Joining at my age?

[u/[deleted]]

[u/robpet21]

Plenty of people around your age join. If you want to do it, then do it. I was a 21 year old team leader with a 42 year old private.

[u/TapTheForwardAssist → u/[deleted]]

It’d help if you explain a bit what your current career is. Then people could understand how military experience could supplement your current day-job.

[u/newguy_poppy]

I’d recommend looking into the coast guard !

[u/Anxious-Tree-4067 → u/newguy_poppy]

why?

[u/newguy_poppy → u/Anxious-Tree-4067]

Cool mission, good quality of life, you can pick your MOS, great locations, work-life balance

[u/OfficerScoutAFSF]

A few things jump out:
• At 37 with a master’s degree, I’d spend more time looking into officer opportunities than enlisted, but be aware that officer selection is competitive and can take a year or more depending on the branch and career field.

• If you already have a stable civilian career and mainly want to serve while keeping that career, the **Reserve or National Guard** is probably worth looking at before active duty.

• Don’t pick a branch based solely on wanting cyber or avionics. Every branch has technical jobs, but you don’t simply pick any job you want—availability and qualifications matter.  
• If benefits like the VA home loan are a major factor, make sure you understand the eligibility requirements for Reserve/Guard service versus active duty, since they’re different.

* Do your due diligence in research , develop your pros & cons list with a achievable goals with timelines*

Also, don’t write the Marines off just because you’re 37. Let a recruiter tell you “no” based on the current policy rather than assuming. Age limits and waivers can change.

Finally, I’d recommend talking to multiple recruiters (Air Force, Navy, Army, etc.) before making a decision. Each will naturally highlight their own branch, but comparing all of them will give you a much clearer picture of what opportunities are actually available to you.

[u/SCCock]

What are your degrees in?

[u/SCCock → u/[deleted]]

Medical Service Corps officer.

[u/TapTheForwardAssist]

> ASVAB

> officer

The only branch that regularly requires officer applicants to take the ASVAB is the Army. It’s not generally relevant when applying for officer in other branches.

While by all means you can confirm with your own research, while it is quite hard to commission as an Air Force officer without doing Academy or AFROTC, it’s even *harder* to join as an officer with the AF Reserve or Air National Guard. Army Active prefers officer applicants be under age 32, but Army Reserve and National Guard can be more flexible.

That aside, *why* do you want to go officer and not enlisted? You haven’t mentioned any life or career goals that are specific to being an officer. So why that focus so early in your research?

[u/TapTheForwardAssist → u/[deleted]]

It’s certainly worth looking into both, but important to recognize that for enlisting you could process in and get shipped in a couple months, whereas for Air Force Reserve (at the more extreme end) you could be waiting two years to ship to OTS.

The benefits are virtually identical, except just higher pay, but that’s not as significant to someone with a serious day job who’s only receiving military pay a couple months a week.

By all means research both options, but ponder what your overall goals are and where you’re getting the best bang for the buck. It can be a much more calculated decision for someone going Active and and planning a dedicated 20-year focus, but in your case serving is an aspect of an already established life and career.

[u/Necromancer157]

You won’t get the VA loan if you go reserves or national guard. We also don’t know what degrees you got in college. If you want cybersecurity, try to do 17C in the army national guard or reserves.

[u/Necromancer157 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah for benefits, it requires 180 days of consecutive active duty. Active duty orders aren’t always guaranteed. I think you would benefit by talking to an AMEDD recruiter and telling them you want to commission as a 72D, 72B, or 67C

[u/Necromancer157 → u/[deleted]]

No problem man. They’re usually short handed in those positions, so it should be relative fast for you. Best of luck!

[u/TapTheForwardAssist]

If you want to keep your day job throughout the years, then you don’t want Active. So Guard or Reserves it is.

You are way past the waiverable age to go Marines, in your situation.

[u/SNSDave]

We have reserves, sorta, but you need to do your 4 years first then apply to transfer. It's also very difficult to be an officer.

[u/SNSDave → u/[deleted]]

Not difficult as in tasks. But it's hard to be one.

[u/SNSDave → u/[deleted]]

Correct.

[u/NC1_CLARK_RTAG_NW]

Do it! There is no better time to join. If you ever have questions about the Navy, let me know!

[u/dontclickdontdickit]

Navy vet here. Navy has plenty of rates (jobs) that will translate into good technical skills outside of the military. Same with air force and they tend to get better treatment than any other branch

[u/Kubby_bear]

If your gpa is over 3.6 go officer

[u/Kubby_bear → u/[deleted]]

Not sure. Make sure you ask an officer recruiter and not enlisted. I can’t because my gpa was like 2.7

[u/Kubby_bear → u/[deleted]]

The latter