Seeking military INTPs, need your advice.

[Chief]

This is to continue my search for advice from anybody who either is/was in the military (any branch) as an INTP, or just wants to reply with their own advice. This may also help others that are in similar situations. I just basically need opinions/experiences of others.

BTW, this is concerning Air Force.
Here is the link to the original post.

http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?t=5719

When looking through all the jobs for upcoming enlisted member, most of them didn't even come close to fitting an INTP personality. Most of the jobs had to do with maintenance procedures, repairing, and inspections (no "real" thinking, analyzing, etc...). It all seem to routine for me, looking over the same stuff, over and over again. Nothing different, like applying your skills/talents on new tasks. I am planning to join and earn my degree ASAP. So am basically looking for a "temporary job" which I hope will satisfy my own INTP needs.

I narrowed down most of the jobs, to ones where I think I would be most happy in. (and where most INTPs would too) If anybody's job is acutally what I listed or has one which I didn't list and absolutly loves/hates it, plz reply with your own opinions about your job, or if you know about/of a military job, plz reply also.

Most of these are Intelligence jobs. Here's the link to the description of the jobs.

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/airforceenlistedjobs/a/afjobgen.htm?terms=AIR+FORCE+ENLISTED+JOB+

3C0X2-COMMUNICATIONS - COMPUTER SYSTEMS PROGRAMMING (G-60)

1N0X1-INTELLIGENCE APPLICATIONS (G-55) (heh, can't join due to failed depth perception test :( )

1N4X1-SIGNALS INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS (G-58)

1N5X1-ELECTRONIC SIGNALS INTELLIGENCE EXPLOITATION (G-69)

1N1X1-IMAGERY ANALYSIS (G-64)(same here again, can't join due to failed depth perception test :( )

3C0X2-COMMUNICATIONS - COMPUTER SYSTEMS PROGRAMMING (G-60)

1N6X1-ELECTRONIC SYSTEM SECURITY ASSESSMENT (G-52)

I read something about a person whose been in Imagery Analysis for 26 yrs, and what he said seemed very interesting,

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/airforceenlistedjobs/a/afjob1n1x1_2.htm

(it's in italic), but I can't do that :(

I wanna earn my degree ASAP, so I can join the "scientific/research development field". Which to me seems like what every INTP would dream of, lol.

I understand the nature of the military and how it conflicts with my personality and my nature. (authority figures, taking stupid orders, or ones that I don't agree with, etc...)
But am thinking that because of the supposed "high" ASVAB scores one most achieve to get into the career fields I listed above and the personality of the people who might enjoy it, that they will as least be my on the same personailty and intelligential level as me, so maybe I can get along with them better. (BTW my ASVAB score was 91)

Oh yeah, as to reason why Air Force, it's that because I believe that they use the most "brainpower" of all the branches. And is the best in the quality of life of all the branches.

Also to those who ask, "Why not just do 4 yrs of ROTC while in college, and become an officer in the scientific/research development field?"
Well, I could have done that... was on the AFROTC scholarship, but due to mainly financial problems, my grades were slipping. Working 40+ hrs a week and going to school full time, is not fun.

Thank you for reading my post.

[Architectonic]

Depth perception is an eye test? What sort of problems do you have? Is it possible to apply for a wavier? Or is it possible to fix with laser surgery?

You could always study university part time while working.
Hell, due to health problems, I can only study part time without working - and I'd be 30 by the time I got a honours degree. (I'm hoping my health is better by then..)

[Chief]

Depth perception is an eye test. Basically I just failed some eye test with 5 small circles, and they ask you which circle you see protrudes out more. But the thing was that, I was wearing my eye glasses.. which are like 2 yrs old, so my vision is "really" corrected. But I can't take the exam anymore even if I got new glasses, til it expires which won't be another 2 yrs from now.

Also, if I were to work full time and go to school part time, then I would lose the AFROTC scholarship. It reuired that I be a full time student. With a minimum GPA of 2.75, I think... or was it higher?? So I thought enlisting and getting my degree through the military will provide me more financial stabilty. Working and gradually getting my degree (part time), while the Air Force pays for the education. Plus, within < 2 yrs, I can get my A.A. then work towards my bachelors.

