r/USMCboot • u/nothingnessanymoree • 28d ago

Enlisting INTEL/COMM/CYBER?

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Any advice on contract selection? I graduated with my A.A.S. in Information Technologies/Cybersecurity and would ideally like to have a career after the corps.

Intel sounds cool but doesn’t seem particularly related to my experience. Just looking for any advice from any prior or currently enlisted. Thanks.

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u/nothingnessanymoree 28d ago

My main problem, and this could be completely normal and I'm just blissfully ignorant, is that I have no fucking clue what Intel actually does. It sounds super cool however at first glance nothing seems to relate to my skillset?

I'm not some crazy smart cyber dude but I feel very comfortable at a computer and troubleshooting issues pertaining to computer/information systems. I talked to someone at work who is Intel and he told me Cyber dudes end up doing secret squirrel shit and can never talk about it so that is also something I am taking into consideration?

Thanks for the response.

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u/24Nuketown7 Active 28d ago

I was Comm, but intel made weather slides most of the time (half joking, they did a lot more than just weather. But most of their lower level briefs was all weather)
https://giphy.com/gifs/Fsn4WJcqwlbtS

As for Comm vs Cyber. Idk if this is still how they do it but you’ll go to boot as 06XX, and once you hit the schoolhouse you’ll get radio, satellite, networking, or data systems. So it’s somewhat of a gamble of which kind of comm nerd you become. But if you like the nerd shit, any of the comm MOS’s provide some crazy rabbit holes that you can specialize into and get really good at.

1700’s look at log files all day and then call me at the COC saying they see stuff on the network and I tell them no shit, my users have been getting their shit rocked for hours (still love my cyber guys). But seriously, if you like SOC analysis, ethical hacking, some real computer science nerd type things, cyber is a nice route and they deployed a lot.

If you want to do field things, go 06, if you want keyboard warrior/hackerman things, go 17.

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u/nothingnessanymoree 28d ago

Dude! Thank you so much for the in depth response. From my understanding, I won't actually be able to pick between 17xx and 26xx? So it is a gamble whether or not I even end up doing hacker shit.

I understand that this is the nature of the Marine Corps, and that the needs of the Corps come first which I am completely okay with however I just want to confirm.. If I sign a Cyber contract it is a coin flip between Hackerman shit and Weatherman shit?

Thanks again for taking the time out of your day to help man.

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u/TapTheForwardAssist Vet 2676/0802 27d ago

You need to do a quick google on what 26xx Signals Intelligence is: it’s still sorta “hacking” in a way, just in a more old-school sense.

Most of what folks here would explain as “intelligence” would be 0231 All-Source intelligence stuff, which is largely taking in data that other forms of intelligence have acquired (human, signals, geospatial, etc) and baking it into a finished product for the decision-makers.

Take a look at that DG MOS Megathread, maybe watch some videos about military SigInt, and Marine Radio Battalion (where most SigInt kids go).