sergeant

infantryman

corporal

intelligence analyst

motor transport operator

U.S. Marine Corps

The Marine Corps is a great place to learn about yourself and grow as a person.  Entry into the enlisted ranks is not too hard unless you got in trouble for poor decisions or you are not deemed fit to enter.  Boot Camp will probably be the first time someone experiences a mental hardship and has to deal with it for three straight months.  Entry into the officer ranks is a different matter.  It requires a potential candidate to be extremely physically fit, have no legal issues and demonstrate good grades in college.  Potential high schoolers can go through the officer ranks by attending the Naval Academy which is a demanding four year school.

It depends on your Military Occupational Speciality (MOS) for what you do at work.  In the enlisted side, you start at the bottom and do jobs reserved for janitors besides doing basic MOS work.  Keep in mind that the senior enlisted have had to do this when they started out.  This eliminates the need to hire outside sources and instills the discipline to make things better than when you receive it.  In the military police (MP) (not deployed), you have many different jobs: Sentry duty, dispatcher, patrol of the base and areas that need security checks, work at the passhouse which authorizes people entry into base, services (DARE, Traffic Court Bailiff, maintenance) along with other jobs that require competent individuals (Special Reaction Team, Traffic Investigation Division, Dog Handler).  For most MPs a day consists of standing on gate, patrolling the base of dispatching working on shifts.  They validate that people can go on case, enforce base regulations and state law, conduct security checks and answer and go on calls for base workers/residents.  Sometimes days are slow, sometimes there is a crisis going on such as a bomb threat or some kind of security breach.  There are additional duties such as formations and cleaning up living areas once a week or more if areas are dirty.  You will attend physical fitness training everyday or every other day before or at the end of each shift.

On the officer side, there are more duties you have.  Fortunately you generally have a senior enlisted Marine to advise and help you.  Your days consist of meetings, managing and inspecting equipment, mentoring your Marines, writing awards and evaluations, working with your Commanding Officer (CO) and Operations Officer (Ops O) for operations, as well as holding additional duties such as completing investigations, or also take responsibility for a program that needs to be updated and followed such as a Safety Officer.  Sometimes you will be relieved of all duties to focus on the additional billet outside of your MOS.  This is a good thing since it shows that the unit is well-staffed and it's something different for a short time.  The day may consist of getting accountability of your Marines when you conduct physical fitness training or at the start of the work day, then meeting with your key personnel to give tasks, receive updates, procure additional equipment and/or handle internal issues.  Once you receive the documents or project you asked for, you will look over everything to ensure that everything makes sense, has correct grammar and meets all requirements.  There will be meetings held by the CO and the Ops O at a time which works best for their schedules.  You will attend these meeting to update the CO and Ops O and receive further guidance or provide a better course of action if possible.  During certain times of the year, you will need to write up evaluations for all of your Marines.  This will take up a lot of your time.  Every quarter you will look over all of your equipment to ensure it is there and is being taken care of.  This will take up a lot of your time if you are responsible for a lot of equipment.

The Marine Corps has many great leaders, along with bad ones.  A good leaders will mentor you and allow you to grow to be a better leader.  You will want to gain some the qualities you hold dear from your boss or even some of the squared away junior Marines.  The poor leaders will not develop you to be a better leader, whether it's because they do not care or create unreasonable expectations.  If you have a bad leader, you need to make it through since Marines transfer to other units in under three years.  The CO generally has the final say for everything and will implement a plan for his or her unit.  That is why leaders need to be engaged to implement plans for the best use of time and employee management.  Your engagement with your boss and your subordinates will bring in good ideas and squash bad ideas with good intentions.  I have been fortunate to have more great leaders than poor leaders.

Your fellow Marines know the struggle and this is why the military has a bond that no fraternity or sorority can match.  A Marine does not have to be your friend to get a job done, you will do what it takes to ensure that the mission is a success.  Poor performers sometimes get tasked with the jobs no one wants to do or get an easy job and gets his or her peers mad.  But in the long run, they usually are not recommended for promotion.  There are times when stellar performers don't get additional training since the unit "needs" that Marine for a job that needs to be done right.  The best thing to do is to do the best you can, care about your duty and not worry about other people unless it affects the mission or degrades morale.  The enlisted Marines have many peers in their workplace and it's easy to make friends and develop bonds that last a lifetime.  The officer side is a little bit lonelier since there are fewer officers, but it's not as bad as it sounds.  Either way, having a buddy makes things go by easier.

