Posted on Jun 2, 2021
Would 35F or 68C be a better career for active duty and civilian life?
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I need help deciding which would be better for me. I like them both but don’t know which will transition better to civilian life after the military. Also, have not decided if I want to join the Army or Air Force( or Space Force). Like which would pay more and which would transition over to Civilian life more smoothly.
Posted in these groups: 
Advanced Individual Training (AIT) - 35F
68C: Practical/Vocational Nursing
Basic Trainee
Advanced Individual Training (AIT) - 35F 68C: Practical/Vocational Nursing Basic Trainee
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 4
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Neither. The job you should take is the one you'll enjoy. Don't make the mistake of taking a job because you believe it will lead to a better civilian career. If you don't like the job in the Army, you won't want to do it as a civilian. If you like the job, you'll probably stay in the Army for years, maybe even till retirement.
All military jobs pay the same, it's a pay grade. An E4 in the Army makes the same as an E4 in the Air Force, Coast Guard, Navy, Marine Corps, and Space Force. However, promotions between branches and jobs are different. A 35F in the Army will promote faster than a 68C.
Pick the branch that you enjoy the culture of. Pick a job you will enjoy doing. Don't pick a job based on what you think will be best for you based off what other people think would be best for you
All military jobs pay the same, it's a pay grade. An E4 in the Army makes the same as an E4 in the Air Force, Coast Guard, Navy, Marine Corps, and Space Force. However, promotions between branches and jobs are different. A 35F in the Army will promote faster than a 68C.
Pick the branch that you enjoy the culture of. Pick a job you will enjoy doing. Don't pick a job based on what you think will be best for you based off what other people think would be best for you
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As SFC Boyd says take the one you will enjoy. I like to say follow your heart. I always wanted to be in the military, but my young ego and lack of ability to get a commission early in my life prevented me from signing the dotted line.
Had I just done so there would have been plenty of opportunity for me to commission afterward.
Nevertheless, I took the "safe bet" with my education and profession, and never really enjoyed it. I finally threw it to the wind and ended up joining late in life anyway. So here I am now 30 years later 10 years into a military career I could be retiring from right now.
If you do not take to sitting in a closed room with no natural sun light then 35F is not for you regardless of clearance level. The job can be really easy. Of course if you are college educated and comfortable with cranking out research papers it's a walk in the park of what is expected of a entry level 35F.
Here are the pros of 35F
1) You can hid from the 1SG and CSM by being in the Top Secret office. Now they can hunt you down and follow you there, but they have to go out of their way to do so. So it's a easy place to avoid simple details because it's too much hassle to pull the intel guys out of the top secret office.
2) Deployed or not, you get the good internet if you have an unclassified line to the outside world.
3) There is going to be sports or news running 24/7 in the top secret room. So you get to keep up to date with the world.
4) There is of course A/C always running in your office situation.
It was by far the best job I ever had in my life. Easy, and got to be plugged into "neat things". That said, if you are not into writing research papers on the fly you can find yourself overwhelmed and end up stuck updating the weather reports for convoy operations.
Had I just done so there would have been plenty of opportunity for me to commission afterward.
Nevertheless, I took the "safe bet" with my education and profession, and never really enjoyed it. I finally threw it to the wind and ended up joining late in life anyway. So here I am now 30 years later 10 years into a military career I could be retiring from right now.
If you do not take to sitting in a closed room with no natural sun light then 35F is not for you regardless of clearance level. The job can be really easy. Of course if you are college educated and comfortable with cranking out research papers it's a walk in the park of what is expected of a entry level 35F.
Here are the pros of 35F
1) You can hid from the 1SG and CSM by being in the Top Secret office. Now they can hunt you down and follow you there, but they have to go out of their way to do so. So it's a easy place to avoid simple details because it's too much hassle to pull the intel guys out of the top secret office.
2) Deployed or not, you get the good internet if you have an unclassified line to the outside world.
3) There is going to be sports or news running 24/7 in the top secret room. So you get to keep up to date with the world.
4) There is of course A/C always running in your office situation.
It was by far the best job I ever had in my life. Easy, and got to be plugged into "neat things". That said, if you are not into writing research papers on the fly you can find yourself overwhelmed and end up stuck updating the weather reports for convoy operations.
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SFC Kelly Fuerhoff
CPT (Join to see) - Not every 35F job is in a basement or windowless room. When I was in S2 (BN or BDE) we had windows in our office. In BN my OIC had a window in her office and the NCOIC office had a window. BDE S2 we had a couple windows. The only secure area was the vault in either one and it wasn't that big.
The windowless rooms are the SCIFs. Not collateral areas.
1. I never hid from the 1SG or CSM in BN or BDE S2 - ever. We did not have a "Top Secret" room at either of those units. The SCIF was either across the base or down the street. You're more likely to see a lot more CSMs and 1SGs who have a TS than used to. And some have SCI eligibility. I didn't get put on a lot of details in BN S2 because we were a 2 person shop. Half of my 4 years we were deployed too. I consistently saw the 1SG, BN CSM and then at BDE the BDE CSM.
