When someone says they want to join the military, the default assumptions are that someone will be a pilot, sailor or ground pounder. However, the military offers career training and jobs in a wide variety of positions. For example, around one in ten doctors and dentists earn their degree while in the military or as part of the G.I. Bill. Here are three careers in the military you’ve probably never considered.
Biomedical Engineering
Engineers in the military have long worked at building roads, bridges, ditches, and other support infrastructure for the military. They often do so in the civilian world for a variety of reasons, which is why you may find flood control structures managed by the Army Corp of Engineers. A cutting-edge area in engineering that the military is actively supporting is biomedical engineering.
If you’re earning an online master of engineering in biomedical engineering, you’ll be able to work on the fast wound-sealing tech the military has been developing for years. Or you may be asked to aid in the design of artificial limbs for service members who lost them. An online MEBME program allows you to continue your education, even as you’re transferred between bases. You may end up working at the VA or other facilities, continuing to design artificial limbs, support structures for the paralyzed, or artificial organs.
Social Media Monitor
This may seem hard to believe, but you can be paid in the military to read people’s Tweets and social media posts. This job may entail checking social media accounts of military members for classified data postings; this can range from pictures of cool tech they work with that happens to be Top Secret to divulging the location of their unit, which is a violation of operational security rules. Social media monitors also search social media for information posted by terrorists, whether trying to recruit people in the US or chattering among themselves when planning events.
Business Manager
Business and the military are not contradictory. Many bases have commissaries, grocery stores at the least and big box stores at best. You’ll even find them running the vending machines, rental booths, and small shops on large Naval ships. Business managers may be working in Guam, aircraft carriers, or bases in the middle of nowhere, managing the stores that service members shop at.
Conclusion
The military has tons of positions in many sectors, which people often overlook. You can become a biomedical engineer through the military and develop the life-saving first responder treatments that will show up in ambulances in a few years. If you ever wanted to learn how to run a store or megastore, business managers in the military get to do exactly that and in very diverse locations. And you could be paid to surf social media to find people inadvertently or deliberately leaking sensitive information as well as those planning to harm U.S. interests and citizens. So if joining the army doesn’t appeal, look at other career opportunities.