The hard part of the Marine Corps if the time you spend away from your family, death in combat (and not in combat), high stress situations and having to deal with your Marines that get in trouble if you are in a leadership role.  Another factor is having a horrible boss.  Marines are trained to handle pressure so this isn't too bad.

The great thing about the Marine Corps, is that we take care of our own.  I said earlier that Marines are trained to handle pressure, but not every situation is easily solved.  We have many resources to help out each Marine, whether it's stress at home, alcohol or drug abuse, or stress from a deployment.  The benefits are great, and is well-deserved since military members do a job that the majority of the United States is afraid of.  A poor person can join the Marine Corps and be successful inside and out as long as they work hard and make smart decisions.   The comraderie from earning the title "Marine" and enduring the hardship while in, will provide friendships that last a lifetime.  Especially with social media, I would trust a good friend living in Ohio to help me out if I needed it.  The travel is great.  With the exception of a few study stations, you will be close to a coast or be overseas.  If overseas, it's easy and cheap to travel within southeast Asia, Australia (still can be expensive), Europe, Hawaii or stateside beaches.  I know Marines that have lived and travelled in one state, and have been able able to travel all over the world.

Logistics Support Services-
Create, sustain and improve enterprise level logistics support program.
Work with customers and IT staff to ensure appropriate funding is available to meet logistics requirements.
Support transportation of classified and unclassified intelligence IT equipment and personnel throughout the world.

Capital Equipment Replacement Program and Commodity Management Services -
Support the sustainment of the DoD enterprise Capital Equipment Replacement Program (CERP) as well as Commodity Management strategies and schedules; research, analyze, and provide mid and long-term future hardware and software commodity and CERP recommendations.
Maintain lists of DIA approved hardware and software in an enterprise information database; coordinate provisioning actions with Government staff to ensure availability of funds, purchase methods, and acquisition timelines; plan and prioritize resources for near term replacement schedules for DoDIIS enterprise organizations.

Enterprise Inventory and Asset Management Services -
Maintain and improve the enterprise IT inventory and asset management program. Provide a capability to accurately account for and report on the location and configuration of all DoDIIS enterprise hardware, software, and related property in a real time asset management information system that supports service delivery, accountability, life cycle management, and acquisition planning.

Lead Network Security

Intrusion detection system monitoring and analysis security event identification and analysis Incident response and coordination activities System/application security log review maintain an understanding of the current vulnerabilities, response, and mitigation strategies used to support cyber security operations.
Provide trend analysis for correlated information sources and network data such as event logs, IDS, and network
captures. Support the development of incident handling, detection and threat mitigation procedures
Support customer direct investigation of cyber activity targeting customer information and its information infrastructure
Assist the customer training department in the education of staff on the cyber threat.

Writing all the cat 1 cat 2 cat 3 cat 4 reports

Thinking like a hacker to anticipate attack vectors and creating arcsight content to detect it

 Creating, Maintaining, and Troubleshooting ArcSight dynamic interface content including Dashboards, Data Monitors, Active Channels, Rules, Filters, Reports, Zones
• Coming up with innovative solutions to complex analytical and technical challenges
• Integrating numerous types of cyber security data feeds into ArcSight
• Researching Internet cyber security sites for information specific to customer system vulnerabilities
• Working collaboratively with other cyber analysts on research projects that involve event analysis to determine trends
• Writing error-free reports the first time
• Developing ad-hoc reports as required by the customer where a more in-depth analysis is required
with other members of the team when developing cyber security reports
• Assisting ArcSight account holders with product use
• Maintaining version control and document all changes per configuration management guidelines
• Assisting with the upgrade and maintainance to current supported version
• Sharing expertise with other members on the team

Duties and responsibilities shall include the software management of:
o Encase Enterprise
o Encase Cyber Security
o ArcSight Express
o NetWitness
o FireEye Email Protection
o FireEye Web Protection
o Jump Servier
.
Detection, response, mitigation, and/or reporting of cyber threats affecting client networks and one or more of the following: experience in computer intrusion analysis and incident response; intrusion detection; computer network surveillance/monitoring; knowledge and understanding of network protocols, network devices, multiple operating systems, and secure architectures; experience in computer evidence seizure, computer forensic analysis, and data recovery; or computer network forensics.

