Can anyone speak to their experience juggling the ARMY reserve at IB? I am a freshman in a ROTC program right now and have to decide by early august whether I want to stay in it or not. I do not need the scholarship and want to do the army because I want to honorably serve. I am also nervous for the time commitment the reserve may be.
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I was in the Army for five years so plz don't monkey shit me for what I'm about to say...
Almost everyone will respect and appreciate your military service, but it kinda goes without saying your teammates on your deals will suffer as a result of you peacing out every month for a weekend and leaving for two weeks for your Annual Training requirement. Nobody at my firm is in the guard/reserves, but I can honestly say I'd prob get annoyed if my analyst left like this on a regular basis...especially if we were getting crushed.
You could always go active for a few years, get your MBA, and enter as a post MBA associate. Might honestly be your best bet if military service is something your passionate about.
If you can swing both great, but I'm sure it wouldn't be easy.....both for you and your coworkers
I had a VP doing this and it was respected / not that big of a deal and they arranged coverage for his training periods. It's something that has to be worked around, but I wouldn't not do the army if you otherwise want to just because of IB. It's just a job at the end of the day. If you want to serve the banks will work with you on it.
My understanding is that being an officer in the guard/reserves entails A LOT of time spent doing army stuff outside the once a month/two weeks a year on your own time, unpaid. I can't imagine having enough time to plan ops, movement plans, or whatever in your spare lunch hour or the 6 hours of free time you have on the weekend. I would hop on the army subreddit and search for similar questions/ask around there. A lot of really knowledgeable people in that community.
I'd also echo the sentiments of the above poster: it might(almost certainly would) be better to go active, do your four year stint, and then hop into business school. You set yourself up really well by doing that, and b schools love officers. To quote Ron Swanson, better to whole ass one thing than half ass two. That's just my two cents though.
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