What would the USAF do with a guy with an engineering master's?

February 5, 2010 7:28 PM

If I joined the US Air Force Reserve with a master's degree in aerospace engineering from a good school, what kind of work would they put me in?

I'm a practicing aeronautical engineer with a BSE and MSE in aeroE. I'm comfortable, but am considering entering the US Air Force Reserve for personal reasons. I want to know what kind of work they would have me do when activated. I have almost no interest in being a pilot (believe it or not), and I'm aware that their scientists/engineers are civilians. If I just told them to put me where they need me, what's the most likely duty I'd have?

Also, as a longshot addendum: What would be the odds I could become a russian linguist/translator, with the military providing for the language training?

posted by mnemonic to Work & Money (10 answers total)

Best answer: If I just told them to put me where they need me, what's the most likely duty I'd have?

Probably a general maintenance officer, you'd likely work in a capacity as a manager over some equipment maintenance. Such as comm or aircraft.

Also, as a longshot addendum: What would be the odds I could become a russian linguist/translator, with the military providing for the language training?

Slim to none. AF Reserves and Guard don't have intel wings.
posted by bigmusic at 7:34 PM on February 5, 2010

This is the sort of thing you should negotiate with them about, in writing, before signing up.
posted by kickingtheground at 7:46 PM on February 5, 2010

You'd do whatever you're assigned to do. Your degree has nothing to do with your job, at least when you first join up.
posted by squorch at 7:46 PM on February 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best answer: CIA would be very interested in you with your masters. You would probably not be doing much "real" engineering work (your degrees/background could be a cover), but more of a chance of Russian linguist future for you. It seems like they'd want you to have some start on the language, but will provide maintenance/further training.

Don't worry if they don't have an exact job posting you're looking for now. Places like the CIA are interested in gaining valuable people for lifetime careers-- they're playing the long game in hiring, and will work with you.
posted by fontophilic at 7:59 PM on February 5, 2010

Best answer: What kickingtheground said! While hugely admirable, a lateral move into the military is NOT something to be left to chance. The military recruitment system is not optimized to appropriately place people with advanced degrees and successful career history, unless you are a doctor or a lawyer looking to continue to practice your profession in uniform.

There are doubtless lots of fulfilling and challenging roles for you in the Air Force that would take some advantage of your background, although it's you recognize that it would be at some skew from your current work because of the way today's military (and especially the AF) tends to leave high-level engineering and science to civilian contractors and employees. To get one of those roles is going to take a lot of careful work.

I have had several friends join, or try to join, the military in their early 30s with great education and (civilian) accomplishments in their record. It took much work with recruiters' and their bosses, and months of negotiation between those recruiters and the various specialties' personnel offices, to either get them appropriate assignment arrangements, or, in one case, for that process to fall through.

Good luck.
posted by MattD at 9:01 PM on February 5, 2010

Also, if you want to be a linguist, you'll have to take a battery of tests to see if you have aptitude for it. Then you'll go off to Monterey, CA, to the Defense Language Institute for some very intense classwork. Most, if not all, linguists are enlisted.

Contrary to what MattD said, by and large officers don't use their degrees, except maybe test pilots and acquisition guys with finance degrees. He's right when he says that the military's engineers are almost all on the civilian side.
posted by squorch at 9:39 PM on February 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

So, what would happen if you applied for on of those civilian jobs, THEN joined the AF Reserves?
posted by CathyG at 9:40 PM on February 5, 2010

Best answer: So, what would happen if you applied for on of those civilian jobs, THEN joined the AF Reserves?

Then you'd be assigned an MOS according to whatever the Air Force Reserves needed. You'd either do your weekend a month, or you'd be rotated into active duty and deployed to operations in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Damn near 100% of weapons/systems engineers out there that do work for the military are employed by civilian defense contractors. While there are liaison officers assigned from the military side, they aren't assigned based on working there--they're people in the logistics branch.

The military, by and large, just assigns people to the work they need done. They have testing systems in place to determine capacity, and if you test high enough, they'll put you in the most needed slot they can find for you. But the military basically doesn't care very much what you, personally, want to do.

I know shit-tons of people who went into the military with intentions of fulfilling some specific role (infantry, rangers, special ops, army intelligence, paratroopers). Smart, well-educated, enthusiastic folks. Most of them drive trucks now. Big olive drab trucks. One of them, who wanted to do intelligence work, runs cellphone networks on base. People upthread are saying you can negotiate your way into particular positions; but, unless you go through the months of negotiations (with a lawyer, getting the guarantees on paper, signed by somebody with actual authority), they're going to stick you wherever they need a warm body.

And be real careful with that negotiation. My friend was given a piece of paper saying he could do army intelligence work, but it had a couple of provisos: 1) he had to pass the background check, and 2) there had to be specific need for another soldier in that command. So, he signed up, based on that paper and assurances that he didn't need to sweat it. And then he finished basic training, and they told him that he didn't qualify for the particular security clearance needed in the one command with a specific need for a new recruit. So now he runs cellphone networks. Because once they have you, it's not really possible to quit.
posted by Netzapper at 11:00 PM on February 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

Also, as a longshot addendum: What would be the odds I could become a russian linguist/translator, with the military providing for the language training?

Before my daughter got pregnant/got married, this is what she was going for. This is an enlisted job. She had to test for it and would indeed have gone to language school in California.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 5:27 AM on February 6, 2010

My brother's a systems engineer with a defense contractor now, and also in the Naval Reserves. His experience with the Navy has been any preferences he gives them, they ignore and they give him whatever work they need him to do. It doesn't always turn out poorly -- he's currently assigned to the Naval Research Lab. However, if you want to be in control of what you do, the military may not be the best route.
posted by garlic at 9:56 PM on February 6, 2010