United States Marine Corps. - Graduate from a top tier school

I'm about to graduate from a top tier school and will be working in credit risk at a BB for 2 years. I'm also thinking about joining the USMC after my CR job to be a stronger/better man to build myself for a successful future. How will that affect my career? I also want to go to a top 5 bschool after my 4 years in the marines. Will that be possible or should I just stick to business...maybe BB for 2 years, then consulting for another 2 years, then b-school? What do you guys think about the marines?

 
Best Response
OutsideMan:
I'm about to graduate from a top tier school and will be working in credit risk at a BB for 2 years. I'm also thinking about joining the USMC after my CR job to be a stronger/better man to build myself for a successful future. How will that affect my career? I also want to go to a top 5 bschool after my 4 years in the marines. Will that be possible or should I just stick to business...maybe BB for 2 years, then consulting for another 2 years, then b-school? What do you guys think about the marines?

There is at least one thread on this in the first 3 pages of threads in this sub-forum.

The bottom line is that you shouldn't consider military service if it's just a resume builder.

As far as service, it doesn't matter. As long as you serve honorably and can articulate your positive life experiences and skills for the purposes of admissions. Obviously serving in units that belong under USSOCOM will carry greater weight.

 

Don't do it. You have a bright future as it is. Serving is more for people who have fucked up in life or are seriously passionate about it. If you already have BB locked up you have a very bright future ahead of you in terms of career.

 

I am a Marine Corps infantry officer who has been serving for the past seven years after completing undergrad and who is looking to break in to finance by going to a top tier business school. I can offer you my two cents.

"OutsideMan I'm also thinking about joining the USMC after my CR job to be a stronger/better man to build myself for a successful future."

The Marine Corps is good for that and more. A lot of people join the Corps for a lot of different reasons, and I think that developing oneself professionally and personally is a great one. But in my humble opinion, the main reason anyone should want to join the Marines is because you want to be a Marine. And if you want to join as an officer, you should want to lead Marines. As the old recruiting poster goes, "We don't promise you a rose garden." If you make the cut, you'll have the honor and privilege of serving your country and leading Marines. As a junior officer, you'll have a lot of responsibility placed on your shoulders early on in your career. Personally, I've gained leadership skills and experiences that I wouldn't have had on the outside. Time-management, communication, attention to detail, analysis, personnel development, decision-making, and working under high-pressure situations come to mind. But there is a tradeoff. Being forward-deployed overseas is a huge part of the job as a Marine, so the work-life balance will probably be a little skewed compared to working at a BB. I've spent more time training "in the field" stateside and deployed overseas than I have at home with my wife. I've missed more holidays and birthdays than than I care to count. Add to that the possibility of not making it back home to your family, or worse (in my opinion), having to write that letter to someone's family and explaining why they didn't make it home. There are definitely pros and cons, but I've had an unforgettable experience overall during my seven year career and would not trade it for the world. That being said, I would caution that if you're joining the Marine Corps for the purpose of having a cool, non-traditional bullet on your resume, I would definitely consider the Peace Corps or Teach for America or something of that nature. PM me if you want to talk a a little more about joining the Marines.

"OutsideMan How will that affect my career?" The Marine Corps will definitely help you develop some leadership and management experience. In terms of finance skills, unless you're a finance officer or comptroller officer (I, personally, wouldn't join the Marines to be either of these, but to each his own) you probably won't be working too much with finance, other than basic accounting and budgeting maybe. Locate, close with, and destroy the enemy: yes. DCF and valuation: not so much. I know a lot of veterans who are transitioning from the military who also had some previous finance work experience in addition to their military leadership background. In my opinion, they were ideally suited to be recruited into BB. One of the biggest concerns recruiters might have with that someone with only military experience after college (like myself) is that they've only worked in the military and have no corporate experience (an unproven factor, basically). If you go through with your plan, it sounds like you would have addressed that primary concern and would also be ideally suited to come out of business school with a solid foundation for potential recruitment. Anyone out there have any personal experience with this?

"I also want to go to a top 5 bschool after my 4 years in the marines. Will that be possible or should I just stick to business...maybe BB for 2 years, then consulting for another 2 years, then b-school? What do you guys think about the marines?"

There are definitely Marines who get into top 5 business schools every year. (I've finished all of my interviews, and am hoping for positive results here within the next couple of days). Veterans networks are typically very strong at the top schools. My advice would be to reach out to the veterans networks at any MBA program you're thinking of applying to, and get a veteran's perspective on recruiting for people straight out of the military who will have a similar background to yours.

PM me if you have any questions. I'm not an expert, but I might be able to point you in the right direction. Hope this helps!

"Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability." -John Wooden See my WSO Blog
 
Penguin_Suit:
I am a Marine Corps infantry officer who has been serving for the past seven years after completing undergrad and who is looking to break in to finance by going to a top tier business school. I can offer you my two cents.

I am currently serving as an infantry officer in the National Guard.

A total service of seven years seems to be an interesting time to separate. I would imagine you didn't have an additional obligation past 4 years. People might have stayed another year to make CPT. You don't seem to be serving in a branch such as aviation that requires an additional service obligation. Why now? Is the draw down still happening with the USMC (my understanding is that it started much earlier in the USMC than the Army)? Are the promotion timelines slowing down?

One option the OP should definitely look at is the National Guard or US Army Reserve. If he's not 99% certain he wants to serve Active Duty, then this is a viable option. Don't get me wrong. The NG and the USAR are lame. But it's a lameness you have to deal with one weekend a month and two to three weeks a year and for whatever period you are mobilized/deployed which is definitely ramping down these days.

He can get his feet wet. He will be able to maintain his full time career (as long as it's not investment banking). And if he decides he's hardcore about it, well, there are always the 19th and 20th SFG(A) not too far away.

I would advise against the Navy Reserve, USAF Reserve, Air National Guard, and USMC Reserves not due to culture, but rather due to slots and vacancies. There simply isn't the upward mobility in reserve components outside of the National Guard and US Army Reserve. Heck, the US Army Reserves advertises a bunch of vacant O-6 slots.

 
knivek:
Penguin_Suit:
I am a Marine Corps infantry officer who has been serving for the past seven years after completing undergrad and who is looking to break in to finance by going to a top tier business school. I can offer you my two cents.

A total service of seven years seems to be an interesting time to separate. I would imagine you didn't have an additional obligation past 4 years. People might have stayed another year to make CPT. You don't seem to be serving in a branch such as aviation that requires an additional service obligation. Why now? Is the draw down still happening with the USMC (my understanding is that it started much earlier in the USMC than the Army)? Are the promotion timelines slowing down?

Great question. The seven and eight year marks are starting to be fairly common for officers to leave active duty service because of the post-9/11 GI Bill.

If someone receives their commission out of ROTC or one of the service academies, they incur a "payback" of 4 or 5 years, respectively (I've heard that ROTC is currently incurring a 5 year payback, but it was 4 when I commissioned). These obligated years served on active duty, however, do not count towards one's qualifying service for earning the Post 9/11 GI Bill. Serving after said obligation, however, makes one eligible for Post 9/11 GI Bill in increasing percentages. You can find out some more information about this by clicking here.

Since I received my commission out of ROTC, my initial service obligation was complete after serving four years. I could have left active duty service at that time, but I would not have been eligible at all for the Post 9/11 GI BIll. Under the current provisions of the bill, however, by serving 36 more months of active duty after my initial four year obligation, I will have 100% eligibility of the Post 9/11 GI BIll.

As such, a lot of ROTC/Service Academy officers are seeing the ROI of serving a few more years to take advantage of the bill. A friend of mine who commissioned from the Naval Academy, for example, decided to serve one year of active duty service after her initial five year service obligation. Those 12 months of "extra" service service gave her 60% eligibility for the Post 9/11 GI Bill.

So given the tradeoffs, a lot of officers who would have "gotten out" at the four or five year mark are serving another tour to hit the 100% Post 9/11 GI Bill threshold. (Note: This does not apply to officers who commissioned via OCS and did not have an "initial" service obligation. They are eligible as soon as they've served 36 months on active duty.) Please PM me if you have any questions about this.

Yes, the drawdown started a couple years ago in the Corps, but I don't think we will have reached our target end-strength until this year. With regard to promotion timelines, my understanding is that they have slowed significantly for the 1stLt to Capt board (the last two years have seen promotion/career designation rates between 40 and 60% range, which means about half of the 1stLt's have to get out at that point even if they wanted to stay in.) I've heard promotion rates have slowed down a little for Capt to Major, but not much. I won't even be in zone to get on the board for another year (and as I mentioned I'm leaving the Corps to go to business school anyway). But to answer your question, my leaving the military at this particular juncture is more related to being eligible for the Post 9/11 GI Bill than because of slowing promotion rates.

"Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability." -John Wooden See my WSO Blog
 
OutsideMan:
About to graduate from top tier school. Got a gig in credit risk at BB, plan on doing it for 2 years. After that I'm thinking about the USMC for 4 years. Then, a top 5 b-school. What do you guys think about USMC? Or, instead, should I just stick to business like consulting after BB instead?

Hilarious plan and great troll post.

 

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