Submarine JO...Career Questions

[CivilNuke]

All,

Great forum with tons of resources; I'm sure i haven't even begun to scratch the surface.  Thanks for all of the great posts and replies I have seen. 

My background: B.S. in Civil Engineering, Prior Enlisted Nuke, SSN JO/PNEO grad.  I have about a year left until my contract is up. 

It's been a while since I've talked to anyone who "got out" after their JO tour, so naturally I have a few questions up front:

1) Anyone have any experience with headhunters who supposedly specialize in Junior Officers?  Are they worth as much as their pitch would have you believe?  Should we bother with headhunters at all?
2) What is a realistic amount of "supervisory experience" that a sub JO should claim?
3) Starting Pay - what can I realistically expect in any of the major fields with my previous experience? 

Thanks again, any thoughts or answers are appreciated.

-Brad

[Xenon_Free]

1) No experience with headhunters, but judging from what I've seen in the industry and (mostly) what I;ve read on this forum they are not worth it for many jobs in the nuclear power plants.  For a job outside of nuclear power, probably a good move.

2)I was not an officer, however if you supervised then count it but don't embellishv- the guys at the nuke plants know it when you do.

3)  Since you could be anything from an engineer to some form of operator the pay varies.  Say 60 to 100 K your first year depending on what you get hired doing.  Even as a direct SRO the pay would amount to about the same since you will be in training and are once again a complete NUB.

XF.

[JustinHEMI05]

I agree, although I have had no experience with recruiters specializing in JOs, recruiters in general were useless to me unless I wanted to start at 50 grand somewhere.

However, I just spoke to the JO that sits next to me in my current class, and he said he did talk to some "JO" recruiters before getting out. He said that they can do nothing to help you get into commercial nuclear power, if that is what you want. For other jobs though, they might be able to find you something with a good starting pay, but it was usually in a non-ideal location. He said he had a job offer starting at 95K, but it was in the middle of no where.

That is the important thing to note, that if commercial nuclear power is your goal, those recruiters won't help you with that. Only your own research and work can get you into commercial nukes... which for you, means Instant/Direct SRO or engineering, for the most part.

In that case, XF is right in that your starting pay can be anywhere from the 60s to 100s (engineering to SRO), depending on location.

I think you will find that your best starting pay is going to be in the form of direct SRO.

Justin

[NukeNTO]

I did the Navy JO to Commercial nuke thing a couple years ago.
#1 agree with what everyone has said so far.  If nuke is your goal don't bother with a head hunter. 
#2 I'd claim the time you were on the boat as supervisory.  I probably wouldn't claim shore duty and certainly not any of the pipeline time. 
#3 Not sure about pay for Ops, but if you go into engineering you'll probably start as an Engineer III depending on the location it may vary some, but I'd expect to start in the 85-90k range.  Again there is some local variance there, but that should put you in the ballpark.  It was a pretty hefty paycut for me to get used to.  I've been at my plant for almost 2 years since getting out and I'm still not back to my old Navy pay yet.  Next year I should be pretty close.  So take that into consideration in your decision.  Lifestyle is definitely better though. 

[ranger2]

I also did the JO to SRO thing. I worked with Lucas Group prior to a commercial nuke opportunity popping up. Lucas was friendly and helpful. Most of their gigs topped out around $85k, but some of them were interesting. They did get me a phone interview for an engineering job at a nuke plant which would have paid around $85k plus an annual bonus (around $13k variable if I remember correctly). I had just accepted my current job, so the phone interview was just a pleasant conversation and advice.

Whether you should count shore duty toward supervisory experience depends on what you did. I was a protype guy, so I certainly counted it.

As for SRO pay, your experience may vary. I made more in license training than as a JO. Once I licensed, my pay jumped to around 75% more than I made as a JO. And I get to sleep in my own bed every night.