So my father is about to retire from the fire department in November, and I will lose the health insurance I get through him when he does. So the pressure is on to find a good job with insurance. I am currently working towards my high school diploma (I'm 20, dropped out of high school) and will have it after this semester is up in December. I've been seriously considering three things, well technically four.
-Military (Army)
-Police
-Fire Department
-Army reserves
So all of my life I've been interested in military but never quite made the leap. I had a temponaplasty (spelling) surgery to fix a ruptured ear drum and the surgery was successful. I've recently learned that what I thought was diminished hearing was really only built up wax blocking my hearing. So now this door has opened up. The long term benefits are what really draw me towards this, and I've always been interested in tactical training and weapons, etc. Call me crazy but honestly I would want to do infantry. Yes I understand what it entails. The obvious downsides would be the time away from home. I have a girlfriend who I've been with for five years, high school sweet hearts. She's not tying me down, but the time away would obviously make things harder between us. She's confident in our relationships ability to endure this, as am I. After one enlistment, if the job is for me, I would consider re enlisting, mainly for the early retirement, but this would mean a life full of danger (depending on my MOS), and lots of time away from my family. High risk.
My second consideration (these are in order by the way) would be police. My father has been a fireman since he was 23. I grew up around public safety, my father does floor covering (carpentry) on the side and I've helped him often, meeting many other police and firemen. I know a lot about their jobs and both of them appeal to me though police more than firefighter. Law enforcement is about the closest thing to military I can think of, I will still receive close quarters combat training, weapons training, tactical training, and chances for lots of certifications and such. Also good benefits and retirement/pension plans. No travel, home by the end of the day. The downsides would be long boring hours riding around in a patrol car with nothing going on, the blatant and ever so common disrespect for law enforcement, and political bullshit. (These are not all of the downsides, obviously, just the ones that stand out to me)
One thing that gets in the way of me joining the police force is my past drug use. I've spoken to many police that tell me it's not disqualifying and just puts me lower on the totem poll but I can't be certain. I smoked weed every day for about four years. They do a lie detector test to dig into your background, you pass if you're 100 percent honest. Unfortunately, my honesty is slightly incriminating. The military men I've talked to about this all just tell me to write no prior drug use on the forms, and never mention it. Ever.
Third would be firefighter. I know this job inside and out, I practically grew up at the fire station. Would go there every day after school. I LIKE this job, but it's not where my heart is. The military rank structure appeals to me, and the benefits and retirement package. In all actuality, this job doesn't appeal to me nearly as much as these others, but it's almost a promised job through my father.
Fourth is the reserves. This one's iffy as well. They say in the reserves you go to basic training just like active duty soldiers and then go back to your civilian job and report to drills one weekend a month and a two week deployment in the summer. You are paid (low) for these drills with what is called "drill pay", and you are paid basic pay for deployment. You can be called for deployment at any time and be sent anywhere. To me, this defeats the purpose of the reserves. If I'm going to be deployed, I may as well switch to active duty and receive the full benefits package and pay.
I've got a few decisions to make, and unfortunately not a whole lot of time to make them. Sorry to dump all this out there, If it bothers you, don't reply. I know a lot of you guys here and it's good to have people to talk about these things with. I'm open to plenty of suggestions and I think my interests are clear. Thanks in advance!
-Military (Army)
-Police
-Fire Department
-Army reserves
So all of my life I've been interested in military but never quite made the leap. I had a temponaplasty (spelling) surgery to fix a ruptured ear drum and the surgery was successful. I've recently learned that what I thought was diminished hearing was really only built up wax blocking my hearing. So now this door has opened up. The long term benefits are what really draw me towards this, and I've always been interested in tactical training and weapons, etc. Call me crazy but honestly I would want to do infantry. Yes I understand what it entails. The obvious downsides would be the time away from home. I have a girlfriend who I've been with for five years, high school sweet hearts. She's not tying me down, but the time away would obviously make things harder between us. She's confident in our relationships ability to endure this, as am I. After one enlistment, if the job is for me, I would consider re enlisting, mainly for the early retirement, but this would mean a life full of danger (depending on my MOS), and lots of time away from my family. High risk.
My second consideration (these are in order by the way) would be police. My father has been a fireman since he was 23. I grew up around public safety, my father does floor covering (carpentry) on the side and I've helped him often, meeting many other police and firemen. I know a lot about their jobs and both of them appeal to me though police more than firefighter. Law enforcement is about the closest thing to military I can think of, I will still receive close quarters combat training, weapons training, tactical training, and chances for lots of certifications and such. Also good benefits and retirement/pension plans. No travel, home by the end of the day. The downsides would be long boring hours riding around in a patrol car with nothing going on, the blatant and ever so common disrespect for law enforcement, and political bullshit. (These are not all of the downsides, obviously, just the ones that stand out to me)
One thing that gets in the way of me joining the police force is my past drug use. I've spoken to many police that tell me it's not disqualifying and just puts me lower on the totem poll but I can't be certain. I smoked weed every day for about four years. They do a lie detector test to dig into your background, you pass if you're 100 percent honest. Unfortunately, my honesty is slightly incriminating. The military men I've talked to about this all just tell me to write no prior drug use on the forms, and never mention it. Ever.
Third would be firefighter. I know this job inside and out, I practically grew up at the fire station. Would go there every day after school. I LIKE this job, but it's not where my heart is. The military rank structure appeals to me, and the benefits and retirement package. In all actuality, this job doesn't appeal to me nearly as much as these others, but it's almost a promised job through my father.
Fourth is the reserves. This one's iffy as well. They say in the reserves you go to basic training just like active duty soldiers and then go back to your civilian job and report to drills one weekend a month and a two week deployment in the summer. You are paid (low) for these drills with what is called "drill pay", and you are paid basic pay for deployment. You can be called for deployment at any time and be sent anywhere. To me, this defeats the purpose of the reserves. If I'm going to be deployed, I may as well switch to active duty and receive the full benefits package and pay.
I've got a few decisions to make, and unfortunately not a whole lot of time to make them. Sorry to dump all this out there, If it bothers you, don't reply. I know a lot of you guys here and it's good to have people to talk about these things with. I'm open to plenty of suggestions and I think my interests are clear. Thanks in advance!
But if your heart isn't in it. Well...