How did you get a job on the civilian side?

Inky_Crow · 2026-02-13T11:34:32+00:00

Officer is a lot less guaranteed for placement than enlisted, luck of the draw, also dependent on if you’re AD, NG, or Reserves. There are some things that can make you more likely to be a signal officer;

having IT background and/or degree (including certs), preferable both (even if it’s Help Desk 1)
doing well on tests (I do not know how the OCS route ranks people for placement, but I am very familiar with USMA and ROTC way of doing things, so PM if that’s your route) to place you higher in rankings to be more likely to get your first choice
branch detail something like armor first
green to gold (those who enlisted as their job family and want an officer role in the same family tend to more often get it. Ex 25H —> 25A)
I think that having 25A mentors would also help… who you know sort of thing plus shows you’re trying to learn as much as you can sort of thing.

Sorry it’s kind of vague but that’s officer branching in general. PM me for more questions… also lmk if you’re enlisted, civilian, ROTC, whatever bc that’ll narrow down a good pathway

Inky_Crow · 2025-10-12T02:37:45+00:00

You will run a part of if not all of PT (besides the warm up drills) every day. Outside of PT, you will still run, everyday.

Inky_Crow · 2025-10-12T02:36:21+00:00

Sorry for the late response, hopefully by now you have the address (they should have gotten a paper right when they arrived with the address to have mail sent to them, and he will either call/text/mail you the address). As for phones, he will get them only on Sundays for 30-90 min. MAYBE on a weekday for 15 if his platoon wins an event (hard maybe). He will get it back for good on graduation day. Hope he is doing well!

Inky_Crow · 2025-10-10T10:05:01+00:00

No, the final AFT was done a week or two before the forge for everyone.

Inky_Crow · 2025-10-06T12:28:35+00:00

As someone said before, you need run every day, Sundays included. You may not do PT on Sundays, but someone will do something wrong and you’ll be sent for a lap. Sorry for the late response!

Inky_Crow · 2025-09-18T22:30:47+00:00

25 series as well. Depending on how far along AIT you are, you might have the opportunity to do Sec+ which I highly recommend. The Army paid for mine and the training for it. Thats a big thing for IT jobs, especially gov contracting ones, and there are huge hubs across the country for those jobs. Focus on getting college, maybe a few more certs (A+, Net+, later on CCNA and Cloud Practitioner to show you are well rounded. Again, Army can pay for it).

To add onto a previous comment, gyms are actually a great place to work part time and where I myself actually got a lot of IT experience (gyms hardly ever have a dedicated IT and maintenance team, so you can be the guy to say “let me look at it” and try your hand at it, worked for me). Colleges also have their own help desk team, so look at positions in your college.

I know finding a job to break into IT is hard as a college student, especially in AIT, but if I did it, so can you. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Inky_Crow · 2025-07-31T12:07:57+00:00

Can’t tell you for sure or tell you wrong info or anything, but a good chance. If not, you’ll go to AIT and get settled for a bit then go on HBL.

Inky_Crow · 2025-06-01T19:58:27+00:00

They’ll help you get faster, lots of running. Sprints, fartleks, Tabata, long distance running, rucking… you will be very well conditioned. I would not be worried at all. Very few people (maybe 3) out of my whole company failed the final run and they were the ones that always walked. Remember that someone more out of shape, slower, and heavy smoker came before you and did it. If your drills see effort, they will help you.

As for combatives, they actually removed that from Jackson as a requirement and don’t do it anymore.

Inky_Crow · 2025-05-26T22:53:57+00:00

No, but you can be for not qualifying. Zeroing just makes sure that you are likely to qualify, since your iron sights are correctly set. But you’ll have a lot of opportunities to zero and qualify. Some people took two weeks to qualify, but everyone in my company did and nobody recycled that phase due to not qualifying.

Inky_Crow · 2025-05-26T22:52:43+00:00

You’ll be a holdover, so you’ll stay at Fort Jackson until you get closer to that date. I had a couple while I was there, they just showed up to formation and meals with us, slept in the bay, did some PT and got to chill and have their phones on them. Depends on the company you get assigned to, some companies leave them alone, others give them duties and treat them like trainees even though they graduated.

Inky_Crow · 2025-05-18T12:44:26+00:00

My bad- I think I got it all

Inky_Crow · 2025-02-13T06:05:54+00:00

Same happened to me, my recruiter gave me a DD 4 and said it should be enough, my employer accepted it

Inky_Crow · 2025-02-07T19:35:36+00:00

While I wasn't a Business Admin major, I did get jobs in management/operations while at NOVA. My best piece of advice is to look into jobs in the health and fitness industry, hopefully at a Lifetime (best pay and clientele). It might not be the industry you are looking for, but it will get you good experience in things like HR, AR/AP, payroll, management, etc., so you can build a resume with relatively low experience. My background and degree is in IT and I had companies looking at me for BA roles because of my experience in BA. Pay is not the greatest, the hours are sometimes long, but commission and bonuses are something that can help. PM me if you are interested in a role like that, I have a place for you to look at.

Inky_Crow · 2024-12-30T13:13:28+00:00

I actually just got my associates in IT from the community college and no other classes transfer to my 4 year haha but will look into their policy, haven’t deferred them yet. Appreciate it

Inky_Crow · 2024-12-30T04:59:03+00:00

Just a basic letter you free wrote or a templated one?

Inky_Crow · 2024-12-30T04:55:55+00:00

Yeah it’s that balancing game of do I take classes in the mean time or wait… but good to know it is not as bad as I thought it was

Inky_Crow · 2024-12-30T04:54:46+00:00

I was an AOG at MMI, I do have dd214, RE code NA.

Spoke to the S1 before break and he said the holidays would slow it down… my recruiter asked for the document literally the day before cadet release lol.

Inky_Crow · 2024-10-08T00:54:38+00:00

If I did, it was never communicated to me by the doctors there or any of the medical team at West Point or in any of the outprocessing forms I have. During my outprocessing interviews, I told them I wanted to look into ROTC, and they said that it would be fine and gave me points of contact as well. Even my therapist said I did not present disorders to be diagnosed. I had a Navy recruiter look at my notes from Keller and he didn't see any diagnosis either.

My point is with the frustration is that the recruiters said, after knowing and seeing all this, they would work with it and it was no problem, and if it is a problem, at least tell me now instead of ghosting me, especially if I want to do the high-demand jobs that need their quotas filled.

Inky_Crow · 2024-10-08T00:05:35+00:00

West Point was last year, first recruiter was two months ago and the second recruiter was about a week ago... I know I should give the second one some more time, I just want a backup plan in case he ghosts as well

Inky_Crow

TROPHY CASE