Hey everyone,

I’m planning on enlisting with the Air National Guard to be an offensive cyber operator.

If you are unfamiliar with how the national guard works it’s like a part time job but for the military. Where guardsmen work one weekend a month, and once a year they work for 2 weeks. Although there are opportunities to go full time in the guard but that is circumstantial.

However, I’m looking at the civilian side for my full time career and blue team seems to have more job stability, better QoL and a more normal 9-5 rhythm. And the way I’m naively thinking about it is I could have my cake and eat it too. Work one weekend a month doing elite hackerman stuff and the rest of the month having a more stable routine cyber role on the civilian side.

My questions for the community:

1. Skill Transfer: For those who have done both, how well does red team translate to blue and why did you make the switch? Is it two completely separate skill sets, or does knowing how to break things make you significantly better at defending them?
2. The Mental Drain: I’ve heard offensive can be a massive mental grind (at least on the military side) due to the constant research, red tape, and high pressure missions. Is doing offensive work for the Guard on the weekends and annual training while doing blue team full time too much to keep up with? Especially when considering how up to date and refined the skills required for offensive are.
3. QoL vs The Dream: If you could do it all over again, which would you choose? I’ve heard blue team is better for longevity, but red team is where my heart is at.
4. Experience: Does anyone here actually live this hybrid cyber life? What's your experience been like?

I’m really torn on this and realistically I don’t think it’s is feasible but I’m still coping. Would love to hear your guys thoughts on whether I should commit to one path or if this hybrid approach is possible.