ARmy Rumour SErvice

**smallbrownprivates** · 19-04-2006, 21:40

Originally Posted by mbwest

How far ahead does a degree put you?
1. If I start the Army 3 years before a grad will he actually catch me up? Some people are also saying to just do the degree for the sake of it, but the way I see it is:
2. life is short, why would I spend 3 years doing a degree when it is irrelevant and more or less useless.
3. Just to get quicker promotion and better starting pay? But if I start 3 years earlier that’s 3 years (of low) wages instead of 3 years debt and 3 years seniority(and a higher pay scale)
4. and learning over any new officer!?

My bold and numbering:
1. yes he will catch you up. The cadetship ocdt on the piss from uni during your first summer will put up his third pip before you, and be paid better (may be different now with the experience based promotion)

2. because when your army career is also short, trying to get over any hr hurdles in any civvy job without a degree will show you how little your "man management" skills and experience really count to the tw8ts who decide who gets an initial interview.

3. and what wrong with that?

4. dispel the myth of the nobleness of the non grad. after your first 5 years of good fun at Pl Comd, as the crap jobs mount up, you will take pride in your professionalism as that is all you will have left.

if the deluge of crap jobs don't kiln fire your bitter and twisted not officially educated non grad soul, seeing the meteoric rise of those who have served less than you might do it.

ooops just shown my education level

**Ambrose_Silk** · 24-04-2006, 16:22

I could not agree more with SBP (smallbrownprivates). Well articulated and dissected! The question of whether to go or not to university is fundamentally a non-issue. Go! My only addition to what has already been said is that you should think less in terms of sheer qualifications and pieces of paper and more in terms of an investment that will last you a lifetime. The two are not always linked. And if you still don’t like yourself enough to understand why you should go to university then do it for the men that you might have the privilege of leading one day. Your having a few added years of maturity and a broader perspective can only be beneficial to the soldiers under your command.

**Sammymantha** · 24-04-2006, 17:31

To be fair if you get a first in your degree, great! however people tend to worry that you spent too much time studying and not enough time socialising. Meaning you have no individual identity and have no hobbies or interests. How can you lead men (or Women) if you have not socialised for years and buired your head in the books. Dont get me wrong a degree is a great tool in life (im doing law in the hope of one day becoming a Military lawyer) But surely they need to see that you are human and can communicate with a variety of people.

**Bayonet-mouse** · 24-04-2006, 20:30

Originally Posted by Sammymantha

(im doing law in the hope of one day becoming a Military lawyer)

I wouldn't bother going to all the trouble of doing a law degree to then become a military lawyer.

Take a bit of advice - you have two options:

1. If you're studying law then get a training contract with a decent civvie law firm and forget about joining the army as a military lawyer - they are pretty much universally seen as a bunch of "couldn't cut it in civvie street" weasels by the rest of the army.

2. Complete your degree and join the army, but in some part of the army other than the Army Legal Service.

Good luck with your studies!

**gundog** · 24-04-2006, 21:07

mbwest,

Complete your degree and get commisioned. If, God forbid, during your career an accident should befall you and you are invalided out of the service. You will still have something to fall back on. In a couple weeks time I will be collecting my OU degree in Portsmouth. It will have been worth the effort to complete it. Should my plans for retirement crash in flames, I will still have a degree that I can use to do a PGCE if it comes to the crunch and take up a teaching career. The good lady has re-iterated this to me at length when I felt like quitting the courses, so should something untoward happen then there will be something that I can fall back on.

For young Subalterns out there who are non-grads, an OU degree is an alternative way of gaining a qualification. It will also stand ypou in good stead as it requires a lot of commitment and motivation to complete, not forgetting a good dose of time-management skills. All good things to help you get ticks in boxes.

**Ambrose_Silk** · 24-04-2006, 21:29

Originally Posted by gundog

In a couple weeks time I will be collecting my OU degree in Portsmouth. It will have been worth the effort to complete it. Should my plans for retirement crash in flames, I will still have a degree that I can use to do a PGCE if it comes to the crunch and take up a teaching career. The good lady has re-iterated this to me at length when I felt like quitting the courses, so should something untoward happen then there will be something that I can fall back on.

For young Subalterns out there who are non-grads, an OU degree is an alternative way of gaining a qualification. It will also stand ypou in good stead as it requires a lot of commitment and motivation to complete, not forgetting a good dose of time-management skills. All good things to help you get ticks in boxes.

Congratulations, Gundog! It is no small achievement to pursue a university degree while engaged in an actual career. And, not that I am a teacher by any stretch of the imagination, but another round of congratulations for considering teaching as a possibility in the future. Soldiering and teaching…there are few more honourable occupations.

**Cuddles** · 24-04-2006, 21:36

Originally Posted by minime33

You don't even need a degree, but stick it out as the prefer officer to have degrees mainly to ensure that they have a bit of life experience.

I thought that it was because of the increasingly high tech nature of modern military equipment, they wanted graduates who had spent three years mastering the X-box or the Play Station??

Typical graduates from MY vintage who are now incredibly senior in the Army gained vital experience in University by playing rugby four times a week and rowing on the one hand or by arrsing around in amateur dramatics with Ms. Heseltine on the other! How it muist have sttod them in good stead when faced with the challenges of staffing Options for Change or tackling the retention issues of the turn of the century?

PS Don't you just love using "the turn of the century" like that? Excellent....

**gundog** · 24-04-2006, 21:36

Thank you Ambrose-Silk.

**Cuddles** · 24-04-2006, 21:57

Originally Posted by gundog

Thank you Ambrose-Silk.

As the saying goes "If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading this in English, thank a soldier."

Good effort Gundog, well done it is not easy to do degrees in your spare (hah!) time...unless you are at Staff College of course.

(Close the bloody hatches you imbecile, dive, dive!!)

**Sammymantha** · 24-04-2006, 22:20

Originally Posted by Bayonet-mouse

Originally Posted by Sammymantha

(im doing law in the hope of one day becoming a Military lawyer)

I wouldn't bother going to all the trouble of doing a law degree to then become a military lawyer.

Take a bit of advice - you have two options:

1. If you're studying law then get a training contract with a decent civvie law firm and forget about joining the army as a military lawyer - they are pretty much universally seen as a bunch of "couldn't cut it in civvie street" weasels by the rest of the army.

2. Complete your degree and join the army, but in some part of the army other than the Army Legal Service.

Good luck with your studies!

I dont care that i would be getting less pay than civvy street. I dont care how the rest of the army views the service. I just want to join and do the best job i can do to my ability. I want to be part of team doing my bit to help the army as a whole not just myself. Also the tiny fact that my little brother is in the RLC and my parents are proud of him. When i went to his passing out parade i wanted to be one of the ones passing out. (OK wait for the puns) Everybody was so proud of each other, the soldiers for sticking it out and the parents watching them. OK I sound like a jealous sibling who has had their limelight stolen, I have wanted to be a solicitor from an early age, then i toyed with the idea of the army.

So why not just do both?