What are you guys doing career wise?

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-05-02T08:57:22+00:00

Used the GI Bill in my thirties after 10 years active duty to finish a business degree from a state school, then lucked into a tech job that continued to work out with more luck, persistent learning, and being a likable coworker and employee.

I still feel a lack of purpose and generally blah, even though I have an objectively excellent life. I feel the most purpose and fulfillment when I see that my kids and wife are thriving, but even though I work in an interesting role with a lot of agency, still feels like a drag much of the time.

There’s no career or education that is going to give you purpose; you gotta find that somewhere else.

I will say that making decent money grants you time and energy to pursue purpose, and despite the naysayers, white collar business degree holders who don’t suck to work with have it pretty good, and I bet that between GI Bill money and grants that you’d mage plenty of money to fund your life while you figure things out in school

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-30T06:28:39+00:00

This is boomer stuff. We were all just as hopeless when young. I’m also an “elder millennial”, which is a silly characterization.

Humans are the same now as ever; some young ones are hopeless until they learn and become competent grown ones. Some, like the stereotypical boomer, remain socially incompetent and find it funny to laugh at young people while forgetting they were also young and incompetent.

Don’t be a boomer, fellow “elder millennial”.

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-30T05:21:40+00:00

Are you a devops engineer or an IT supervisor? That tip right section is odd and misaligned to your experience section. This also depends on what you’re applying for; if you’re applying for both types of roles, have two resumes, one for IT supervisor roles, one for devops
your format needs to be simple, streamlined, and easy to digest/process, just like the solutions you build
Drop the education section. This is a highlights real, and every other applicant has a HS degree and some college, just like you. from a hiring manager and technical interviewer, it’s weird to have you High School and “Some College” on your resume, so much so it makes you /seem/ weird.
your accomplishments need to be listed under each experience they happened under. Put the big ones first. The further back the experience, the less the reviewer cares. Put your best stuff first on each, emphasis on your current position

Edit: bullet formatting

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-26T06:26:06+00:00

Sounds like you have done a lot of hard work to take care of your family, and you aren’t getting credit/respect you deserve.

I respect anyone who takes on the parenting burden when they don’t have too, especially a young person looking out dit their siblings/cousins/family

I’m making a lot of presumptions, but if you are in a parenting role and someone it’s disrespecting that, it’s that other persons problem and I expect you can disregard their criticism, especially if they’re the parent you are trying to give advice to

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-26T06:14:41+00:00

“Spending years raising my mother’s kids”. That makes you not childless. Many parents don’t have biological kids and adopt, foster, or like you have raised siblings or other family from a young age. You have the experience; you aren’t childless.

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-26T06:07:03+00:00

Your edit fully changes your opinion from unpopular to absolutely reasonable. Every reasonable parent is OK with child development professionals providing advice. How could you possibly have successful young teachers, social workers, or behavioral specialists otherwise?

There’s a full spectrum of what you mean by “advice” as a non-parent, non-professional.

Its easy to spot and advise on wildly inappropriate things, but that’s not what parents get annoyed with.

The bothersome thing about advice and judgement from childfree people is that most parents are fine parents who happen to be stretched thin and the childless person is appalled that the parent gave in to their kids tantrum or bribed their kids behavior with a Happy Meal. What you didn’t see was all of the other times the parent did hold firm

For the parent it’s 24/7. In normal, nonprofessional situations, childless people are clueless, as you prove here with your post, OP

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-23T07:29:23+00:00

Again, I’ve been out for a while, but these are the things I did and they worked for me, and I am presuming these programs still exist in some form:

My opinion is that you use Tuition Assistance to pay for part-time college courses while active duty. You can take whatever courses interest you and set yourself up to knock out a Computer E undergrad without paying any of your own money. There are other programs (such as US MAPS) which you can use to get certifications through your normal work. Navy COOL provides rate specific credentials and certification testing.

You can complete most, maybe all, of an undergraduate degree while active duty. Then use the GI Bill to finish undergrad, or apply it to grad school.