Reset Check Point password, VPN account and locked out accounts.
Successfully planned date security for new and modified software by discussing with computer user
Monitored over 5000 PCs and scanned daily for update/application assessments and penetration testing
Used Windows security center/windows automatic updating, anti-malware software settings, internet security settings, and using and user account control settings/ and resolve any identified security issues
Ensured compatibility of planned security measures with computer security systems software of the organization by reviewing plans.
Analyzed the system deeply to protect it from virus outbreaks and from hacker and cracker attacks.
Ensured compatibility of planned security measures with computer security systems software of the organization by reviewing plans.
Responsible for installation, maintenance and configuration of PCs and network operating systems.
Maintenance of the network backup systems and network’s authorization infrastructure.
Performed configuration of authorization, authentication and directory services.
Responsible for troubleshooting and debugging network related issues.
Assigned IP addresses to the devices that are connected to the network.
Handled the tasks of routing table configuration and routing protocols.
Maintained network servers including VPN gateways, file servers and intrusion detection systems.
Responsible for protecting stored data on the computer system of the organization.
Kept vital information from being stolen by installing various types of software as well as implementing policies.
Handled troubleshooting in case of system malfunctions as well as monitors inter office network of the organization.
Dealt with patching systems as well as locking down systems so that access was by authorized personnel only.
Maintained network facilities such as setting personnel computers, drivers and printers, and maintained the security regarding logical and physical access to system.
Responsible for the equipment monitor, data and voice networks.
Responsible for installation, maintenance and configuration of PCs and network operating systems and maintenance of the network backup systems and network’s authorization infrastructure.

Security Tools
Net Witness 9.5
Arc Sight Console 5.0
Fire Eye
Jump Server
Blue Coat
Source Fire
Foot Print

As a Marine Corps Officer who has made the Marine Corps a career, and retired 2 years ago after 22.5 years, my perspective is different than someone who joined for only 4 or 6 years, then got out. As a career, there are many aspects that are similar to private sector careers (I’m equating my experience as management). There’s competition to advance, politics with different levels of senior management, late hours, and stress. There are things you probably won’t get in the private sector- reassignment (both by job and geographical location) every 2-3 years, deployments, free medical care, and minimal cost for dental care and life insurance (You appreciate this more when you have to pay $400+ every month for lower quality health insurance). When I retired, I was a senior LtCol and was a recruiting District Operations Officer, which is equivalent to Director of Operations in a mid-sized company (My sister is a Director of Operations for an engineering multi-national corporation, and does about the same things I did, except she makes a lot more money). Recruiting is not what I was initially trained for, nor a track that I wanted to pursue, but the Marine Corps assigns you where you are needed, so you learn to bloom where you are planted. I was an 0402, Logistician. Also important to note, I served 4 years in the USMCR before college and getting commissioned, so I’ve been to bootcamp (Parris island), and know what it’s like to be a PFC and LCpl. 
     Workplace culture in the many positions that I’ve held have ranged from tense to enjoyable— just like the private sector, the boss made it either enjoyable or not. The key difference is that those who become Marines are generally competitive and goal-oriented, regardless of the reward; so generally, our organizational goals & mission (outside of combat) tend to take the highest priority in our life. This is reinforced by the nature of the Marine Corps. Private companies generally run by profit and loss; how to increase revenue while cutting expenses with the goal to make more money. The military doesn’t and can’t run that way; the focus is on successful completion of the assigned mission. Successful completion of the mission is and of itself the reward for hard work and sacrifice. 
What I’ve learned: I’ve learned so many things, and most of the important things were from horrible bosses. But the top 5 that come to mind are: 1) Always make your boss happy. No matter how many people outrank you, only one person matters. 2) Understand the 'why', as well as the 'what'. 3) Always volunteer for the most difficult jobs/assignments. Most older vets will tell you to never volunteer. I’ve found that when you always do what no one else wants to, you get a reputation as the guy who gets things done. 4) Your people will only give you minimum performance when you use fear and intimidation, but you will get maximum performance through inspiration and motivation. 5) Be yourself and do your job the way you do it, not how someone else would do it. Early on, I tried to lead by being a real tough guy, and failed miserably and often, because that’s not who I am. Once I started using my personality, I was extremely effective, even though it was different than most of my peers.
     Most enjoyable part of the job-  Doing what you were trained for. The one memory that stands out for me that sums up why I liked it so much, is when I was a MEU S-4 (Logistics Officer), and overseeing the loading of multiple Navy ships with vehicles, cargo and personnel, and the following 6 months of doing the same types of thing in so many different countries. It was a complex and difficult thing to do, frustrating in negotiating with different ranks within different services to get done what you need to get done, and a thankless job--if I did my job 100% perfectly, no one noticed a thing, but would notice if a vehicle is 5 minutes late. Seeing everything that I painstakingly planned, work together like some complex dance choreography, made me feel alive and like I could do anything in the world. I would do all of it again in a heartbeat.
     Finally, the hardest part of the job- not putting your unit, mission, training, etc., as a higher priority than your family. I couldn’t do it, and I only understood it when my now 21 year old daughter told me that as much as she loves me, I was never around for her when she needed me the most. While I wouldn’t change my choice in careers, I would however, change many decisions to work a little later, or go on another deployment. I now realize that I missed seeing my children grow up, except as a part time dad, and I can’t get those years back. I have a wonderful relationship with my adult children, but I would have changed my priorities during my career a bit.
     Career Marine Corps (everything after the first 4 years) isn’t for everyone, but if you like a challenge, and are driven by intangibles (i.e. not money, but job satisfaction, camaraderie, fitness, etc.), then it is a great choice as a career. If I had to do it all over again, I would and wouldn’t change my career choice at all.
 Semper Fidelis

