Army National Guard and IB/Corporate Finance

I'm a rising senior at Lehigh University and I'm also in Army ROTC. After I graduate I will receive my commission as a 2LT in the NJ Army National Guard. I was wondering if anyone knows whether or not employers look at the national guard as a negative? I also wasn't able to do an internship this summer because I had a leadership development course for 4 weeks in order to satisfy my ROTC scholarship requirements. Will that hurt me by not having a Junior year internship? I was able to get interviews with firms, but due to missing half the internship they all said no. Will I experience the same thing when looking for a full time offer?

 

Fuck SAPA.

I just got back from LDAC myself and these are really good questions I have been meaning to ask myself. My questions are pretty much identical except focused towards ER/AM. I was able to do an internship this summer despite LDAC so I have that going for me.

 

You have to do drill, theres no way around it. You have to go to BOLC, theres no way around it. You have to go do your two weeks, theres no way around it.

It will affect how you're promotion stuff works if you miss something super important. (My buddy missed a promotion because he was at BOLC and could deliver any results for 5 months, shit happens.)

Gonna have to come to terms with this shit because you sure as shit aren't going to change any of it.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 

I am in a similar position to you but from the people I have talked to the answer seems to be yes, but it varies how much. For some companies and positions the time commitment is not something they can accept and they will go with a traditional candidate. For other companies it could be a plus. A lot of the larger corporations like GE or what have you can really like that sort of thing. If you are trying to an FLDP it could look good. With more pure finance roles (ER/AM/IB) it can be more of a negative. That being said there is always a chance a shop has some ex-mil guy who really loves your military status. You never know. I know of one place that for a while kept hiring ROTC kids as interns with a lot of unnatural consistency.

This is all based on conversations I have had as well as a small amount of personal experience, so take it with a giant grain of salt.

Just speculating, I think BOLC might scare off a lot of employers but its hard to say.

Happy, are/were you in the guard?

 

I just put US Army 2nd LT as a single line on my resume when I applied. Most large companies wont care because they can't, by law, hold it against you. Smaller firms it will be a bigger deal.

Yes, I am.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 

That's a complicated situation, and I could definitely see someone not being happy about you taking those couple of weekends off. I would rather pick someone who's a more traditional hire and would be ready to work through the weekend if needed.

Under my tutelage, you will grow from boys to men. From men into gladiators. And from gladiators into SWANSONS.
 

its not legal discrimination for you having this duty, its that you wont be able to fulfill the job duties when they need you to and thus would be grounds for firing you or not hiring you in the first place. if youre serious about IBD stop worrying about the padding of your resume with a national guard officer title or whatever small pay you want to gain from it and just focus on the IBD

that being said, how sure fire of getting into IBD are you? are you doing an internship right now?

 
shorttheworld:
its not legal discrimination for you having this duty, its that you wont be able to fulfill the job duties when they need you to and thus would be grounds for firing you or not hiring you in the first place. if youre serious about IBD stop worrying about the padding of your resume with a national guard officer title or whatever small pay you want to gain from it and just focus on the IBD

that being said, how sure fire of getting into IBD are you? are you doing an internship right now?

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nce/documents/EmploymentRights.pdf

It is illegal to discriminate in the hiring process based on being in the national guard or reserves. It is also federal law (USSERA) that the employer allow an employee to take the time off to complete military service. Frankly, it's a shitty deal for employers. I understand why they discriminate, and if I was in their position I probably would too, I just woulnd't tell them the reason. "Lots of qualified candidates. blah blah blah. went another direction. blah blah blah. encourage you to apply again in the future. blah blah blah" Short of them telling you, in writing, that the reason you aren't getting the job is because you're in the guard, it's not going to be provable discrimination.

If I do it, it would not be for the minimal impact on my resume, it would be because I actually enjoy doing it. I'm curious if others have been able to do both, and if employers do discriminate as I suspect they would.

Sure fire of getting in? No, but I'm busting my ass networking and trying.

 

Its always an issue, it will always been an issue particularly in high hour type professions like banking. Saying otherwise is silly. There are certainly companies that will work with you but not in a traditional IB role.

UFO - everytime a thread like this comes up you talk about how interested you are in it. Either go in or don't but you and I talked about it like a year ago.

Oh, and its laughably retarded that you think it would only be '1 - 2 days' a month being an officer in the guard.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
UFOinsider:
happy, you a recruiter?
Yes, I am a national guard recruiter complete with 40 pound beer gut, creepy mustache and 3 ex wives.

No, I have a real job.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 

I would definitely neglect to mention it. No one wants to hire guard dudes, especially for a position that has a steep learning curve.

Sure its against the law for anyone to not want to hire you, but I would definitely not bring it up, because you could never prove that it was the reason they didn't hire you

 

It must be a problem for IB & ST. Not just the deployments but the weekends. However, it might not be in corp fi. Companies like GE and Home Depot have a lot of former active and current guard members. Large companies like that are better able to handle the surprise departure of its workers. Some companies actuallly tout their guard/reservist friendliness on their websites.

Are ou currently in the guard? WHat's your geographical situation? I'm former active, and I'd like to do the guard thing. However, I'm afraid of locking myself to a certain state for the next 6 years.

 

ya I am currently an Air Guard enlisted guy, but after I get done with b-school I think I might want to see if I can get a pilot slot and a full time finance job after flight school.

Geographically I'm in Salt Lake City and in the Colorado ANG, so I fly out to Denver once a month to do the weekends. But its easy to transfer units as long as your job is available at the unit you are going to.

 

It's dicey if you're looking for a job that requires weekends. Inever did banking, but I had to work weekends once a month in valuation. I could never imagine saying no when asked to work a weekend. If you neglect to mention you're commitment, people will be pissed.

That said, people respect the military thing. There are resources to find military friendly companies for whom it would not be a problem. I'm sure there are reserve guys in the finance departments of Lockheed Martin. Commercial Banking as well.

Think long and hard, though. You have to surrendour a good chink of money when you get called up. SOme bills can get defered during deployments, but, regardless of your salary, you have to live a lifestyle that can be supported on a military salary for en extended time. I know a doctor who got all f'd up financially due to a deployment.

 

air force

You're born, you take shit. You get out in the world, you take more shit. You climb a little higher, you take less shit. Till one day you're up in the rarefied atmosphere and you've forgotten what shit even looks like. Welcome to the layer cake, son.
 

CHair Force.

Full disclosure: my brother has been in for going on 9 years now, deployed 6 times, and is away at officer training right now for his navigator slot (hopefully pilot if people ahead of him drop out of the queue).

I am permanently behind on PMs, it's not personal.
 

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If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford

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