Rydark

My family has somewhat of a military tradition back in Korea. My grandfather is a ex-colonel of an anti-air artillery brigade, who is a Korean war and Vietnam war veteran. Whereas my father was an intelligence officer in the army, who worked with the U.S military and watched North Korea with spy satellites.

I've been thinking about what my interests and strengths are, and decided to pursue a career in the Canadian Air Force as an intelligence officer.

My plan is to join the reserve forces to get some NCO experience, then graduate from a university with a degree in history/international relations/economics/political science.

It will let me get in what is called Direct Entry Officer(DEO) program, and I will be receiving the same salary as someone who's from Royal Military College within few years.

My guess is that since Canada has NORAD bases, I will be able to work at one of the bases as an air force intelligence officer, and maybe even be sent to some Asian countries as a military diplomat(?), escorting a diplomat.

On the other hand, most career search places keep giving me curator, power plant operator, and systems analyst in top 5 list. Whyyyyyy?

Soldiergirl, what do you think of intelligence officers? Are they "spooks" to other soldiers? (I read too much Tom Clancy's novels)

Nomad

Gender:

LOL You don't want to know what a muddy ol' enlisted engineer like me thinks of MI officers! LOL Ironically, Thak is now in an MI unit (he's a mechanic, so he gets assigned to many types of units.) My thing about MI officers in general (and obviously there are exceptions) is that most of them are sooooo stuck up... OMG you wanna meet some people who think their shit don't stink, go hang out with a bunch of MI officers for the day. Like I said, they're not all like that, but A LOT that I have met are. If I were you, I'd pick a different field, maybe one with more of a real world connotation. I'm a bit partial to the Engineers. Nice folks, great mission, honest work.

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vman

Gender:

Canadian military? There is a new unit forming designed as support unit for JTF2. But in my opinion, the most rewarding career is with the latter, the SOF. I would do anything to be in this unit, but no, I'm going to be a dentist.

Sitting at a desk in the army isn;'t my idea of the military. It's all about direct action. US army SF, and South Korean SF are pretty damm badass in my opinion.

oh, try out for combat diving engineers. Those guys are pretty good too.
one more thing, escorting diplomats is what JTF2 boys do, not you intel people.

hope that helps.

vman

Nomad

Gender:

Oh yeah... I used to date this one diver, and he would tell me all about the stuff he did every day, and it was seriously cool! I couldn't believe we were both considered engineers yet his job was like WOW! and mine was like "soooo... what exactly does a land surveyor do?"

unchained_melody

Gender:

My father was an MP then transferred to military intelligence. He is the buisness/HR director for the city of florence. So he got a good job. It is just hard to get a job with the companies alot of the older soldiers talk about or to get a fed gov civi job. The application process is painful and it seems they give jobs to the older retirees...Please remember once you're an NCO to still love on the soldiers u are more likely not to catch one in the butt during deployment field training excercises.

Rydark

Haha, I want to be a MI for precisely the reason why you guys don't recommend it.

I want a piece of HUMINT (Human Intelligence collection), SIGINT (Signals Intelligence Collection and analysis), IMINT (Imagery Intelligence collection and analysis), Counterintelligence (CI).

vman

Gender:

there is of lack of humint in iraq. Most intel is time sensitive. also looking down a satellite image is usually blurry and fuzzy. they don't know jack about what's really going on.

vman

nihonjinlover

Gender:

Most enlisted do not respect the Officers, they mainly give officers lip service and talk trash behind their backs!

Rydark

Ah ha! That's why my dad used to beat up so many of those bastards in the barracks.

Having a major for a dad had its perks though. Always going through military search blocks and getting to see the DMZ right at the border.

Those crazy North Korean propaganda messages from their speakers always crack me up!

Haysouse

What about MI attracts you? Contrary to movie glamour, MI could involve mere paperwork and paper-flow management. As an officer, you probably won't go out in the field much. If you want to be a military 'lifer', it's probably not the fastest way to climb up the ladder. Otherwise, it could be an excellent resume entry to show civilian employers leadership training and significant responsibilities.
The MI guys I met were nice & professional.

I didn't think career search tests were useful at all, ignore them.