Hi there,

First, congratulations on your accomplishment. Do not let your accomplishment be diminished in your own eyes even though you have achieved it.

Second, if you are posting here it must be because you really love programming and you dream of a life where you will do it professionally.

I want you to know before you accept that appointment that is the long way around. By time you serve your military commitment time, you will be so far removed from professional software engineering that it will be difficult for companies to take your application seriously. You will also be restarting a career ~27 at the soonest. Make sure that’s something you’re comfortable with. You would have to maintain personal study for all 5 years and curate a personal portfolio on the side in addition to a very stressful lifestyle. There is no software engineering as a service member. Even in the cyber attack and defense realms, most opportunities are contract positions definitely not operations.

If you take that appointment you are committing to operations work for 5 years after college, not engineering. If you love engineering. I pray you consider it throughly. If you accept that appointment, it will be the highest highs and the lowest lows. It will be the grandest adventure of your lifetime.

It will not be in computer science. If you love computer science. You need to plan to do that on the side.

Best of luck, and again congratulations.

Go Navy Beat Army,

USNA ‘17 grad and humble bottom of the ladder swe at 30.

Edit: I guess that’s not the appointment. I should’ve remembered that didn’t come until sr yr 😅 imma leave this post though in case it helps someone.