Help, Big Life Decision!
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If you want a lucrative government career in engineering, I would pursue the Navy's CEC or NUPOC programs, there is plenty of information available online, but the short of it is, highly paid (when you factor in bonuses, retirement, tax treatment, allowances etc), lots of responsibility and they pay for your schooling prior to you serving and you still get your GI Bill, so you could leave and get an MBA if you so desired for a complete change. With that said, military life isn't for everybody but that's about the best balance of lucrative and stable as it gets.
GO BIG BLUE!!
See, I don't want to work in a gov. job, more like work for a private defense comoany for 5 to 10 years with the end game of going out on my own once I have the experience and network.
There are many companies involved in the Navy's Nuclear program if you were looking to switch over, but you aren't going to match the pay of "staying in." If you want to be in contracting, the Air Force works closely with the DCMA (or you could work for the DCMA directly). I'm told it pays well. With that being said, a company like Haliburton isn't going to pay nearly as much when you factor in your total comp and I'm not sure how you would break-out on your own. You need to beat competing bids of established companies with lower overhead, better reputations and more government contacts. Here's what I know for sure, you do NOT want to be on the other side of a government contract. They take forever, and will bog you down to an absolute halt. Which would be painful if your livelihood and business were dependent on it. If you are that ambitious you could get very high up the totem pole. I don't want to discourage from that defense company idea, but it's much harder than I think you can imagine. Not to mention, what kind of expertise would you actually gain in a 5-10 year time frame that would inspire someone to back you with millions of dollars? That sounds like a move someone with 20-25 years of experience and contacts MIGHT be able to do.
Thanks for the reality check on that, could you expand a little bit what I should do from here on forward to break into Defense (perhaps some links) if I truly decided to go that route. I'll likely research comp & etc in comparison to IBD over time.
My thought on going out on my own was the startup company route; ex. recently a group of 24 year olds designed a small insect surveillance drone that got backed amd proceeded to secure them a $6mm gov contract.
Oh, quick amendment, I meant applying to UCLA, UMich, and UVA, not accepted.
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