Recently the Navy offered me a jump into the second quarter of my life as a prospective Submarine Officer in the "Navy Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate (NUPOC) Program." The pay seemed comparable to what I could make in the civilian world*, the position was guaranteed for my five year service, and the experience managing a team that worked directly with a nuclear reactor would have likely proven invaluable when finding my life after the Navy.
* On top of comparable pay they would have given me $100 a day, everyday, until I graduated with my master's degree... on top of a $15,000 selling soul bonus.
So far I haven't signed my life away for two reasons:
If the program is worth entering, then why does the Navy recruit people in school? It seems they could offer this program to recently graduated Nuclear Engineers and not pay them to do nothing before they graduate. So my conclusion is that they are exploiting their informational advantage. ((not that it's relevant, but...) I believe any one person is inherently good, but any group of people is not necessary.) A recently graduated Nuclear Engineer may look at the Navy's offer and laugh, while an uncertain undergraduate has never gotten a serious career offer before and might be tricked into signing five years of their life away without knowing what its worth.
The second reason has been based on a potential misunderstanding. I am under the impression that a candidate signed their life away and then their future position in the Navy was determined. But I guess now that I think about it, I could probably make the position I was looking at. Since that's no longer a reason and I promised two of them I'll makeup another. The importance of life does seem to be bell-curved in nature (you'll never guess what I'm looking at while writing this) and I don't think that I'm going to make a decision that affects so much of second quarter life while still in the first. (... and yes, I am afraid of commitment (... not that that's relevant either)).
Realizing that I'm still very much so in the first quarter of life, ~600 days away from graduation, and not worried about either makes me think that I'm a pretty content person (I was going to say 'complacent' but I don't like the self-serving implications some of the definitions have). With regard to my second quarter: whatever will be, will be... future me can figure the rest of my life out; for the future is not ours to see. Hopefully, he's happy with whatever career wanders his way after graduation.
Also of interest, yesterday a rattlesnake offered me a one way jump to the fourth quarter of my life. But, I declined, I'm pretty interested to how future me plays the future I've dealt him.
Peace -- Mike
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