Going Navy Nuke questions

[dga212spam]

Wow, what a community of knowledge here!  I graduated from NYU ugrad Stern business program with  degrees in finance & accounting 2years ago. I then spent 2 years working as an analyst on wallstreet and am considering a career change- going nuclear.

I did AP sciences and scored really well back in HS, AP Chem - 5, Calc B - 5, Physics C - 5/4 (Mech/EM). I also got a 1310 on my SAT.  Unfortunately I didn't do any science in college, and I had a low gpa (2.7).  Although, there is a strict curve at Stern.   I really think I made a career mistake by going to ugrad business school (although it was a great program). 

I can see that there is a coming construction boom in nuclear (17 new reactors in application here in the US) after not building ANY for decades.

What is the best way to get into the field?  I would considered going Navy, as that would help me get the most technical experience the most rapidly. 

1)  What are the chances for a guy with my background getting into NUPOC as an officer?
2) If I can't go officer what is the difference in level of training and experience with the Nukes?  Do officers learn more about the technology?  Do they do better after the Navy than enlisted guys?
3)  What the chances I can convince a power company to train me?  Do they need guys with finance degrees in the reactor room? (i doubt it but hey you never know).
4)  What do people earn in this field?  Or more precisely, what kind of career path can a guy like me get on?

Thanks to all in advance, great site!

[Fermi2]

Why did you post this in two different forums? Were you hoping for 1/2 answer in each?

There's about 30 dozen threads here, including on ongoing one that have all your answers.

One thing about being a nuke, you gotta have the get up and go to find answers for yourself.

Mike

[Roll Tide]

Since this query is on the Navy side of the house, we can answer the specific Navy questions here. (The other thread will have to answer the commercial questions)

There are officer positions which you would qualify for based on your current experience, but they aren't nuclear positions. There is no embaressment at being the Supply Officer aboard a submarine, for example. But this will not position you for a strong entry position into the commercial nuclear world afterwards. As a career, it would be a good choice.

If you wan to go nuclear Navy, your quickest entry would be enlisted. You need much college in order to qualify for a Nuke officer program.

[ranger2]

Did the nuke officer thing (NUPOC).

Now doing the civilian ops/SRO thing.

Be happy to answer any specific questions via pm.

1) Nupoc officer req'ts are 2 semesters of calculus and 2 semesters of calculus based physics; however, in general they are engineering types (include some physics, chemistry, and math majors). Have seen non-technical majors go nuke, but generally only from the academy, and they still have to take calc/physics classes. Not aware of a strict GPA req't, but in general they look for high GPAs. I don't think your background would get you in the door.

2) As for officer vs enlisted, wouldn't touch that subject with a ten-foot pole on a public forum.

3) Honeycomb was right...the plant will train you, but you have to get hired first. All of the new hires I know of have either come from a civilian nuke background at a different plant or from the navy. Don't know how this mix will change as the aging nuke workforce retires in the next decade or so. Company pays a good bit of money towards a licenced trainee's salary with no guarantee of their success. They try to hedge their bets by hiring guys who've been there and done that.

4) Money is good. Better than I came across in any other field while I was considering post-navy employment.

Hope this helped somewhat. PM if you have more specific questions.

[NavynukeMM1]

Don't go enlisted. If you have a bachelor's degree, no matter what a recruiter tells youabout how easy it will be to become an officer if you join as enlisted, you will hate life as enlisted. I have done 15 years so far, and for me not having a degree, I am fairly satisfied with my job otherwise I would have gotten out years ago. I highly recommend you try the officer route as a nuke, or look into other options as a Naval Officer. The respect you will get as an officer is so much higher than as enlisted.

[ranger2]

No hard feelings.

I was going to go into the differences between officer and enlisted training and the differences in their jobs, which would be easy to do in a face to face discussion, but difficult to word correctly on a public forum without it being misinterpreted or taken as an insult by both sides of the fence.

Against my better judgment, I'll try to generalize:

You are correct that no officer will ever know as much about RC division equipment as the RC division chief/LPO. Same goes for every other division.

I would say "in general" officers get more crosstraining and integrated plant operations training and experience than enlisted (ie the typical RC div guy probably doesn't know as much about seawater or lube oil systems as an officer, or the typical officer knows much more about RC div equipment than the typical mechanic, etc). At prototype, the o-gangers had to stand every watch in the plant multiple times.

I'd also say, "in general" that officers delve much more into theory, calculations, etc. I've known many prior-enlisted officers. Without exception, they tell me the officer pipeline was much harder than the enlisted pipeline. As example, in my commercial SRO class, we were given an NRC fundamentals pre-test prior to being taught the material in class, just to see where we stood. The entire class was prior navy, with the vast majority prior enlisted. Only 2 guys passed the test: one held an RO licence at another commercial plant, the other was a recently separated officer (the officer scored the highest in the class).

What does all this mean?...absolutely nothing! Could a bunch of officers start up the reactor on their own...probably. Could they start up the engine-room on their own...highly doubtful. Could they maintain or repair any of the equipment...even more doubtful. Everyone has their own part to play, and their success both in the navy and in the commercial world depends more upon their own work-ethic and judgment...neither of which is unique to officers or enlisted.

I have an enormous amount of respect for enlisted nukes. The crap they put up with compared to their financial compensation would be hard to comprehend were it not for love of country or other reward. They are almost without exception, extremely intelligent and could make much more money elsewhere.

Hope I did not offend anyone with my generalizations. If so, it was not my intention.

[Fermi2]

Don't go enlisted. If you have a bachelor's degree, no matter what a recruiter tells youabout how easy it will be to become an officer if you join as enlisted, you will hate life as enlisted. I have done 15 years so far, and for me not having a degree, I am fairly satisfied with my job otherwise I would have gotten out years ago. I highly recommend you try the officer route as a nuke, or look into other options as a Naval Officer. The respect you will get as an officer is so much higher than as enlisted.

What a crock. Virtually everywhere I've been , Navy or Civilian people have EARNED respect for what they do and who they are, and not their rank, rate or position.

Mike

[Roll Tide]

I had a chief that put in for an officer program. Because his degree didn't meet the entry requirements for the nuclear program, he knew he wouldn't become a nuke officer. What surprised him was that he wasn't even going to be a line officer; he was being slated for Supply Corps. He dropped out of the program to return to the nuclear side as enlisted.

(If he were going to stay in, he said the supply officer thing would have been better; but he was looking at getting out and going into some commercial or DOE nuclear work)