Yes indeed, 20 years gone refers to the fact that the last 20 years have slipped away, and it seems like yesterday that I was reporting into Great Lakes, scared and excited, wondering what would happen next. But, I have learned that time and mass are related, because not only have the last 20 years seemed to coalesced into 60 lbs on me, but whenever I try to exercise to lose it, time seems to slow down. Hmmmmm.
I'm currently at NPS, and let me tell you, the focus has changed somewhat over the last 20 years. Let me tell you, adidas... When I first came in, we went to ET 'A', EM 'A', or MM 'A' school, and we were in class with non-nukes. The questions on exams were all multiple choice, and school was a breeze. However, if you didn't graduate in the top two thirds of your class, you didn't go on to NPS, but instead, they just made you a conventional (non-nuclear) ET, EM, or MM. Sometimes, you would have over two thirds of the class loaded with nukes, and so SOMEONE would be bound to lose their future. NPS was known to be a huge filter, and attrition from beginning to end of the nuclear training pipeline was around 50%, and this was a source of pride for those who made it through. They started teaching NFAS (Nuclear Field A School) instead of sending us to be mixed with conventionals for A school, and all that multiple choice stuff was gone gone gone. Everything is essay. Then, one day in 1997, about a year before NPS graduated its last class from Orlando (we're in Charleston, now) the new headman in Naval Reactors, Admiral 'Skip' Bowman, came to call on us, and we had a meeting out in the quad in the afternoon, with all staff attending. It was known as the meeting on the grassy knoll. Skip laid down the law... Nuclear Power as he saw it was heading into a death spiral... The Navy couldn't recruit enough sailors for the program, and we were dropping large amounts in the training pipeline, so the ships at sea were undermanned. This cause life at sea to be worse then it had to be, causing first and second term sailors to get out, and get the lucrative jobs available in civilian industry. Therefore, we had to do a better job in graduation of the sailors that the recruiters provided to us. So, we had lots of boards and committees to try and figure out what was to be done... And let me tell you, it's hard to pass this school, but it's also hard to fail, as well. The instructers always tried hard, but now, you have to justify to everyone up the chain of command why a student is failing... Failing two subjects? Well, that's ok, retain the student and let him/her recover. Failed the comprehensive exam? Take another in a week. Fail that one? Well, have an academic board, and if you can pass that, on you go to prototype. So, adidas, the moral to all this is... Be prepared, get the most you can out of your education, but be confident!! You are working with a safety net... We all realize you are the future of our program, and we'll do our utmost to ensure you get the knowledge and whatever help you need to succeed.
Now so far as being a nuclear welder... One of my last sea spots was AQAO onboard Enterprise. Unfortunately, for Adidas, and the nuclear navy, we don't send nukes to be welders anymore. We had one nuclear certified welder onboard (he belonged to R-div) and no more coming. If you need a job done at that level, then civilians will do it. It bothers me... The trend I see is ETs not being able to troubleshoot to the component level, and mechanics continually sending out valve maintenance/repairs and any nuclear work to the shipyard to perform.
It depends on what you like, Adidas... Do you like circuitry (ET)? Do you like getting under the hood of a car? (MM) Do you like just getting paid? (EM) Just kidding!!! Theres an old saying that ETs get paid for what they know, MMs get paid for what they do, and EMs just get paid!!

But what matters in follow on industry, it seems to me, is getting qualified at least PPWS, get you college done if possible, and learn to lead people in difficult situations.
OK, enough rambling.. Be confident. You sound like your miles ahead of the completion already. You wouldn't believe how many people come into the program and dont do any research at all. Kudos to you!!