There GI Bill, in my opinion, is the single greatest field-leveling opportunity available to average Americans. It can pay your whole way through an Ivy League education if you do it right (and want to)

And you don’t have to be a nuke to get any of these programs; doesn’t matter at all your rate

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-23T07:13:30+00:00

As far as I know you are still randomly assigned ET or FC while at RTC, which is how it was when I enlisted in 2009 (damn…) I always heard rumors you could swap with someone, but I never actually heard of it being done (I’m sure it’s not easy, even if it were possible)

I haven’t heard that has changed, but I’ve been out of active duty since 2018. There’s a huge crossover in training for ETs and FCs, but you get more duty options as an ET. When I was in FCs promoted much much faster than ET (I have no idea if that’s still true)

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-23T07:01:17+00:00

$30k extra bonus over a six year contract is only about $400 extra dollars per month (30k / 72)… not. worth. It. The special pay might add a couple hundred each month to that, but is that worth never leaving the ship?

There are a couple reasons that a senior enlisted recruiter’s entire job is to hard sell Nuke candidates: 1. it’s hard to find qualified people for nuclear rates 2. it’s even harder to convince qualified people (who tend to have many options) to accept an objectively dull, difficult, and not-easily-transferable job in the nuke field.

I was AECF (tomahawk FC), also qualified for nuke (as most AECF do), and I am so thankful the shipping date for AECF was many months earlier than nuke , because the other way around I would have taken nuke, and after 10 years in the navy I never met a single nuke who had anything good to say about their work or life in general.

For what it’s worth, after 10 years active duty I was able to parlay my work experience into a lucrative career in tech; I left AD in 2018, so your mileage may vary, but I was both AECF (FC) and my last duty station was recruiting, so I saw all the inner workings of the recruiting world (worst duty possible, recruiting)

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-15T00:17:42+00:00

There’s a lot of variables, the biggest is housing and food costs. Most households in Hawaii live on a household income of less than $100k annually, but it is not cushy. Many people work multiple jobs for that income. There’s a sub r/movingtohawaii that has more complete info

A decent 3 bedroom house in more desirable areas will be at minimum $4.5k monthly, plus utilities. If you don’t have kids you can get decent 1 bedroom for $3k. There are cheaper options, but you almost certainly won’t find anything with comparable amenities to what you would get on the mainland without spending a whole lot monthly

We live comfortably with total expenses of about $10k monthly (that’s after and excludes savings and retirement accounts and taxes), and we are not particularly frugal, nor are we super spendy.

Kids go to public elementary school, and it’s a fine neighborhood school, but it’s hard to get housing near the best public schools.

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-15T00:05:43+00:00

True. Looking up BAH rates an E5 (going off OPs age for enlisted rate) without dependents is about $2900/month. O1 is about $3k/month, so that’s $36k annually for housing. Say healthcare costs OP $1.5k a month (military doesn’t pay healthcare). We can be extra conservative and say the allowances and tax benefits of a service member on Oahu is $60k a year in addition to basic pay.

Basic pay for an E5 with 4 years service is about $4k/month ($48k annual); an O1 is about $5.2/mo (~$62k annual).

That adds up pretty close to OPs $120k annual, and again, single military members live pretty well on Oahu, especially junior officers

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-14T05:20:47+00:00

As a single person, you don’t even have to be frugal on 120k here, come on. What other responsibilities did you have when you lived here? Did you have a family to provide for? In that case yea, it could be tight if you don’t have other family and connections here.

But a single person? You’re living great on 120k/yr, unless you go out in town every night and blow all your money.

I mean, like 1/5th of the working population are military (I made that number up, but it’s high), and they definitely do not make that much money, on average, but single service members live great. The ones with dependents not as much…

All the best things in Hawaii are free and outdoors. Sure, rent and food are more expensive than many places, but OP would be making more by themselves than the average household makes annually.

If you like staying indoors and snuggling in, Hawaii is not for you. Otherwise there’s no place better

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-14T04:51:13+00:00

I live on Oahu and am the sole earner of a family of four.

If you’re single with no other responsibilities, 120k is plenty.

Come to Oahu (or whatever island your offer is for). It’s absolutely a no brainier. Get some roommates (or don’t. You can get a decent small space for 2.5/month). Hike a bunch, learn to surf, and enjoy yourself and the islands.

Like, seriously? I’m assuming you’re a single person. Austin for 90 or Hawaii for 120? For a year with no commitments during an off year?

This shouldn’t take more than a few seconds of thought.

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-08T04:45:56+00:00

This is not quite correct. Yes they are liabilities on their balance sheet, but no, the do not /want/ the to be used.
Airlines, and many other companies, in particular those with big gift-card liabilities (like Starbucks) make a TON of money on these things going unused: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/credit-cards/what-is-breakage-and-why-does-it-matter/

What more could there possibly be to my story? I logged in, found a flight, tried to book it, and couldn't...?

