What degree? What do you like doing? (Mechanical? Structural? Thermo and fluids? Power plant ops or simple mechanical component design?
What jobs did you do before now (work or school or whatever) and what did enjoy doing (during summer school or in previous jobs?
My answers (on which service and what fields in what service) will depend on what your answers are. 8<) I've known (family members) engineers in the USAF in aircraft maintenance and repair, USAF computers/radars/air plane planning, flight control/weather control, USN reactor operations, USN ship construction and conversion and repair, Army missile design and testing, USN field and base construction and design as SeaBee engineers - NOT the "Army destruction and blow-up" jobs mentioned above! .... Also regular USN engineers working as ship officers running gas turbine maintenance and operation, nuclear operations, and electronics and ship maintenance.
For my brother - who signed in after his BS degree, Officer Candidate school was 90 days, then you have a 4-5 year commitment to serve. For me, I had a 4-year scholarship then 1 year nuclear power school, then a 6 year service - but I added 5 more years running shipyard nuclear repairs. My college roommate took a 4 year BSCE then ran construction projects for the Navy for 5 years. My younger brother never flew with the USAF after his commision, but ran computer and electronics projects worldwide for 20 years, then "retired" at age 43. Etc.
A couple stories about military & engineers for context.
Eons ago a group of us university engineering students (members of student chapter of AIAA...airplane geeks) arranged a road trip to Eglin AFB in Ft. Walton Beach FL. USAF recruiters showed up in two USAF vans for the trip. We climbed in and were pleasantly surprised to find there was a half-55 gallon drum full of ice & beer in each. The USAF officers drove us while we got tanked. We were housed for the weekend in nice quarters, had access to the officer's club (more free beer), and got a tour of the facilities. At the time Eglin was the laboratory site for testing all non-nuclear weapons the USAF had. Stinking cool stuff to a wide-eyed student. When I asked about joing the USAF to fly jets, the General in charge of us (he had used the AF to fund his Ph.D.) replied "If you joined the Air Force, we'd want you to be engineers, not pilots."
Also looked into the Navy for their Nuclear Engineer program. Those sailors were frothing at the mouth for new engineers and willing to pay handsomely for them.
Later I attended an ASME meeting and listened to a presentation by an Army Engineer. This young woman was shipped to Antartica. She related the story that when she arrived, her duty assignment was to build a quay or wharf for docking cargo ships in the ice. She stated that she had no experience with this. The Commander's reply was something like "Well, you're the engineer...figure it out."
Personally, after all these years, I wonder if I should have joined the USAF or USN. The 20+ years in the service required for full pension (also would have been in non-combat roles) would have slipped by without notice.
TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering
Yes! You are "real" engineer. Since you're a PE already (which is a requirement for promotion in the CEC) and since you have a CE degree already, you only need attend the 90 days Officer Candidate school in Newport RI. (Kind of like a "boot camp" for newbie officers, they need to see if you can take orders before you're commissioned and required (and trusted) to give orders. My older brother went through OCS in 77, then was a Navy nuclear engineer, then sub officer, now is at the South Texas nuclear plant running new construction there.)
"ok thanks, i'll look into OCS."
42-90 days, tough school(or it use to be) Learn to run adn do puch-ups
do you think i will qualify even if my experience are all in Oil and Gas?" Most of the Navy and all the Army runs on Oil adn Gas.
"Do they have "technical" exam?" no really but if the did you would pass it with your PE.
have allready passed it -see below
"I do have a PE license, will it help?" -it will help a lot.
Check the pay-it may be more than you think.
You will learn Leadership, you won't be one on the wimpy bosses people complain abbout on variou groups on eng-tips.
AND if you do choose to pursue these options, you generally have the option after your service to find a civilian contractor job doing pretty much whatever it was you were doing.
TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering
I know that when I was hiring Engineers, I always looked a lot more favorably on Vets than non-Vets. It could just be because I'm a Vet myself, but I know a lot of folks that have found ex-military folks to be a lot more mature, reliable, and flexible than people who only know school and offices.
There are slugs in both groups, but the Vet population seems to have a somewhat smaller community of slugs (maybe the worst of them got shot by "friendly fire"? It doesn't pay to be incompetent in leading people with guns).
No, that's only partially correct (in some cases) but completely incorrect for this particular case: The OP is specifically concerned about USN Engineering jobs - and in particular seems to be interested in the Civil Engineering Corp (CEC) side. (Army may be similar - don't know and so won't comment.) (My Navy years were Navy Nuclear (reactor operations and construction and testing) , then Engineering Duty Officer (shipyard submarine construction, repair, and conversion. He could apply for that as well, but as a CE, ships and reactor power plants probably aren't his interest, since he's already earned a PE in civil.)
But - both of these professionally-oriented "real engineering" communities have a COMMON entry point via the 90 days OCS training for "already graduated" engineers. OCS is ALSO an entry point for Navy Reactor operational submarine officers though a different program. And most of those officer candidates are engineers.
BUT ... as you point out correctly, OCS is ALSO used by other parts of the Navy for "already graduated" people who are NOT selected for any specific engineering jobs. (Though these other people may also be engineers, they probably are not.) These men and women will also be commissioned, also get promoted, also go to schools, and many do very well. But they will NOT be "engineers" working professionally. They'll just be regular officers doing regular officer stuff.
Become an officer. You have to have your college degree, but trust me, life is some much better for officers then enlisted. More respect, better pay, better woman, better chow. Basically better everything.
I spent 4 years in the Navy. I enjoyed it, but if I where to do it over again it would be as an officer.
When I was about 51 (years old), I got a very nice recuiting letter from a "Major" asking if I would like to join the Army in an Engineering capacity. Just for grins - I called her back.
I explained that I was 51 and really didn't think the Army wanted or needed me. She said "On the contrary - lets talk" and so we did.
They needed sanitation engineers (presumably to build outhouses in Iraq). Told her I was a structural and she explained that the Army would be happy to train me. Nothing against any of you who specialize in that area - but frankly - I hated the one and ONLY one college course I had to take in that area - and just passed.
What about my age?? She asked if I had any military experience. Only had some Air Force ROTC at the end of the Viet Nam war in an attempt to stay in college and join up later with a degree so I could go fly. After the war was over - they made it clear that they had about 30,000 pilots they didn't need and I was gone.
But she explained that if I had 6 years of military (in any service) they would add that to the magical number of 45 - come up with 51 and I would be eleigible for re-instatment. I missed it by that much. We left on good terms. I guess they REALLY needed Sanitation Engineers!!!
