to make money, I would be looking to take Business Management and Investment courses. But that‘s not the life I want... at least not right now.

I‘ll ask the people at our recruiting center, but I figured I‘d ask to see if you knew, first.

PS Kurbo: I imagine they do carry firearms for field work, along with badges, but I hardly think the work is as exciting as for people working at CTU in 24.


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## kurokaze (29 Apr 2004)

> Another customs officer and friend of mine was a surveillance officer before joining customs, and he is also a Sgt in the local army Int unit. He expected to get on customs intelligence with no problems based on his experience, but unfortunately because we are government, we have to stick to selection board silliness and he didn‘t have the "time in" at customs. He would be a good int officer there, no question, as he has the skills from the army and from CSIS, but... that‘s the way they do things at my work!


Wait, you can be in CSIS and be in the reserves at the same time?  I thought CSIS had the ability to send you off anywhere and thus making a part-time career in the reserves impractical.  

True?  not true?  Help me out please, I‘ve been interested in joining CSIS for awhile, just didn‘t like the idea of being shipped to timbuktoo (that and having to take a major pay cut     )


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## Superman (29 Apr 2004)

Wonder what its like to work at CSIS... Desk work would be pretty boring... Maybe some field work would be exciting.. Do you know if they hire people with military experiance to do some field work?


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## sephblack (29 Apr 2004)

Superman,

You would have to have a college or university degree (bachelors at the least) to join CSIS. And I imagine they would take your military experience into account.. but I just asked a question like that, above, so I‘m not sure.


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## Yes Man (29 Apr 2004)

> Originally posted by kurokaze:
> [qb]
> 
> 
> ...


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## winchable (29 Apr 2004)

I think if you were to work at CSIS and you‘re a computer science degree holder you would spend many long hours infront of a computer, not at embassys in Eastern Europe woo-ing girls named Veronika.


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## kurokaze (29 Apr 2004)

> Originally posted by Che:
> [qb] I think if you were to work at CSIS and you‘re a computer science degree holder you would spend many long hours infront of a computer, not at embassys in Eastern Europe woo-ing girls named Veronika. [/qb]


I am a comp sci degree holder.. and I already spend long hours in front of a computer...


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## sephblack (29 Apr 2004)

> Originally posted by Che:
> [qb] I think if you were to work at CSIS and you‘re a computer science degree holder you would spend many long hours infront of a computer, not at embassys in Eastern Europe woo-ing girls named Veronika. [/qb]


I don‘t have a romanticized view of counter-terrorism, Che   

And I still don‘t know what exactly I‘m going to take. It could be computer science, or Criminology...


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## Yes Man (29 Apr 2004)

Go for Criminology,  I got accepted to computer science at a number of universities, and after a few weeks of looking at what I would be doing for the rest of my life I switched to psychology and Criminology.  They are far more interesting than spending weeks learning about the many ways you can sort millions of numbers.


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## casing (29 Apr 2004)

Major pay cut?  You decide....



> The starting salary is $39,640 progressing to $63,800 during the probationary period


This is for an Intelligence Officer, which is what most you are talking about wanting to do.  The probationary period lasts 5 years.

See this posting for Intelligence Officers.


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## kurokaze (29 Apr 2004)

> Originally posted by Casing:
> [qb] Major pay cut?  You decide....
> 
> 
> ...


Yes major pay cut.  At least until year 5, when it‘ll be a smaller (but still significant) pay cut   

And Yes Man... I‘ll speak to you about comp sci back at the unit    :evil:


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