2. That's not true. We had NIPR in the office deployed - but outside that we did not get "good internet." The first deployment they put government internet in the crackhouses we lived in at Speicher - which meant most everything was blocked at the time (like Yahoo chat, etc). So we females had to go over to the high rise where the males lived because civilians lived there too and they had regular internet. So my NG brother was deployed the same time, I had to go sit outside my friend's room to use the internet there to talk to my brother on Yahoo chat (this was 05-06). During 08--09 is when they had people could pay for their own internet but that wasn't til we moved down to Tallil from Warrior I think.
3. No there is not sports or news always running in a SCIF. Or in the S2.
4. There is not always AC running in our office situation...
The windowless rooms are the SCIFs. Not collateral areas.
1. I never hid from the 1SG or CSM in BN or BDE S2 - ever. We did not have a "Top Secret" room at either of those units. The SCIF was either across the base or down the street. You're more likely to see a lot more CSMs and 1SGs who have a TS than used to. And some have SCI eligibility. I didn't get put on a lot of details in BN S2 because we were a 2 person shop. Half of my 4 years we were deployed too. I consistently saw the 1SG, BN CSM and then at BDE the BDE CSM.
2. That's not true. We had NIPR in the office deployed - but outside that we did not get "good internet." The first deployment they put government internet in the crackhouses we lived in at Speicher - which meant most everything was blocked at the time (like Yahoo chat, etc). So we females had to go over to the high rise where the males lived because civilians lived there too and they had regular internet. So my NG brother was deployed the same time, I had to go sit outside my friend's room to use the internet there to talk to my brother on Yahoo chat (this was 05-06). During 08--09 is when they had people could pay for their own internet but that wasn't til we moved down to Tallil from Warrior I think.
3. No there is not sports or news always running in a SCIF. Or in the S2.
4. There is not always AC running in our office situation...
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CPT (Join to see)
SFC Kelly Fuerhoff - windowed offices by doctrine are not TS areas, at least they are not approved as such. So as such a 35F in a windowed area is not really doing heavy lifting TS work.
The entirety of AIT for 35F is going to be in a SCIF (sensitive compartmented information facility) type area.
Everyone's MOS experiences are going to be different, so let me generalize another way. If you are a 35 series in a non Military Intel Unit or Chain of Command I personally think you are in danger of doing limited intel work. Being in an S2 shop of say a medical command is going to suck.
Now, I was in an Intel Battalion so I guess it was awesome. I was surrounded by every different INT, and we did a lot of heavy lifting and briefing intel product creation.
So my general belief about MOS's in the military is an opinion that all MOS's have their pros and cons, but one is better off being in a unit who's mission set is dominated by your MOS. You don't want to be the Intel guy in an Engineering Battalion, and you don't want to be the medical guy in an Intel Battalion.
It's all a crap shoot when going through a recruiter, because in active duty you aren't going to know where you are going until you are nearly done with AIT. So one can spend all of Intel School learning about cool Intel things, and then land in an S2 shop of a Medical command, and basically just running clearance renewal packages, and at best get exposure to intel information that needs to be passed on to the commanders of the unit for an exercise or deployment, but in no way actually be a part of any intel production.
Only in the military does the following happen.
1) The guy that hires you (the recruiter) doesn't generally know what you are going to be doing (unless by luck shares the same MOS).
2) The guy that trained you (TRADOC Cadre) are not the ones you will work for.
3) The guy you will work for (your first unit assignment) never specifically asked for you to begin with.
The entirety of AIT for 35F is going to be in a SCIF (sensitive compartmented information facility) type area.
Everyone's MOS experiences are going to be different, so let me generalize another way. If you are a 35 series in a non Military Intel Unit or Chain of Command I personally think you are in danger of doing limited intel work. Being in an S2 shop of say a medical command is going to suck.
Now, I was in an Intel Battalion so I guess it was awesome. I was surrounded by every different INT, and we did a lot of heavy lifting and briefing intel product creation.
So my general belief about MOS's in the military is an opinion that all MOS's have their pros and cons, but one is better off being in a unit who's mission set is dominated by your MOS. You don't want to be the Intel guy in an Engineering Battalion, and you don't want to be the medical guy in an Intel Battalion.
It's all a crap shoot when going through a recruiter, because in active duty you aren't going to know where you are going until you are nearly done with AIT. So one can spend all of Intel School learning about cool Intel things, and then land in an S2 shop of a Medical command, and basically just running clearance renewal packages, and at best get exposure to intel information that needs to be passed on to the commanders of the unit for an exercise or deployment, but in no way actually be a part of any intel production.
Only in the military does the following happen.
1) The guy that hires you (the recruiter) doesn't generally know what you are going to be doing (unless by luck shares the same MOS).
2) The guy that trained you (TRADOC Cadre) are not the ones you will work for.
3) The guy you will work for (your first unit assignment) never specifically asked for you to begin with.
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I don't think there's a right or wrong answer here. Both are respectable in the civilian sector. 35F will earn you a TS/SCI which is worth a ton in the outside world and the 68C should make you marketable after the military. Like many others have said, do whichever you think you'll enjoy more. As someone who's seen both, I personally would enjoy 35F more. The promotion rate is much faster.
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