Military OCS right after grad or after analyst stint?
Looking for advice on military service then starting a professional career (my family is full of vets but none went white collar afterwards).
Serving has always been on my radar, and a service academy or ROTC were heavily considered at their respective times, but I never went with them because I didn't wanna commit to serving while I still wasn't sure. But having completed my summer internships, I'm really not sure if I'm willing to commit to spending the rest of my life staring at excel just yet while I'm still young and able bodied.
Family's always thought I'd be a good fit for being an officer/OCS (good GPA, in great shape, etc) and I've been considering it more and more.
From a professional standpoint, however, would it make more sense to apply to OCS right after grad, or after doing a 2 year analyst stint? I'm anticipating decent offers (have had/have some superdays scheduled and the most recent well); again, I'm just not enthused about any of them and have realized that I'm more generally just not enthused about committing to a desk job for the rest of my life yet (but I could stomach two years). I'll also be graduating with private debt of around 80-90k. I’m at a target so worried about losing OCR as well.
So basically: after grad or after some time as analyst?
Hey perspica, the following topics might be helpful:
More suggestions...
Hope that helps.
Bump. What branch and function are you considering?
Still not sure- haven't really ben discussing with family yet, but leaning towards Marine.
Idk if anyone’s told you lol, but you’re still going to spend a fair amount of your time staring at excel if you go OCS over enlisting.
That being said, I’d say the younger the better. It’s certainly doable at an older age (and many do it), but it really starts to wear on your body as you get older.
Have you considered OCS->reserves, so you can start working on both?
This is what I would do as someone who was enlisted for 6 years then went and became an analyst. If I could re-do it I would of went to school first, got my bachelors then joined the Army (that was my branch), serve out my contract as an officer and if you still want to do banking, I would go to grad school as GI bill will pay for it and you can just focus on school, securing an internship and having fun. Start your banking career as an associate and go from there. Having that veteran status next to my name has paid so much dividends and it was the best decision of my life, I just wish I did school first then military and not the other way around. But either way, that just my 2 cents
Thanks! I'm consulting/strat, not banking, if that changes things. I likely would have done OCS right after school had I done the ROTC program, but as it stands now, I have some debt. Was thinking ~2 year analyst stint to dent some of that debt, then OCS when I would have had to done an MBA, then MBA after that. However, with current hiring market lol its looking like right after grad might make the most sense (aka going too see how attractive my offers are)
Bit of a derail here, but assuming this will get some military eyes. I'll be applying to MBA in a ~year with an otherwise pretty "top" profile. Went 18x --> SFAS right out of undergrad. Banking internship experience from UG so might be mixed between military / finance buckets. Any opinions on how adcoms would view this vs a standard army infantry officer? Knew it was the only thing I wanted but sucks to not be able to tout the leadership title as much
You say you went x ray to sfas and are applying for MBA. Assuming you’re just leaving the q course and team time out of your comment, serving on an oda is something that adcoms will absolutely rate highly. Obviously something like 18A or test pilot and other officers of that caliber are the most highly prized vets, but if you served as a legitimate sof operator that’s roughly equivalent in adcom eyes to an officer. M7s will know that if you did your team time, you’ll have gotten leadership experience even as an enlisted.
You'll be fine. Don't worry about you compared to other people, focus on what you can control ie a good test score + tight overall application. Use ur GI Bill
If you want to go officer don't bother with analyst stint, just go to the military right after undergrad and come back to banking as an associate through MBA or a vet transition program. It's better to get done w your military commitment sooner and thus start civilian career sooner. I was active duty USMC. Only regret I didn't go to OCS and knock out military service sooner before pursuing private sector
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