-a typical day at work can sometimes be frustrating due to the constant changing of plans and the many sprints and lulls that occure throughout the day. Although, few things can deter the sense of comradery that you share with the brothers to the left and right of you knowing everyone is in it together and together everyone will adapt and overcome and see it through to the end no matter if it is getting everyone accounted for at formation or a 5 click patrol in Afghanistan.

-Anyone is bound to learn a variety of things but the most usefull knowledge I have gained has been about myself. The Marine Corp has an uncanning ability to give you more information about yourself than you thought was possible. Strengths, weaknesses, limits and range of my abilities are unmistakenly evident. It has only added to my personal resume and I am better for it.

-Managment is a difficult topic. Their is a saying the Marine Corp has in relation to this topic. "The best plan is only good until first contact." So it is not the ability to manage that is notable. It is the ability of each individual to adapt and overcome that gives this orginization its versatility to thrive where others, who under the banner of 'managment', would surely perish. It is small unit managment that makes adaptation possible. If one were to ask "where does 'small unit managment' come from then?" Ultimately, at its deepest root, it is individual managment which is combined with other individuals who have been taught to govern themselves and think independently and at the same time think as part of the unit which is a tightly knit family of teams and squads. 

-My 'co-workers', or, more accuratly defined, my 'brothers', can be described in a very similar context to that of biological brothers. At times we disagree, we fight, sometimes to the point of not wanting to spend another second around each other. But at the end of the day, like biological brothers, we converse, create and accomplish, along side each other, unimaginable feats. Its the friction we experience together that brings us that binds us together. It is a bitter-sweet experience that anyone whos ever had to work together and has experienced the friction between opposing goals, can appreciate.

