Stalled careers; was there an event or decision that you saw stalled somebody's career?

SGT Donald Croswhite — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 08:57:55 -0400

Was their an event, or desicion that you can look back and see, that stalled your career? What advice would you give to avoid that situation?

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 28 at 2014 9:28 AM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 09:28:31 -0400

Unfortunately for me it was a deployment right in the middle of my degree program.

I do not by any means regret the decision to hang up my education for a year to go overseas, because those are some of my fondest memories as a soldier. But it was hard, I mean really hard to get back in the mindset of finishing school. It took quite a while to get back in a grind where I could actually sit down in class and pay attention. Nothing medical related just hard to pay attention. Gone for a year, money burning a hole in your pocket, there was just so much else I wanted to do.

As far as advice goes, that's tough. I would say try to finish school before heading overseas, or even a CONUS mission, get that degree that's paid for, then let the deployments happen, only if you have that option like we had.

Response by 1SG Shane Hansen made Mar 28 at 2014 9:35 AM

1SG Shane Hansen — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 09:35:37 -0400

My personal experience is not having college completed soon enough, made it really hard to make cut off scores as a junior NCO until I finally caught up with my degree.

I have also been the unfortunate witness of seeing NCOs opt out of going to a professional development course due to upcoming deployments or family situations. This definitely stalled their careers as they did not possess the required PME to advance or use for promotion points to the next rank. Don't do that! If you are offered, go. I promise everything will be there when you get back.

Response by SFC A.M. Drake made Apr 26 at 2014 10:47 PM

SFC A.M. Drake — Sat, 26 Apr 2014 22:47:38 -0400

I believe by being some some cases not all, to be DA selected for something...i.e. DS or Recruiter and that was not in your grand scheme of things. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, but it does throw ones career path back a few years. I'm curious to hear others on this issue.

Response by SGM Omer Dalton made Jun 21 at 2020 5:02 PM

SGM Omer Dalton — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 17:02:02 -0400

Oh yes. After all these years I still regret I declined becoming WO after I was selected. Foolish on my part.