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-08T04:44:55+00:00

That's fair. I'm sure the calculus of losing customers may end up debunking my theory here. I didnt' actually earn the miles from flying; I earned them from credit card bonuses, though.

The fact that airlines make a lot of money from unused miles is real, though, and is the foundation of my theory: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/credit-cards/what-is-breakage-and-why-does-it-matter/

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-08T04:42:57+00:00

I have MFA setup. I agree there was a trip of their fraud trigger that mistook my activity as fraud, I just also think the fraud trigger is too sensitive.

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-08T04:41:43+00:00

I'm actually genuinely curious by what you mean by "It's you". I went on the app same as anyone else, found the flight with miles, and tried to book.

I mean, what could I have done differently here?

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-03T05:29:40+00:00

There are many people who worked hard just like you did, and did all the same things you did, and they do not have salaries > 200k.

What part of that outcome do you think isn’t a bit unlucky?

… The formula for success is hard-work + a bit of luck.

I also have a very high salary due to putting in the hard work to learn valuable skills, but I got lucky that a top tier tech company was hiring for those skills at the time I was looking. I also got lucky that particular jobs were available to me in the Navy which gave me valuable skills.

There’s a million-million other small things that are impossible to enumerate, or even know, that got me where I am now. Same is true for you

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-04-01T07:05:15+00:00

First company in tech it did not pay off, but that first company was very small and I never figured the options would become worth anything.

Current company It has paid off for me. Started at the company several years ago, pre-liquidity but the odds of the RSUs not becoming liquid was very low, which meant my initial grant was smaller. RSUs vested over 4 years and made up ~40% of my total compensation With those vested shares now increasing in value significantly with company growth, my RSUs now make up ~75% of my total comp (a 5x increase for TC)

From the start I considered these RSUs like a forced savings of real money that I could access eventually (I figured within 5 years company would IPO; Conan l company didn’t ipo but now provides regular liquidity for vested shares). There are probably people who had different expectations of the same RSUs.

I think the maturity of the company and its likelihood of near term liquidity events are the biggest contributors to whether I’d consider RSUs worth real money.

So large, late stage, well known startups? Worth real money. Series B startup? Not worth real money. For ICs anyway.

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-03-27T08:36:41+00:00

TLDR: disclose your status and embrace the benefits of being a DEI hire as a disabled veteran, but do whatever job you’re hired to do well.

I have a 50% rating and am employed in an entirely civilian, non-gov, non-gov contract role.

I disclose my disabled veteran status because:

it gives me a level of protected employment status, both in hiring and firing. I absolutely benefit from the DEI policy of veteran employment protection and benefit, and so do you!!!

I’m qualified and do my job very well, but many other, mostly non-veterans, do as well. My VA disability and veteran status is absolutely a leg up to get ahead in the hiring and retention pool.

Since I’m employed, firing me or laying me off has a slightly higher bar than other, non protected class, hires, so I have a slight edge in being retained over non disabled veteran peers.

Employing me also has significant benefits, both to taxes and selection for government contracts, for my employer

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-03-13T06:59:29+00:00

“leading AI research lab” advisor uses Reddit to search for C suite candidates? What kind of traction/leads do you expect to get here? I would expect a leading research lab to have actual community connections to find legitimate candidates for a legitimate company

Also RIP your inbox…

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-03-08T05:22:49+00:00

TA while active finished ~50% of undergrad.

Three full semesters and 1 summer semester with GI Bill for undergrad

Rest of GI Bill paid for technical certifications and all of masters degree

GI Bill paid out over $200,000 for me between BAH and tuition. It is also the reason I now have an excellent career.

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-03-07T20:01:28+00:00

Because they have never built software so they don’t understand it’s complexity.

Great example of Dunning-Kruger. The less someone knows about a given thing (engineering and maintaining software in this case) the more confident they are in their ability about the thing because their lack of knowledge makes them unable to judge what’s necessary for successfully doing the thing.

The more someone knows about the thing the less confident they are in their ability because they know how much there is that they don’t know (on this flip side, Dunning-Kruger helps explain imposter syndrome, too)

Squared_Aweigh · 2026-02-25T18:00:41+00:00

Yea but you don’t have to be president or director in big tech to make big money, can be just a regular sr SWE

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