-The hardest part of my job is to keep myself well oiled in all aspects of my responcibilities. The seemingly infinite amount of knowledge we are expected to retain that isnt even directly related to my job and to be the subject matter expert on Machine Guns is excrutiatingly difficult. In my past jobs, its easy to come into work everyday knowing what must be done and executing the same skills required to get the job done right everyday for 8 hours a day. Skills and techniques build on each other and with each confrontation of a real life situation you grow confidence in your ability to deal with future conflicts. The difference with my job in the Marine Corp is that I reside in the United States, in Camp Lejuene NC, having no actual reason to have to execute my skills as a Machine Gunner. We train by imagining scenarios or taking past scenarios and incorporating them with notional or stationary enemies at the range or in the field. Imagine being stuck in training for a job that you cannot utilize your skills and knowledge in real life scenarios. You understand your training but cannot utilize it in actual situations. This concept breathes life into the saying "if you dont use it, you loose it". This amplifies the necessity of self-initiative. You need to consistently train yourself in aspects where higher authority might have lossed focus. This is, in my opinion, the most difficult part of the job

-The most enjoyable part of the job has been, hands down, the sense of pride I have for serving our country. Civilians from all walks of life, regardless of their political stance or even national upbringing have consistently shown their undying support to our military. Cars have stopped out of turn in the middle of the street to allow me to cross, meals have been offered to be paid for, thanks and gratitude is abundant amongst stangers when they hear or see I am in the Marine Corp, veterans of wars of far greater autrocities than Ill see in my lifetime have expressed an inconceivable amount of debt to me for my service. It is to easy in my line of work to forget how much it means to civilians that we do what we do. It is unmeasurable how much these seemingly small tokens of  appreciation go in reminding me that in all the mundane, the hardships and sacrifices, it is worth it.

I worked in the Permanent Change of Station section. This section of the building helps each Marine who have orders to move to a different duty station. 

A typical day of work would be checkin into work, going over the what needs to be done during the day by reading over a checklist and making sure each task on the checklist has been completed. As a supervisor you make sure each Marine you are in charge of is where they need to be. Then you make sure after you check what needs to be done during the day, those Marines know what needs to be done. The usual task that needs to be are printing out web orders, which is a paper that shows all the Marines information and where they are being relocated to. Then you are to type a document which becomes there original orders, those documents are to be carried with the Marine to there next duty station. They cannot check into there next duty station without them. Another task during the day would be making sure that all the proper information and paperwork for the Marines who are coming into the office during that day or the week is all there and properly filled out. Sometimes Marines would like to ask for financial help because they do not have the proper funds to relocate there family. If this is the case we would help each Marine fill out the proper information and papers to receive an advance on funds. Each paper work you submit in order for the funds to be given to the Marine needs to be submitted to another section called disbursing as soon as possible because funding takes time, so it was our job to make sure that information was taken care of right away. 

Another part of the job was making sure that we reported all new information about the Marines into the Marine Corps Total Force System (MCTFS) There would be a special database for this with different transaction codes, because you only had until a certain amount of time to report this information it was important to memorize as many codes as possible and remember them in order. You would have to make sure to report all information in the order of each transaction code of the system would count that transaction as a failure to report. 

While doing your duties through out the day you also have Marines coming into the office to as for help. Those Marines were made top priority because they are your customers and customers come first. 


Later in my career in the Marines I was placed as a personal assistant for the Director of the building, along with supervising the other Marines who were there to help me with all the task that were being given to me. While doing this job, you would have to make sure to check in with the Director first thing in the morning. During this time you would have a meeting on what he would like to get done during the day. He would set up projects that need to be done on powerpoint or excel and sometimes on Microsoft access and give you a deadline for them, so he could present those projects to his boss. There would be times where he had you write letters and type out certain things on Microsoft word as well. All with these task he had to make sure the building was taken care of, this would mean making sure supplies were ordered for the building, if the landscaped needed to be fixed, we would make sure it was fixed. 

I learned a lot while working in each section. I learned that you need to be proficient in the work that you do. Make sure to be organized and priorities everything so that all the really important things get done first. Customer service is very important because you want to make sure that those who are coming in for help are getting the proper information and are being taken care of. Paying attention to detail is a very big key in the work that you do as well. You want to make sure everything is done correctly. Being able to work well with others is very important because have the help of others can help you reach a deadline that you may not be able to do on your own. Its always good to ask for help. If you take care of those you work for they will take care of you. 

The hardest part of the job would have to be dealing with other sections. It was difficult because you may have a certain deadline but they may have a different one. There priorities might be different from yours so you have to be able to be flexable and know how to be able to accomplish your task while working with them. 

