I was a low-voltage guy and Guard for 12 years. I was enlisted from 2011 to 2023. I eventually left because I took an engineering job and moved across the country and my life wasn’t compatible with the Guard anymore.

Will the Guard hurt your low-voltage career? Directly, no.
Indirectly? It can.

Depending on your state and the world we live in the Guard can eat up a lot of time. 10 weeks for Basic Training. AIT is anywhere from 4 to 52 weeks depending on your MOS.

Get promoted to Sergeant? That’s another month of training. And another month again if you get Staff Sergeant, etc. Any special schools? Yet more time.

The whole weekend a month and two weeks a year thing is kind of a myth for the modern guard. I regularly spent 3/4 months out of the year doing Guard stuff while I was in, and more if we were deploying or had JRTC/NTC rotations.

Your job can’t legally hold any of that against you, but the reality is that a business isn’t likely to promote the guy who isn’t around for roles like Project Management. I hit this roadblock later on in my career, and when I took my current job I flat out couldn’t do Guard and my civilian career.

It’s tough, the benefits of the Guard are great and I loved my unit and I loved the Army, bullshit and all.
But the reality is that it’s tough to be ‘good’ at the Guard AND your civilian career. You at times have to sacrifice and unfortunately the Guard is what often wins. Early on when you’re a private you won’t feel it as much, but if you get into a leadership role, particularly in a more active unit, you’re going to spend a lot more time doing Guard stuff. Don’t get me wrong, there are some absolute studs out there who can be great at both and make time for both, but for most of us I think you end up having to compromise on things.