P.S. oh yeah, I don't know if lasek will fix the problem, but it won't matter, am leaving soon, in about a couple of months (stupid delays). And am not gonna pay for lasek, I rather wait til am in and then get it.

[Chief]

"I would have to agree with much of what Nighthawk said. I've just completed ten years enlisted military, 5 years USMC and 5 Navy. There really is no good fit at all for and INTP. The military just doesn't have much of a place for thinkers. The Air Force is definately the best choice and that's where I would be if they would have alloud prior Marines a few years ago. I've worked a wide variety of jobs but my main mos/rates have been Signals Intelligence, Marksmanship Instructor, and Electronic Technician. My strong recomendation would be for the most technically demanding school you can get, usually electronics. Try to get something state of the art too if you can. The reason I recomend that is not so much that you'll like it better, but that you'll be with a much better class of people. That alone can make life far better. I've had to work with goons before, and no matter what the job is, it's hell that way. Good luck to you man."

Promethean if your reading this post and come across this message. Please, can you tell me your experience as a Signals Intelligence analyst?? I am considering that career as one of my choices, hearing how its like from a real life person, instead from a site, will give me a better and clearer real understanding of what they do. If you can tell me your likes and dislikes of the career and what exactly do you do, would really help me. I would appreciate it greatly.

[garak]

As for the differences between the branches of the military.. it reminded me of this hilarious picture Jackie sent me a while back.

"sleeping in the military"

http://www.intpcentral.com/uploads/sleepinginthemilitary.jpg

[Chief]

LOL, :rofl: That has got to be one of most hilarious depictions of the differences between the branches,... LOL :rofl: but yet it still displays the truth.

[Crazy]

My MOS in the Marines is really good, but there are a few problems. I am a Nuclear Biological Chemical Defense Specialist (I think the Air Force calls it Chemical Biological Radialogical) My job is to teach Marines to protect themselves in a contaminated environment, ensure the equipment is servicable, train monitor/survey teams, establish decontamination teams, predict hazard areas, track actual contamination, treat, decon, and evac contaminated casualties, and report everything to the CO.

The biggest problem is that there are few of us, therefore we end up working under goons that have absolutely no knowledge of our job. Most of our group have a reputation for being a little off, and quite crazy. We get often ignored, unless we are really needed. They also think we are sadistic, because we are in charge of the Gas chamber, where we make everyone stand in a big room, let off some tear gas, and make everyone take off thier masks. It's great fun!

[Nighthawk]

All of those fields sound pretty interesting. I can only speak to computer systems programming from personal experience ... and it has captured my INTP interest for about 10 years. Not bad at all give my P tendencies to lose interest in things rather quickly.

One caveat I must give however ... is that the lower level ranks (both enlisted and officer) tend to do the grunt work. As an enlisted soldier, you will be pulling guard duty, monitoring radios, cleaning up various areas, and pulling other non-job related duties your superiors see fit to give you. Enlisted soldiers spend at least half their time doing grunt work that has no bearing on their jobs. As a new lieutenant, you'll be supervising guard details, supervising radio monitoring, and either leading troops or doing mindless administrative work. There won't be much (if any) scientific research and development until after you reach the rank of major and get a masters/PhD. That will take about 10 years. The military is a very SJ environment and you have to pay your dues in the trenches before they let you do exotic stuff. Additionally, there usually are very few R&D slots available, and competition for them could be intense. I studied weapons systems engineering and got a BS degree in it ... but never got to use it at all during my 9 years as an army officer.

I don't mean to rain on your dreams and ambitions. The Air Force might handle things a bit differently from the Army ... and you may have more opportunities. It is a branch that values brainpower more. Please do research it carefully before you jump. Make sure you know exactly what the job position in which you are interested actually does ... and do NOT rely on the recruiter to tell you. He or she may lie through his or her teeth to fill a quota. The signal intercept guys I knew in the army spent 90% of their time pulling guard duty, fixing vehicles, and cleaning barracks/mess halls. The military is a bad enough place for an INTP ... at least you should have a profession within it that makes you happy. It can be hell on earth without that.

[Chief]

Thank you NightHawk for the advice. :)

[Refugee]

I spent 6 years active duty Marine Corps, got out, went to college for a little while, went back and spent another 6 years active duty Marine Corps, got out, spent 3 years in the Air National Guard, got out...

