Thread: Career advice.

Ok. I'm about to finish my college (university?) course in Facility Management.

However...I'm dreading the day that I'll have to work in an office like during my internships.

So I'm thinking about trying to join the Marines (Dutch marines) as an officer.

Does anyone else have any tips on jobs I might want to look into? I actually really don't like my studies and the only reasons I finished are:
1) It was a diverse course
2) I need a diploma to get ahead in life (or so they tell me)

Any thoughts are welcome.

Regards
Alexander

Alex, here are my thoughts about joining the armed forces...
1) I don´t know how they handle things in NL, but here in Canada, they expect you to sign up for a few years.
2) Look into the living arrangements that they will make for you and your wife.
3) You never know when your life will be in the hands of some random idiot above you.. Even in peace-time you are risking your life, like those 40 or so Chilean soldiers who died of hypothermia during a training exercise thanks to the moronic idiotic cretins in command.
4) I know you are strongly religious and being a marine can put you in conflict with ¨Thou shalt not kill.¨
With all that being said, I am considering signing up myself, but I will have to do a lot more research before I put my X on the piece of paper.

Alex,
While I have no advice for you in joining the Dutch Marines, I have some experience with the Dutch Navy. While I was in the US Navy, we did some ops with a Dutch ship prior to both of us pulling into Den Helder (a beautiful city BTW). I was amazed at the cleanliness of Dutch ships and the way they handle duty on the ship. After normal working hours, they left 1 person onboard and pulled up the brow after everyone else went home.
In the US Navy, there is somewhere between 1/3 and 1/4 of the ships crew onboard at any given time. Every 3rd or 4th day was spent on the ship even when it was in port. I'm thinking that if I were Dutch, I may have made a career out of the Navy.
Good Luck and let us know what you decide!
-Fred

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

Alex, here are my thoughts about joining the armed forces...
1) I don´t know how they handle things in NL, but here in Canada, they expect you to sign up for a few years.
2) Look into the living arrangements that they will make for you and your wife.
3) You never know when your life will be in the hands of some random idiot above you.. Even in peace-time you are risking your life, like those 40 or so Chilean soldiers who died of hypothermia during a training exercise thanks to the moronic idiotic cretins in command.
4) I know you are strongly religious and being a marine can put you in conflict with ¨Thou shalt not kill.¨
With all that being said, I am considering signing up myself, but I will have to do a lot more research before I put my X on the piece of paper.

Both of you thank you for your comments.

If I do sign up I do have to sign up for a few years. Very true. I'm taking that into account though. Because if I like being a marine (and selection is VERY heavy over here) I don't think I'll want to switch jobs even if I could.

As for living arangements I'll be well paid even during my training time. Plus I don't live very far from the main Dutch base right now (less than an hour's drive, not Den Helder though, the Marine base is in Doorn)

I can appreciate the sentiment on having your life in someone else's hands. However I'll be going into officers training, I won't be just another grunt. However point taken.

The Religion I follow is very much on personal responsibility. I would not feel bad about it. Especially since the Dutch militairy isn't very big on "black ops" and assasination attempts etc. It's mostly a peace keeping organisation.

Mind you I'm still at the research stage myself. I'll be talking to my dad about it and also my grandpa who's been in the Dutch Marines myself.

Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

... the Marine base is in Doorn.

Heh heh, because of my font I read that as "the Marine base is in Doom", and my fingers started twitching for the BFG9000...

I know very little about the armed forces and I'll leave that up to others better qualified.

I don't know much about Facility management, but if the course was diverse there could be a few doors open to you. If you're not sick of general study, do your universities offer graduate diplomas? It's the usual way that our graduates skill up in something other than their undergraduate degree, and only takes a year.

Otherwise, maybe the skill set you obtained can lead you in other directions? A lot of my students (quantitative environmental science) end up in completely different careers to what their degree suggests they should be in - I had one guy end up as an actuary for an insurance company.

Otherwise, maybe you'd like to travel and do a PhD. Australia has a beautiful climate, and I'm working up an interesting PhD project on the HHT....!

James.

LX,

If you do go the facilities route, I have this advice. Look for a job in a computer data center. It is one of the more interesting facilities type jobs, and when you've got a bit of experience, jobs are not difficult to find. I can't speak for the European market right now, but in the states, good critical facilities staff are hard to come by and paid fairly well.

Good luck,
John

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

4) I know you are strongly religious and being a marine can put you in conflict with ¨Thou shalt not kill.¨

Not to split hairs or nothing, but that would be far more accurately translated "commit murder," not "kill." This sentiment has been expressed by numerous scholars and presented in a variety of scriptural translations. Not knowing Greek myself (or Hebrew, for that matter), I'll quote someone who does (Greek, anyway):

It is no good quoting 'Thou shall not kill.' There are two Greek words: the ordinary word to kill and the word to murder. And when Christ quotes that commandment He uses the murder one in all three accounts, Mathew, Mark, and Luke. And I am told there is the same distinction in Hebrew. All killing is not murder any more than all sexual intercourse is adultery. When soldiers cam to St John the Baptist asking what to do, he never remotely suggested that they ought to leave the army: nor did Christ when He met a Roman sergeant-major - what they called a centurion.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Kill: to take life.
Murder: to take life wrongly, w/o authority, justification, etc.


Sorry to rant/thread jack. I just distain when people question the morality of military service based on a misquote of one line in a very large book. Not, of course, that that is the fault of anyone here; say something often enough and people start to believe it at face value, certainly the case w/ that line. Food for thought,


Michael

PS- Back on topic, I don’t really have any good advice on whether or not you should join the Dutch Marines. I am neither Dutch nor a Marine nor a Dutch Marine, nor am I trained in/knowledgeable of/working in Facility Management (currently attending college for Mechanical Engineering). I have occasionally given thought to joining the navy (US) after I graduate, get into the nuclear program, but aside from joining as an officer instead of enlisted the situation bears little resemblance to your own. And it would be a few years down the road; I don’t have to make a decision on now. Best advice I can give is to weigh all your options. It doesn’t hurt to look at jobs in civilian life first: You can always quit and join the military if you don’t like them; it is kind of hard in most cases to do the reverse.

Michael

Originally Posted by ohlookaneagle

Not to split hairs or nothing, but that would be far more accurately translated "commit murder," not "kill."

Yes but it is kinda hard to tell the difference. Especially if the decision is not your to make.

If George W. tells you to that you have to shoot Iraqi Insurgents. Is that killing or murdering?
Likewise, if you have to abduct a suspected terrorist and move him to some country where torture is perfectly normal, where does that leave you?

Saying 'I was only following orders' does not cut it, morally. That justification has been debunked thouroughly at Nurenberg after WWII.

If you are in the army, the decision to shoot or not to shoot is not yours to make. That decision is made for you by whomever manages to secure the title of military commander. Trying to decide for yourself gets you tried as a traitor.

I have been researching various Direct Entry Officer positions (mostly PR and AF) in the CDN forces these days as I may get in on it as a long-term career move, depending on a meeting with a recruiter and more consideration. I gave the navy a pass on the consideration as it could mean a lot of away time from the family.