The most enjoyable part of the job is being able to accomplish all task on time and being able to take care of each customer with no problems.

A typical day in the Marine Corp could be any number of things. As a Logistic Vehicle Systems Operator (3533), we were mostly in the motor-pool (truck lot) performing pre-maintenance checks on multiple vehicles. Other days we would get orders to go on runs (pick-up and delivery) to transport troops or cargo and would ensure proper loading and weight distribution. At one point I had a HAZMAT and explosives license and have delivered millions of dollars in TNT filled artillery rounds, grenades, AT4s (single shot rocket propelled grenades RPGs), C4, and thousand upon thousands of rounds for M16A2 Service Riffles, 50 Cal., 240 GOLF, and SAW machineguns. All my runs were  performed safe and incident free. As a Primary Marksmanship Instructor (8532) and Marksmanship Unit Training Chief I would have to do all kinds of things in order to qualify over 300 Marines while I was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. As a part of the headquarters and Support Company of 3rd TSB, I would have to contact each of the 5 company training NCOs and request 5 Marines who needed to qualify on the riffle range. I had to get the Marine's name, rank, blood type, social security number, meal card number and previous range score. Once my roster was completed using Microsoft Excell, I would put in a vehicle request to transport Marines to the armory where they would check out their assigned M16A2 or M9mm. I then would record the weapon's serial number and add it to my roster and inspect all their weapons for cleanliness and proper functioning. I would then return with Marines and their weapons to the MTU (marksmanship training unit) and either me or the Instructors placed under my charge would begin teaching the fundamentals of marksmanship and weapons safety. From there we would use the ISMT (indoor simulated marksmanship training) computer program to get them snapped in (used to prepare and get comfortable with shooting positions) and monitor their shooting habits and problem areas. After one week (5 business days at 8 hours/day) of classes and preparation I would put in for a range request and give the range all the Marines information. I also put in meal request and vehicle request in order for the Marines to have a bagged lunch prepared to take to the range. Once we picked up Marines, meals and weapons we would go to the riffle range and begin by setting up their BZO (battle sight zero) on the riffle, ensuring each weapon was sighted properly for each Marine. We would identify problem areas for Marines having trouble and assist all Marines down range keeping safety as a top priority. Once Marines were qualified (no later then the fourth day on the range), I would ensure proper recording of range scores to the Range Master, the company each Marine came from, and the Headquarter and Support Company. The last day of the second week, Friday, was reserved for gas chamber followed by suicide prevention, and domestic violence awareness classes also given by either me or one of the Marines placed under my charge. Some of the best leaders I've ever met were in the Marine Corps. I still have many friends that I keep in contact with that were my co-workers. The hardest part of the job is never knowing from one day to the next where you will be. I have saw and done things in the Marines that most people will never even dream about. I wouldn't exchange those experiences for anything.

In the Marine Corps, I gained valuable skills that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Confidence, leadership, flexibility, adaptability, moral and ethical courage, and maturity are among the top skills I gained, but the overall number of skills any individual has the potential to gain is countless. Obviously, individual results vary based on which unit you are a part of, who your leadership is and how they were mentored, or a thousand other variables.
For most Marines, a typical day at work in the fleet begins with physical training (PT) first thing in the morning, i.e. before the sun rises. Cardiovascular endurance and upper body strength are highly valued. After PT, Marines are allotted a certain amount of time to eat, shower, and change into the uniform of the day, which depends on your training or maintenance schedule. Lunch hours run from 11:00 a.m. through 1:00 p.m., but that does not mean that you will get two full hours to eat. In the afternoon, you will continue with your training schedule until completion, which for most is between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. unless otherwise specified. The items on the training schedule encompass everything you will need to accomplish to maintain readiness and currency, ranging from classroom instruction to field exercises, and the possibilities are endless. Most Marines have weekends and federal holidays off. There are great travel opportunities to be had, depending on your specific military occupational specialty (MOS) and obviously, deployments.
Your leadership will vary no matter where you go or what you do, which can be interesting and beneficial - developing new problem-solving skills is a must if you want to progress. Officers have the final say in nearly everything, but the enlisted leadership runs the show, and you will learn this along the way.
Your peers are perhaps the best reason to join. Nowhere else in any job will you find such a diverse group of men and women working together toward the same goal. You will learn to rely and trust on people you barely know, but you will develop a strong character judgment as well. Knowing who to trust with certain tasks will come easily to you.
There are, of course, many hardships. Prolonged separation from family, low pay, few incentives, and ever-changing doctrine/policy/orders/methods/training/leadership are among the worst, in my opinion. Hours spent in mass  briefings (which are on common sense topics and are held annually) are a huge reason many choose to leave the service. You will have no choice but to overcome these obstacles if you want to be promoted and be retained during reenlistment.
For me, the most enjoyable part of my time as an enlisted Marine was brotherhood. You can always bond with coworkers and spend time at outings, but there is nothing quite comparable to enduring all hardships and benefits with the same people you work and live with everyday. You will build unbreakable relationships with people you meet throughout your service and many will continue to be a part of your life long after you separate or retire from the Marine Corps.