My MOS was avionics the whole time. The first 4 years I hated it, hated the work environment. I disliked some of the people I worked for, some of whom were absolute idiots. But then, I guess just because of the amount of time I spent doing the job, I actually got pretty good at what I did. It's rewarding to an INTP if other people consider you an expert at something. So after that transformation took place, I liked the job. I was always an anomaly, because we would deploy as a unit to some far off place and I need a good bit of time alone, which is hard to find when you're in the middle of nowhere surrounded by Marines. But after I got over the initial hatred of the MOS, I thrived in the avionics field.

[jax0m]

The Air Force is EXTREMELY different from the Army. And people who don't like to take orders and shit should probably join it. It's a tea party compared to the Marines or Army. Can't say much about the Navy. I however have dealt with the other three branches extensively and know a little about it.

[Nighthawk]

Speaking as an ex-Army guy ... Air Force gets my vote ;)

[Elizabeth B]

I agree with Nighthawk, the Air Force is the best service for INTPs if you're going to go into the military. I was in the AF for 11 years, my husband's still in, both INTPs.

These are what I think are the best career fields:

1A1X1C-FLIGHT ENGINEER (G-55)
1N3X1-CRYPTOLOGIC LINGUIST (G-69)
3N0X1-PUBLIC AFFAIRS (G-69)
4B0X1-BIOENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING (G-48)
4M0X1-AEROSPACE PHYSIOLOGY (G-43)
5J0X1-PARALEGAL (G-50)
5R0X1-CHAPLAIN SERVICE SUPPORT (G-43/A-40)

However, I was an officer, so I'm not as familiar with the enlisted career fields. Flight Engineers work with a small cadre of folks and have some autonomy, and are generally judged by their expertise, not their rank. Linguist just sounds interesting, I'm not sure what they actually do. Public affairs might not be your dream job, but you get to do a lot of different things and is a small field where most will again respect your work, not your rank. This also applies for bioenvironmental engineering (lots of stuff to do, small field), with the added break that it's part of the medical side of the house, so there are less SJs around and the culture is more N and more laid back. I'm not sure how narrow or wide the field of Aerospace physiology is, but they did a lot of interesting things when I was at Brooks, they worked in an R&D type atmosphere, and they were also part of the medical side of the house. Paralegal and Chaplains are also their own fields, with their own cultures. I'm not sure what you would actually be doing in these fields, however. There also used to be a career field, base operations/airfield operations, where you were basically running the whole airfield, a lot of autonomy, a lot of different things to do and learn. I think it was 1CO, but I didn't see it listed--it may have merged with another field, or maybe I don't remember the numbers so well anymore.

Computers could be good, too. A lot of the computer techs I knew were able to get degrees while in the AF and also take computer classes for credit as part of their work. However, you can end up doing a lot of grunt work or customer support type work, urgh. "Help, my printer won't print." Or, hundreds of people calling to tell you the network's down. I worked with a Lt and an airman who did our computer support, they were intimidated when higher ranking people called to tell them the network was down. I started answering the phone for them, saying "Yes, they know the network's down. Would you like to talk to them or let them continue to fix the problem?" The calls decreased after that. (I normally don't jump to answer the phone, but I enjoyed giving this response, for some reason.)

I would recommend calling around to some Air Force bases and talking to TSgts or MSgts in the actual fields you're interested in to see what the work is actually like and how it will fit your personality. Another thing to be concerned about and ask about is workload and deployment rates. Some of the career fields you won't have time to study or take classes or some you'll be deploying in support of the war half the year. Some of the overmanned career fields work 12 hour shifts regularly. Unless you don't need much sleep, it's hard to take any classes with that schedule.

You also might want to think about online college or transferability of credits to the school you're ultimately interested in; you'll be moving around a lot.

You could also call Phillips Lab at Kirtland AFB and Wright Lab at Wright-Patterson AFB, there is a lot of R&D going on there, but I'm not sure what kind of career fields are doing the work on the enlisted side.

Yes, just call some random people. It works amazingly well. I switched career fields several times, people like to tell you what they like and don't like about their jobs. I wouldn't bore them with the MBTI thing, although some people in the AF do know about it. Just explain your likes and dislikes.

[jax0m]

The Air Force are the nerds of the United States Military.