Is 35P or 35M a better MOS for post-Army career opportunities with Intelligence Agencies and/or Government Contractors?

2019-08-25T17:46:42-04:00

I am thinking about enlisting in the Army as either a 35P or 35M. I have been interested in Military Intelligence and the IC since I was young, and it is my ultimate goal to work in that field for an agency one day. My background is clean and I am willing to work my ass off to achieve my goals. Both 35M and 35P are attractive MOSs to me. I like the language training aspect that seems to be guaranteed with 35P, but I also like the idea of being able to go outside the wire and conduct HUMINT collection as a 35M. However, I've heard that sometimes 35Ms are stuck doing crappy jobs when not deployed, and that 35Ps spend most of their time at a computer translating (I've heard differently for SF attached soldiers). I've also heard that making the jump to 35L or even Warrant Officer can be beneficial in the long run as well. Which MOS would provide the best setup for post-Army employment? Thank you for your time.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 25 at 2019 7:35 PM

2019-08-25T19:35:16-04:00

Really depends on what kind of language, but if you get a Cat 4 language (Arabic, Chinese, etc), your expected worth outside the Army will be much greater than 35M by far. Why? The demand is much higher for that language skill set because they are harder to find. If you just get something like Spanish, German, or French, that difference begins to equalize. Everyone who goes 35M thinks it’s all outside the wire James Bond stuff. You won’t get much into tradecraft juicy stuff until you get into senior NCO / Warrant Officer ranks. As for 35P, I did that for seven years before I commissioned and there were plenty of outside / inside the wire times. Sure there are many jobs were you “sit behind a computer” but there’s plenty of jobs where you are on teams out there supporting the infantry. You don’t need to go SOF for that.

Response by SFC Casey O'Mally made Aug 26 at 2019 12:35 AM

2019-08-26T00:35:07-04:00

Unless they changed things AGAIN 35M is back to being langiage dependent, which means you get a language with that MOS as well.

Both have equal potential post-Army. However 35Ps by their nature have an affiliation with NSA (for good or ill) inherent in what they do. 35Ms MAY acquire similar affiliations, but it is not near as likely as 35Ps. The flip side is the 35M has a little bit wider field post-Army. While both skillets, as practiced, can never be used in a civilian capacity, the 35M skillset is a bit easier to adapt IN PART to civilian tasks (build rapport, negotiate, apply psychology).

Response by Cadet MSG Private RallyPoint Member made May 24 at 2022 10:13 PM

2022-05-24T22:13:57-04:00

Both MOS have good prospects outside the military, largely due to the fact that government intelligence agencies do a lot of there own on sight training, and will likely be extremely different then what you are currently doing in the army. With that said all government agencies will place hiring priority on applicants who have language fluency in “critical languages”. I would also like to point out that all government intelligence agencies require a 4 year degree with a minimum of a 3.0.