Posted on Aug 20, 2020
SGT(P) Defense Courier
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I'm very interested in learning a language and being able to use it in my job. It looks like the best MOS for that would be 35P. Anyone who has experience with that MOS, please let me know what you think!
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SGT Retired
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Edited >1 y ago
You don’t want to be a 35P. It’s probably the worst utilized MOS in the Army.
After you get through DLI, you’ll be expected to maintain a 2/2 on the DLPT. No easy feat. Don’t be expected if your units don’t give you time for language specific training.
Another downside they won’t tell you. Real translation work will just about always go to a CAT 3 linguist. (Especially during deployment). So because they have just enough training, the 35Ps might be repurposed to help the 35Ns in SIGINT. Unfortunately, they generally know just enough to log on and not really do SIGINT work.

Too much to nutshell, but overall, it was my experience that 35P was a bad choice. After going through all the crazy training, The juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. The Army just couldn’t seem to figure out how to effectively utilize those soldiers. There are better avenues to DLI than just 35P.
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CW2 Bde Ew Tech
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There's other jobs that teach language as well. Civil Affairs, Psychological Operations, and Special Forces all teach a language and it correlates to where in the world you would operate in...aka used in the job.
goarmysof.com
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SGT(P) Defense Courier
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I was very interested and looked back and forth between CA and PSYOP for a while but I think I missed the cutoff for CA (I believe it said no more than 5 years TIS if I recall correctly) so I've been heavily considering trying to go for PSYOP.
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CW2 Bde Ew Tech
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SGT(P) (Join to see) 6 years TIS for e5, 3 years TIG, but its also waiverable if you have more
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SGT(P) Defense Courier
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CW2 (Join to see) - I'm at 6 years right now and I'll hit my 3 years TIG in March 2021. If you don't mind me asking, what's the difference between CA and PSYOP?
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CW2 Bde Ew Tech
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CA conducts influence operations by connecting the government and its people (aka get the people to trust their gov by getting the gov to do their job). PSYOP conducts influence operations by using information (print media, radio, TV, movies, cyber/social media, etc)
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SFC Retention Operations Nco
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35P is a Signal Intelligence job, meaning you will spend a significant portion of your career at a computer inside a vault all day not talking a whole lot to others or interacting with a lot of new faces. To some people that sounds wonderful, to others that sounds terrible.
There are other language aligned jobs you can pursue. 35M is now a language based job, that involves more human interaction. Both 35M and 35P you’ll need a TS and a 107 DLAB for. Plus you’ll have to maintain your language score at a 2/2 for your career.
CMF18, 37F and 38B are language aligned MOS’s meaning you’ll get a crash course in language and always be required to maintain a 1/1 score which is very simple with a little practice. You’ll have the opportunity later to attend DLI later if you choose. They only require a Secret clearance and usually a 60-80 DLAB, but they all have a selection you must pass before their AIT/Q Course
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CW2 Bde Ew Tech
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18, 37, and 38 are now waving GT scores down to 100 btw, and DLAB not required until after Selection.
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