all benefits considered, i think officer pay is like 80% of what i make now, compared to enlisted's 50%. enlisted is a nice option for people who'd make like 40k as a civilian, but considering he'd make 80k+ as a civilian programmer, it was a huge gap. he dropped out of college 1 semester short of his bachelors, and it really trashed his life. if he was an officer, he would have stayed a long time since he really did enjoy it.

What was he doing? Military programming brings to mind Ada, and maintaining 30 year old applications. If that is what he was doing, and he enjoyed it, he is a patient man.

i dont know the details. he wrote software related to weather tracking, no idea what language. the hardest thing he ever did was writing a printer driver. he did c/assembly as a hobby. his civilian jobs after he quit were delphi / c# in the 2000s, but i know he had a background in c/c++ so i'm guessing that's what he did in the AF.

I didn't even look at the OP's name before I posted

oh lord

I think it has to do with you being able to asset one problem at a time over a post on the internet, at your leisure, and without some knucklehead pestering you with 21,000 questions a minute. That is to say you can't or don't become overwhelmed with the noobishiness.



My buddy said he did much work in C/C++. I know he also did databases. I don't think it was MySQL but Oracle. I'm almost 100% positive he did Oracle work.

He did enjoy his military career, don't misunderstand me, but it was things like never being able to choose what you did. I guess it would also have to do with how good of a job you did. Knowing what little I know about the AF, if you were good at your job you got moved around to better units, positions, etc. I know by the end of it he was the lead/senor programmer for his element. I'm not aware of how many other programmers worked under him but it became less about writing code and more about being a mentor. Walking around and fixing problems or code or other such issues for the junior enlisted. He progressed to a point where he wasn't sitting behind a terminal mindlessly hacking away at droves of code and lines but more of a position where he assisted the others as needed and most likely filed paperwork and other crap. The usual "I worked my way up to a desk position in the military and now I have to review documents, sign papers, etc." Being higher echelon leadership.



@Rejection - I tried to PM you regarding the military but your inbox in full. Maybe you will read this, maybe you won't; it's saved as a draft.

This post was edited by NinjaSushi2 on Jan 9 2015 04:07am

not sure how dropping out a semester early as a computer programmer could trash your life. My dad never started college and was regarded in 1996 as one of the best programmers in the world by Microsoft. You don't need a degree to do programming, just a true drive

You completely missed the main pointed. A bachelors results in being an officer. Since his father never completed his bachelors upon joining the military, he became enlisted and not commissioned. The difference in pay, benefits, respect, and more are far beyond most civilians realize. It has nothing to do with "how good of a programmer you are" and everything to do with a piece of paper and a set of regulations. The military is a beast of its own. A world completely different in almost every way than the civilian world. At least it used to be.

Edit: The difference between 16 years enlisted and 16 years as commissioned over one semester of college is almost unfathomable.

This post was edited by NinjaSushi2 on Jan 9 2015 10:03am

What NinjaSushi said. my dad was paying off credit cards with other credit cards. If he finished 20 years, he'd get a monthly pension (dunno the right word), but he was going so far in debt that it wasn't possible. And it's extremely hard to leave the military. You can't just hand them 2 weeks notice. He was slightly overweight when i grew up, maybe 5'8'' and 220 lbs. He ended up deliberately gaining weight to pull off a medical honourable discharge to get out. i'm guessing around 280 lbs, but i'm not sure. He never lost the weight he gained, which soon led to diabetes and a world of other health problems.

He was really arrogant when he was younger. he went to some private college, had several jobs, maxed out loans, sold his blood every chance he could get, ate plain noodles for a long time. and he simply had no money left by the last year. after college, he couldnt get a decent job and was on welfare for a while. he felt he didnt have any other choice but to join the military. it was great when he was single. always had money in his pocket since he had no expenses.

if he finished his degree, either he woulda gotten a nice civilian job or he'd be an officer. his life would have been very different.

Can't say I know anything about the military, but did the Comp Sci thing (Props to you for doing research) My school had Comp Sci and C.I.S. C.I.S. or Computer Information Systems was a degree that was Comp Sci with a minor in business I would say that it was easier than Comp Sci because it had some scripting and Java instead of C++ and Assembly. Not sure trading C++ for Java is good. They also had M.I.S., which is business with a minor in Comp Sci (Doesn't help with ROTC) M.I.S. allowed SQL, SAP, Network Security and Linux. Reason I would say this is that it seems like everyone has had a different experience with Comp Sci, If you decide to go Comp Sci, research the school and see what classes you'll be taking to get that degree. I wish I had known different schools have drastically different teaching tracks to get Comp Sci. C.I.S.would allow you to say you got Comp Sci and it was very different than Comp Sci.

Why? Because the try-hards think C++ is king still? If I wasn't a .NET Dev, I would be a Java dev. Holy fuck they make money.