Hello there,
I am finishing a Bachelor's in Math this spring and I would like to enlist as an officer in one of the military branches. Since I am looking to do a PhD in Operations Research sometime down the line, I am looking to make my military experience fit in a little more with my career aspirations. Operations Research is a branch of applied math, so I would like to be able to continue my mathematical practice in the military, especially as a teacher since I would like some teaching experience. I've heard of the option of being a Power Instructor at the Naval Academy but that looks a little too hard core and a little too obsessed with nuclear engineering. I was wondering if it is hard to become a Power Instructor or if there is a big need for math instructors in the military anywhere. I could summarize my question with this: what kind of math-related jobs,especially those that involve teaching, are available in the military?

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Originally posted by 22941447:
I've heard of the option of being a Power Instructor at the Naval Academy but that looks a little too hard core and a little too obsessed with nuclear engineering.

not the Naval academy. Nuke power school, Charleston SC.

but yes, nuke power is the ultimate goal, not math.

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I was wondering if it is hard to become a Power Instructor

it's not the easiest job to get, but it can be done. Search NUPOC.

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I could summarize my question with this: what kind of math-related jobs,especially those that involve teaching, are available in the military?

if you want to enter directly as a math teacher, NUPOC is the only option.

edited to fix quote

This message has been edited. Last edited by: catherine0830,

DH(Johnny_b) is a secondary Math teacher. he's an IWO and does NO teaching of Math at all. he won't be teaching at any level again until he retires.

Officers are first and foremost managers. most 'instructing' is done by enlisted personnel who are well versed in their ratings. and while there are a few teaching positions open at the USNA( one of DH's classmates from High school is currently teaching there) it is not an option for many years. (Dave is either O5 or O6)

There are DOD/military jobs that use math, versus teach math. Many are high level security jobs that will not be discussed here. You should talk to an officer recruiter. You may find that DOD jobs available in math may be more in the civilian sector, versus military officers.

DOD NSA Jobs

DIA Jobs

Navy Intellegence Officer Jobs

Office of Naval Intellgence Jobs

Note all links are official military sites.

Basically, if you are looking to teach math then you need to look at the school systems. Your best bet to get anywhere near a PhD in Operations Research is to get a TA position at a university that offers that degree.

Other than those few that get offered instructor positions at power school, which is not that big a group, I stand more chance as a civilian with a masters degree of teaching to the military than you would as an officer for the next 6-15 years.

Catherine and Dave pretty much answered the original question.

A little more chaff to cloud the screens though:

Naval Postgraduate School offers a Masters program in Operational Research. It might offer a PhD prgram as well, but I don't know. Masters students are usually LT or above who have sucessfully completed their first couple of tours. There are a few LTJG's from certain designators that go after completeing a 3-year initial assignment; and even a select few ENS's straight out of the Academy or ROTC programs.

There are Military Faculty members at NPS. They are usually O-5s - though one or two very senior O-4s might be found. Many are also working on PhD's themselves.

As Mrs Johnny_B pointed out, I went to college to originally be a Math teacher. While not actually using much Mathematics, the logic and problem-solving learned in conjunction with Math greatly helped me while I was enlisted as an FC as well as an Officer.

It also helped me recognize the method behind the madness that is RTC Great Lakes and to analyze how they built the curriculumn.

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Originally posted by Mrsjvb:
Officers are first and foremost managers. most 'instructing' is done by enlisted personnel who are well versed in their ratings. and while there are a few teaching positions open at the USNA ( one of DH's classmates from High school is currently teaching there) it is not an option for many years. (Dave is either O5 or O6)

I don't think that is a fair assessment of opportunities for officer instructor billets at all. Not only does it ignore instructor positions at NROTC units, it also ignores the variety of instructor positions available at things like SWOS, flight school, power school, and of course the myriad of other Navy schools. Power school is of course unique in that it possesses officers who are commissioned for the sole purpose of teaching, though after their initial four year hitch they either have to lateral transfer to another community or their career is over. If I were inclined to be an instructor for shore duty, it could be easily arranged. Of course as already noted, Math isn't something that the Navy, much less naval officers, tends to teach. As previously mentioned, the only “math teachers” in the Navy that I am aware of are the power school instructors and that career path is both very selective and very limiting in its long-term prospects. I always got a sick pleasure from knowing that I was 1) paid more than and 2) more likely to have a full career than the direct input officers who taught some of the courses in power school in spite of being significantly dumber than most of them. You've got to be stupid to actually go to sea as a nuke. You don’t really think the Navy would waste its best and brightest on sea duty do you? They’re all twirling rifles around as part of the Ceremonial Guard or other elite units such as the Navy’s various bands and choirs…

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Originally posted by AoiSonlee:

quote:

Originally posted by Mrsjvb:
Officers are first and foremost managers. most 'instructing' is done by enlisted personnel who are well versed in their ratings. and while there are a few teaching positions open at the USNA ( one of DH's classmates from High school is currently teaching there) it is not an option for many years. (Dave is either O5 or O6)

I don't think that is a fair assessment of opportunities for officer instructor billets at all. Not only does it ignore instructor positions at NROTC units, it also ignores the variety of instructor positions available at things like SWOS, flight school, power school, and of course the myriad of other Navy schools.

I totally agree with Mrsjvb. Instructor billets at flight school--not gonna happen unless he's a flier, and even then there's not a whole lot of math. NROTC? Not much math there, either, and you're teaching several other subjects aside from the few that contain any kind of math.

When you go in as an officer, you're entering a community, and there's only a chance that you'll wind up as an instructor. Bottom line--if instructing math is your goal, don't do the military thing, either O or E (unless the Power thing turns you on, which it seems it doesn't). You need to decide what's more important to you--serving, or teaching--then worry about all this other stuff. Right now you're just getting ahead of things.

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Originally posted by flynavynfo:

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Originally posted by AoiSonlee:

quote:

Originally posted by Mrsjvb:
Officers are first and foremost managers. most 'instructing' is done by enlisted personnel who are well versed in their ratings. and while there are a few teaching positions open at the USNA ( one of DH's classmates from High school is currently teaching there) it is not an option for many years. (Dave is either O5 or O6)

I don't think that is a fair assessment of opportunities for officer instructor billets at all. Not only does it ignore instructor positions at NROTC units, it also ignores the variety of instructor positions available at things like SWOS, flight school, power school, and of course the myriad of other Navy schools.

I totally agree with Mrsjvb. Instructor billets at flight school--not gonna happen unless he's a flier, and even then there's not a whole lot of math. NROTC? Not much math there, either, and you're teaching several other subjects aside from the few that contain any kind of math.

When you go in as an officer, you're entering a community, and there's only a chance that you'll wind up as an instructor.

This is equally true of enlisted. That's my point. The "officers are managers and therefore can't do X (but enlisted can)" line gets old after a while.