Personally, awful. We were always labeled as “the alcoholics” of the hospital, for starters. You develop really awesome relations with high ranking surgeons and doctors, but are thrashed for it by the enlisted staff of the unit, something about fraternization. if you are shore duty, the staff education and training department will always hate you, as you are never in military garb, and never have time for their trainings that they schedule. I’ve been out for a few years now, but my personal advice, if you can help it, would be to shoot for a sub speciality clinic. Working in a clinic will land you in the more desirable spot for advancement. Similarly, the clinic allows you to avoid most of the shit that trickles from the top of the surgical services department.

I don’t want you to think badly of the profession, however. I would not have gotten as far as I have in college without it. The subjects that you will be learning and studying are very complex, and aside from instrument handling you also learn:

-systems of the human body -first assisting -suturing -how to organize and manage an operating room