Pros:
-Pride of serving your country, contributing to an important mission that can't be quantified.
-Steady promotions if you enlist in a technical field, do your job and don't screw up.
-Extensive overseas travel - I was in the Marine Corps for 8.5 years, and during that time, spent most of it in Asia or the Middle East. Some of it was for combat purposes, but there was a lot of "fun time" after work...Thailand and the Philippines come to mind.
-Challenge, at no point would I have gone back in time to enlist in another branch; every Marine is a rifleman, and even as an intelligence specialist I went to the field and played with a weapons more than enough times in and out of training environments.
-Free college. Literally, free. If you don't take advantage of this while active or after an enlistment, you're wrong.
-Top Secret clearance, for certain jobs. Serving in the Marine Corps opened up many doors for me in the defense intelligence community.

Cons:
Long story short, I enlisted as an intelligence specialist and accepted a $50k reenlistment bonus to serve an additional 4 years after serving 5 to continue in the intelligence field. Not long after I reenlisted, I was ordered to recruiting duty. Most recruiters are not volunteers, and although I had a "successful" tour, the entire time I was made to work 14+ hours a day, 6, 7 days a week, no leave time ever, for the remainder of my enlistment being a salesperson. The command was toxic, constantly making recruiters work ridiculous hours for no reason, belittling and yelling at Marines if they didn't hit their quotas, made to work even longer hours, have their careers threatened daily, and be forced to do lengthy drives up to the HQ for 7 hours (with or without the required amount of sleep prior to operating a government vehicle). It was very common for marriages on recruiting to end up in divorce. The treatment was so poor that I volunteered almost a year out of my contract early, and accepted a job as a civilian intelligence officer for the private sector for much higher pay.
In summary:
-Uneven pay compensation; a forklift operator makes the same amount of money as an air traffic controller.
-Horrible working hours, work is never separate from your personal life, in or out of a combat environment. $50k a year is peanuts when you're putting in 80+ hour work weeks constantly with no ability to take time off because mission always comes first, family second.
-Toxic leadership; SNCOs and officers think it's okay to treat lower enlisted Marines less than human whenever they are in a bad mood, and there is little to no oversight for abuse of authority.
-Dictatorial management. Even tactful questioning of an order is culturally seen as disrespect met with yelling and punishment, resulting in younger Marines unable to communicate or take the initiative out of fear.
-You may be ordered to do a completely different job than what you signed up for numerous years, and you won't be able to quit or change orders. This kills morale and trying to attain experience in a specific field, which is touted as a perk by recruiters but doesn’t actually happen in practice.
-High stress, low reward. You really have to be a glutton for punishment to make a career out of it.

A typical day at work consisted of waking up at around 4:30am to hold a formation (meeting) for accountability of all employees before commencing physical training. Upon completion of physical training, we were given time to shower and have breakfast if desired before reporting to our respective shops. I then proceeded to check GCCS-MC, an oracle application, for all work orders that were open and/or current, to ensure that all employees I was in charge of were gainfully employed for the day and that all equipment with an open work order was either being worked on or in a non-workable status (awaiting parts, awaiting evacuation to a higher echelon of maintenance, etc.). I would prepare a list of all tasks for the day and a list of tasks that needed to be accomplished by the end of the work week and assign all these tasks to individual employees. When equipment work orders were completed I would perform Quality Control checks on them to ensure that all standards were met or exceeded so that all customers would be satisfied and there would be no reason to turn them back into maintenance unless negligently used by the operators (customers).

