Naval Aviator vs Investment Banker
I have a return offer with a top MM bank and love the banking money but have been talking with Navy OCS to become a Naval Aviator. I have always dreamed of being a Naval Aviator and I know I can do it and then go to B-school and have a great finance career, but I feel like I would be squandering an opportunity. Breaking into investment banking and making that type of money in my early 20s will set me up for life. I probably wouldn't get out of the Navy until I am 35, but I will have had one of the best jobs in the world, something I could really be proud of. I am really struggling with this, would love to hear your guys' thoughts. What is the better opportunity?
Was in similar boat to you. ANG C17 opportunity and went into IB. Trying to rush units now. Take the Navy offer if you have a spot, you can always break into IB.
I work on C17s and if that opportunity is available all I can say is that nearly all pilots & aircrew love it.
plus, when you do make it to IB, you can wear some ubiquitous, overpriced dive / pilot's watch with more credibility than the other juniors whose closest experience to the Navy is being told off by the coast guard for drinking on an undocked boat.
this is the way. OP should be all over the Naval opportunity if legit. He could walk into an IB role afterwards pretty easily.
Always jealous of the aviators walking through the chute shed when im on hour 6 of being in a harness. But it's a lot of years for something you don't know if you'll like.
It's kind of stupid but for major decisions, I like to think about what 10 year old me would want to do, and how 70 year old me would look back.
What you have is the opportunity to fulfill your dream, hell, the Top Gun dream of a ton of kids everywhere. When you're older, no matter how your life goes, do you want to look back at this time with a twinge of regret?
Banking is a long game. Sure it's awesome pulling in 200-300k whatever coming out of school but the real money comes in your later years.
I'm honestly both jealous and happy for you.
Bruh. Too close for missiles, switching to guns. Go live the dream instead of formatting ppts.
Go live your life in a way that ensures you have no regrets. I myself am thinking of doing OCS.
At a target and heavily considering OCS as well. My thinking is that I'll be in the best physical shape of my life, why spend it behind a desk when I can spend it doing something physically active, challenging, and meaningful above all else.
If you don’t want to sit behind a desk, I highly encourage you to go enlisted. As an officer and even as a pilot, 90% of your career will be spent behind a desk planning and coordinating logistics for training or real world operations.
As a prior enlisted guy, I highly recommend still going in as a Officer. Yes, your door kicking will either be short lived or non existent as you move senior, but great passionate officers are needed. You are treated way better as an Officer.
Breaking into IB as a former naval aviator will be extremely easy. Banks love veterans, especially those who served in highly specialized units/jobs (pilots, SOF) and the veteran network is strong in this industry. Go learn to fly, travel the world, and gain leadership skills and experience that will set you up for success in any field you apply yourself to. A former company commander I served with did 15 years before transitioning to IB and is now at a PE firm. I did 4 years as an enlisted infantryman (non SOF) and used my GI Bill at a non target school and still broke in fairly easily. Plus there are so many programs specifically tailored to help veterans get into MBA programs from Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, etc, that will make breaking into IB even easier.
If you’re smart with your money, you can get out with a considerable nest egg with 10 years of service since the only required expense is your phone bill, car payments and insurance. Everything else is covered. Also, depending on where you deploy, you really can’t spend that much money and it can’t be taxed. I came home from one deployment with $35k, which honestly isn’t that much now that I think about it, but for a 20 year old kid, I felt rich as fuck. You’ll make a lot more as an officer.
Unless you fail out of flight school and get reclassed for a job you don’t like, you won’t regret your time in service. I had a shitty enlisted life in the infantry, but still don’t regret my time in service and contribute a lot of my success to the lessons learned and experiences gained in the military. I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunities that I’ve had without it.
Good luck!
P.S. you’re a pussy for joining the Navy. Real men join the Marines
Bruh, you can legitimately be Top Gun. Go work at Goldman, exit to the Treasury then go be a Partner or hotshot somewhere else. If you’re driven enough to become a pilot, you’re driven enough to keep pushing for more success. Congratulations boss!! 🥂 🍾
Go the naval aviator job. Don’t let IB suck the life out of you from an early age.
An extremely valuable/personal happiness XP > money any day of the week my friend
Do it. I served in the Marine Corps as an infantryman for 5 years. Now I'm an IB analyst.
The entire experience of serving was well worth it. I really enjoyed it. Plus the benefits are amazing and besides being some sort of top tier athlete, military service or very recognizable government service, is the only "resume gap" permitted in the corporate world. It won't set you back at all and will only serve to advance your career if anything.
1000% go Naval Aviator. Dude. Seriously.
Like the above mentioned, when you are old and looking back on your life, would you wish that you rushed into your career as fast as possible to make a bit of money or do something that is WAY more challenging/impressive?
Thousands of people go into banking each year, how many people become naval aviators? Just think, NO amount of money can buy you that experience.
Go for it, put your heart and soul into it, and don’t look back. Good luck!
Both sound awesome, but I am curious about what the process of becoming a naval aviator is like. Do you have to go to a military academy/university, to begin with?
Brother is a fighter pilot. Do that then you can come back and do banking and people will respect you infinitely more
Facts! If OP does this, he’ll be living out your username.
If you make smart financial decisions, being a pilot for 10 years can get you halfway towards being set up for life too. Lot easier to save money when you're getting room and board paid for, and when part of your income is tax-free, instead of ordering Seamless for lunch and dinner and paying NYC tax rates.
Navy is recession proof
You are talking about literally dreaming to do something. You are gonna be great at that. Don't do IB.
It's a shame so many bright minds get wasted in Banking, props to you. Look at the trends in posting on this forum, people are coming out of banking as broken and shit on humans after 2-4 years, with the military you come out the opposite.
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I've thought about going the Pilot or Special Forces route too, the main thing steering me away from it is the length of the contracts. If they offered a shorter contract, like 2-4 years, I'd be much more inclined to do it.
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