[Anonymous]

Anyone join the Navy Reserves (or any military branch) after obtaining accounting experience and your CPA license? It has always been a dream of mine and I’m one test away from my CPA license and curious if anyone has gone this route. I’m thinking reserves so I can keep my civilian job but still get to serve throughout the year as well. Any input would be great. Oh and don’t mind commenting on “You wont make a lot of money” or “It’s a waste of time” because it’s more than that to me.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Extra money is extra money!

Strangely, I've had several thoughts over the last few months about joining the military- Coast Guard, Air Force, or Navy, even though I'm 29 and in a career.

I wish you the best in your decision. Just be aware that even in the reserves, you can be activated at any time.

[Thompson]

Any update on if you joined the Navy Reserves? I was also thinking about joining the Reserves knowing the risks of being activated at any time. I just completed all four sections of the CPA Exam, but I wanted to see the decision you made.

[Skynet]

Hey, somebody has to keep track of the rounds and ammo on the battleship.😀

[Steph]

So weird someone is asking about this on here. I looked into it earlier this year and spoke with a recruiter. Also, my husband has been enlisted Navy for almost 11 years. I'm not sure you'd be able to keep your civilian job and be a Reserve Supply Officer (your rate if you are an accountant in the Navy). He made it sound like the time commitment could be greater than one weekend a month or whatever the drilling schedule normally is for Reserves. Plus, it's a difficult Reserve rate to get commissioned for. I think he mentioned some sort of board process being involved. Lastly, you're not guaranteed to get your hours. You can't control who oversees your work if you were to be accepted. I don't know there are many CPAs in the Navy (generally people with an active CPA license can do better opportunity-wise than the military).

But then again, I'm just some rando on the Internet. Absolute first step is to speak to a recruiter in your area.

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[jpj230]

I don't know much about the reserve side of things, but I can speak a little on active duty from my experience before my life as a CPA. Any officer designation in the Navy has a board process. They are highly competitive, or at least they were when I went through it. It took me about two years to get through the board process. There is a lot of paperwork involved, an aptitude test (OAR), as well as going to MEPS for your physical. When the board convenes, they select candidates based on letters of recommendation, GPA, aptitude test scores, and take into considerations any waivers needed to be fit for service. After you are selected, active duty candidates go to Officer Candidate School. Some designations like lawyers and doctors go to Officer Development School (which is a joke, they outrank their drill instructor and chief from day one). Supply Corps, a restricted line, goes to OCS with what are called unrestricted line officer designations (SWO, Pilot, NFO, etc). I think reserve has some other kind of commissioning program, not sure of the details. After an all expenses paid beach vacation to Naval Station Newport (LOL you do get to “play” in the sand a little), Supply officers go to supply school where they learn how to do their job, everything at OCS is more of a test to see if you can be broken down into nothing and built back up into a junior officer. It's a very mental process, the physical stuff isn't bad at all if you're in half decent shape.

One thing to consider is that designations can be changed. Everything is subject to the needs of the Navy, and things change throughout OCS and immediately after. A buddy of mine was there for Supply and had his CPA in hand. They redesignated him to SWO and he's still doing that today. Doesn't do accounting at all. I knew other people who had Pilot slots and ended up being redesignated to engineering, SWO, and NFO.

My piece of advice for those considering joining any branch of the military. Make sure that you want to be a sailor, soldier, etc first and foremost. Your specific job, comes second.

The military is full of highly motivated people who are there for the right reasons, and it's full of people who are there because they have nothing else to do and don't give two sh*ts about it. Please be the former.

[jpj230]

Also, if you want more information, there are some forums out there, Air Warriors and usnavyocs that have a plethora of good information.

[jdub]

I don't know anything about the Navy but my husband is active duty Air Force and his twin is in the Air Force Reserves. They are both on the enlisted side which is a little different.

I was actually looking into joining when my husband and I met and decided against it for a number of reasons. I hadn't started my CPA journey at the time but was halfway through my MBA. One of our friends' spouse was active duty in finance and told me that designations and such dont really mean much or get you more in the military in the long run. She said you might be able to negotiate a higher rank out of OTS or something like that but it means a lot more in the civilian world, in the Air Force you would need the degree only.

However, theres a website usajobs.gov that has GS jobs and they pay well and have great benefits and you're working for the military as a civilian and those jobs use more credentials to qualify you. With those jobs you dont deploy and cant be activated, you're just employed by the government basically. And if the government shuts down because of Congress budget issues you dont get paid.

I also agree with the person that said you have to be willing to put your civilian job second. With our friends in the Air Force reserves that's generally not the case and they just do the standard 1 weekend a month, 2 weeks in the summer. However, military service is protected so if you were activated your job CANNOT let you go for that reason. They dont have to pay you while you are gone, but they cant fire you for serving your country in that capacity.

Every branch is different, and I'm just a civilian but that's my knowledge!

[Author]

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