Separating Military - New Job & Degree plan
ScissorMeTimbers
Registered Users Posts: 4 ■□□□□□□□□□
Hey everyone,
New to the forum and wanted to share a little about who I am and what my intentions are as I separate from 8 years of active duty in the Air Force. Hopefully get some reassurance that I'm making the right choice haha. I'm currently 27 years old, raised on the island of Oahu in Hawaii and my first experience with IT was in an A+ class I took my senior year of high school trying to kill some time. I loved it! I was proud that I could dismantle and reassemble a computer in less than 12 minutes...which doesn't seem as impressive these days. I joined the military at 19 and my first duty station was this exotic location called Nebraska. Corn for as far as the eye can see and blizzards that make your nose hairs freeze when you breathe. 5 years later, I find myself here at Hurlburt Field in the AFSOC world which has been a great experience. I've been to a lot of cool places and met some true American heroes along the way. Time has flown by and I've made the decision to walk away from active duty to spend more time at home with my family.
This forum has provided a lot of great information and I'm hoping to absorb as much advice as I can while pursuing a career an degree in IT. I start terminal leave 3 Aug and will be starting my new career as a Technician for Scientific Research Corporation 17 Aug. I've actually worked side by side with SRC for the past two years here at Hurlburt Field and I guess they took notice of my work ethic and offered me the position after learning of my intent to separate. So my original plan to go to school full time is still in the works, however now I don't have to worry so much about feeding my wife and daughter. I've also got a Air Force Reserve slot lined up, mostly just for the tricare and base benefits, can't afford that obamacare garbage.
I've been back and forth between WGU and CSU - Global since they are both highly recommended and accredited online programs. Plenty of information on these forums to help me choose. I've decided on CSU - Global since WGU is most beneficial to those who have previous knowledge and experience in IT and can knockout CUs quickly. CSU - Global also pre evaluated me at 60 transfer credits from my CCAF which is great. Not sure what specialization I'm going to do but the core curriculum looks pretty solid.
Can't talk too much about my new job due to sensitive information but it's not really IT heavy. I work on a system that provides "enhanced situational awareness and threat detection" and there is some networking involved. They are now requiring us to get our A+ cert and eventually the remaining CompTIA certs so i'll have time to study until the company hands out vouchers for the tests. I think i'll try to stay with SRC as long as I can while my daughter goes to school and acquire as many degrees and certs to make myself more marketable for the future.
If you have any questions regarding the Air Force or Scientific Research Corporation, feel free to ask! I hope to be a valuable member of these forums someday but for now I think I will sit back and absorb! Hope to talk to you all! Thanks for reading the novel!
New to the forum and wanted to share a little about who I am and what my intentions are as I separate from 8 years of active duty in the Air Force. Hopefully get some reassurance that I'm making the right choice haha. I'm currently 27 years old, raised on the island of Oahu in Hawaii and my first experience with IT was in an A+ class I took my senior year of high school trying to kill some time. I loved it! I was proud that I could dismantle and reassemble a computer in less than 12 minutes...which doesn't seem as impressive these days. I joined the military at 19 and my first duty station was this exotic location called Nebraska. Corn for as far as the eye can see and blizzards that make your nose hairs freeze when you breathe. 5 years later, I find myself here at Hurlburt Field in the AFSOC world which has been a great experience. I've been to a lot of cool places and met some true American heroes along the way. Time has flown by and I've made the decision to walk away from active duty to spend more time at home with my family.
This forum has provided a lot of great information and I'm hoping to absorb as much advice as I can while pursuing a career an degree in IT. I start terminal leave 3 Aug and will be starting my new career as a Technician for Scientific Research Corporation 17 Aug. I've actually worked side by side with SRC for the past two years here at Hurlburt Field and I guess they took notice of my work ethic and offered me the position after learning of my intent to separate. So my original plan to go to school full time is still in the works, however now I don't have to worry so much about feeding my wife and daughter. I've also got a Air Force Reserve slot lined up, mostly just for the tricare and base benefits, can't afford that obamacare garbage.
I've been back and forth between WGU and CSU - Global since they are both highly recommended and accredited online programs. Plenty of information on these forums to help me choose. I've decided on CSU - Global since WGU is most beneficial to those who have previous knowledge and experience in IT and can knockout CUs quickly. CSU - Global also pre evaluated me at 60 transfer credits from my CCAF which is great. Not sure what specialization I'm going to do but the core curriculum looks pretty solid.
Can't talk too much about my new job due to sensitive information but it's not really IT heavy. I work on a system that provides "enhanced situational awareness and threat detection" and there is some networking involved. They are now requiring us to get our A+ cert and eventually the remaining CompTIA certs so i'll have time to study until the company hands out vouchers for the tests. I think i'll try to stay with SRC as long as I can while my daughter goes to school and acquire as many degrees and certs to make myself more marketable for the future.
If you have any questions regarding the Air Force or Scientific Research Corporation, feel free to ask! I hope to be a valuable member of these forums someday but for now I think I will sit back and absorb! Hope to talk to you all! Thanks for reading the novel!
Comments
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Codyy
Member Posts: 223 ■■■□□□□□□□
Welcome to the forum, tons of knowledge here, I know I've learned a ton here over the years. My story is fairly similar, active duty Army starting terminal leave in early Oct after 5.5 years. I currently attend WGU and have completed/transfered 102 credits in what seems like no time, had I put forth extra effort I would likely be finished by now. I just found out about CSU - Global and it sounds awesome. I'm almost tempted to request a credit evaluation jjust for the heck of it(I love WGU but I'm somewhat concerned about their long term reputation). Did they make you enroll before doing the evaluation? Good luck in the future and definitely stick around.
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ScissorMeTimbers
Registered Users Posts: 4 ■□□□□□□□□□
Thanks for you service brother! How long did it take you to complete those 102 credits? I didn't have to enroll to get the credit eval done, just told them the degree and had unofficial transcripts sent over and they got back to me the next day. It was initially 48 credits but with my CLEPs (which took the longest for them to receive) it jumped up to 60. They take up to 60 credit hours for a AA and 90 credits total for transfer. Might be worth checking out or just press on with WGU, sounds like you are doing a great job there.
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wtrwlkr
Member Posts: 138 ■■■□□□□□□□
Welcome, Scissor!
It's a really small world. I was in the Air Force for about 11 years. The job I had before this one was as a contractor network administrator down at Hurlburt. I plan on going WGU as soon as I get back from my current gig in afghanistan. Thanks for your service and welcome again! -
ScissorMeTimbers
Registered Users Posts: 4 ■□□□□□□□□□
Update! I have enrolled and registered for my first two classes with Colorado State University - Global Campus's Bachelor of Science in Information Technology to start 28 Sept 2015. CSU-Global's pre-evaluated my CCAF (which included three classes from AMU & two CLEPs) at 60 credits, apparently they must have missed something because my official evaluation gave me 77 transfer credits!!! I nearly fell out of my chair when I received my official degree plan. My projected graduation is October 2016, I need to complete 43 credits (30 major credits and 13 gen eds). If anyone has any questions regarding the enrollment process for CSU-Global, feel free to ask.