I learned many valuable skills such as time management and efficiency to meet all deadlines, how to troubleshoot, diagnose and repair electronic equipment to the circuit board level, component level if necessary and how to manage subordinates placed under me.

Management changed all to frequently, sometimes there would be one manager for 6 months and sometimes we would have 6 different managers in period of 3 months. Sometimes this caused delays in maintenance due to one manager wanting to change the Standard Operating Procedures of the last manager and all employees had to learn new routines to meet the new managers expectations.

My co-workers were the same as management. Some of them were there for years while others were shuffled around numerous times. I had some great co-workers at times, and some not-so-great co-workers at other times. I learned to have to adjust and move daily tasks to other employees sometimes due to a level of incompetence in other co-workers. All in all it was a positive experience.

The hardest part of the job was constantly having to change procedures or routines due to the fluctuation of management. The second hardest part of the job was writing and establishing all the Quality Control Procedures to ensure that there was a methodical, standardized process for equipment repair. Once that was completed there was no longer a need to do it again though, and it was no longer a "hard part" of the job.

The most enjoyable part of the job was the hardest part. It was fulfilling to be able to write and implement the new procedures and was also fulfilling to know that as a whole we were flexible as a team no matter who was managing us. I also enjoyed meeting a variety of people and co-workers from all over the country over the 6 years I was employed there.

The Marine Corps is just like the Army in that there is no typical day. 6:00 am is physical fitness, which is longer and tougher then the Army's, and 8:00 am is the start of work. On days where there are no company exercises going on, my group and i would get out our radio equipment, examine them for broken areas, and then inventory them. Practice drills on setting up the antennas, radios, and wiring would last for nearly the whole day. Time after time these drills would be practiced in order to be the best at what we do. We had over 150 pieces of communication equipment that we had to know, use, and be accountable for.

     In preparation for two week and month long skirmishes in the wetlands of our home base in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, every vehicle would have to be fitted with the proper communications equipment. The amount of vehicles would vary between twelve to eighteen in total and all would have to be triple checked to make sure they are good to go. While out in the field after the initial secured area was chosen and setup with at least one of us there, everybody else in the company would be called in and full communications would be setup in a shelter. The shelter would in turn be wired to all the various artillery vehicles and gunners along with a checkup on wireless communication. 

     In order to keep a constant flow of communication without breakups, we had to constantly monitor the radios for in-bound messages as well as equipment failure. Paper and pencil were put to great use in writing down information such as the amount of rounds fired, where rounds landed, alerts for inbound vehicles or people from anywhere, and most importantly incoming fire along with wounded people. The knowledge of what to do in regards to injured personnel were of great importance because of the potential complexity of what has to be sent to their leaders and the medical evacuation team. Writing down and reciprocating over the radio was practiced on a nearly daily basis in order to keep ourselves in perfection.  

    For the days while on deployment to Africa and Iraq, the procedures of operations would be very much the same with the practices done at home base in Carolina along with incoming fire from enemy forces. It was not uncommon while on guard to call in about suspicious people closing in too much. We constantly had to pack up our equipment and vehicles so that we would become mobile and move to the next location and setup once again. To keep our minds from going crazy, friendships and laughter pave the way. Our bonds were strengthened by what we had gone through and without those guys, life would've been extremely harder in those environments. Just goes to show that teamwork, along with the occasional hard attitudes from some, can go such a long way when combined with the right friendly relationships.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Sergeant 6 salaries reported	$44,167 per year
Infantryman 7 salaries reported	$42,286 per year
Corporal 21 salaries reported	$32,476 per year
Intelligence analyst 33 salaries reported	$2,406 per month
Motor transport operator 34 salaries reported	$2,387 per month

Working at U.S. Marine Corps: Company Overview and Reviews

U.S. Marine Corps

U.S. Marine Corps Ratings

Popular jobs at U.S. Marine Corps

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected