Pay after Navy

[Starkist]

What does cacophony mean?

Justin

Lol Im gonna mail you a dictionary haha :p

Don't worry... I know my sarcasm doesn't translate well over the internets. And that edited part was all about the wife and kids... so as I do not have any experience and whatnot I do like to plan ahead. I love mastering the art of the backup plan. Now on your comment of the diversity of those on the forum, that is why I wanted a broad discussion, because I highly doubt there are many of you in my shoes and I would rather have useful information from many people than useless information from few. How do you model without a lot of data?

Eh, dont discount this forum that much. More then a few of us have had to go through some crap at one point or another. The only data point here, is yourself. We cant read your mind, we dont know your background, and we dont what you're even capable of doing.  You need to figure out what you want to be when you grow up on your own. Being a SWO(N) will open many many many doors for you, you  just need to figure out which door you want..... THEN, as my first post in the thread suggested, ask about specific jobs instead of "how much will I get paid" as a carte blanch statement .

[Stormon]

OK, so my original question was worded properly, as you may note it was posted at 2 in the morning.

My question rather, is, "What are your experiences of getting out of the Navy? What was your rank before leaving? What degrees did you have? What job did you get? and What was your starting pay and benefits?"

[Higgs]

What is your GPA?

[Stormon]

What is your GPA?

I answered that in a post on the "Getting in" forum. Currently it is about 3.3. I had a really bad Freshman year in the College of Tech at my school. I transferred to the College of Arts and Sciences where they didn't keep track of my Tech credits... then the school changed reporting systems so as my first year was a 1.9 or so, it has been near 3.8-3.9 for the last two years. So, I'm not sure what that matters but I should graduate in 2 years with a dual major in Math and Physics with a 3.6 or so, assuming I don't do anything stupid.

[Higgs]

I answered that in a post on the "Getting in" forum. Currently it is about 3.3. I had a really bad Freshman year in the College of Tech at my school. I transferred to the College of Arts and Sciences where they didn't keep track of my Tech credits... then the school changed reporting systems so as my first year was a 1.9 or so, it has been near 3.8-3.9 for the last two years. So, I'm not sure what that matters but I should graduate in 2 years with a dual major in Math and Physics with a 3.6 or so, assuming I don't do anything stupid.

Well based on that, you should easily be able to get a job at like westinghouse, and what not, but I am not sure. I don't know if they want people with 3.8s and above like NR or if they are like a nuke plant (typical) that 2.0 to go is the way. I don't know their pay, obviously. I only comment about this because I am not aware of any westinghouse/GE nuke engineers on the site.

Based on what else you said, here are some choices for nuclear power ops;

1) Do your minimum time, get out, be an SRO at a nuke plant.
2) Stay in through your department head tour, get out, be an SRO at a nuke plant.

Now, I said earlier that anything less than 05 you will be treated the same (IE be an SRO), but I do have a former skipper who is also "just" an SRO. That said, if you stay in and achieve your goals of O6/7, you won't get hired (typically) into management at a nuke site, but you could get hired in at the corporate level. None of that set in stone.

Assuming you get out before a full 20 and stay 05 or less, you can figure roughly 100K to start. That will be more or less, of course, depending on plant..., but is a good average. Added on top of that is usually a license bonus of about 20%, a yearly bonus of 15%, a requal bonus (varies wildly), etc. On average, in my experience at 2 plants, ON SHIFT SROs make 130-160K/year, with most being closer to the 150-160K range.

As far as engineering at a plant, I am not sure if they hire people in at different levels, based on Navy experience. Speaking to an engineer in my class right now, he said "they don't care," meaning typically, as I outlined above, you start where everyone else does. However, if you do your 20 and get out as an O6, then you might get special treatment.

Hope that helps.

[Stormon]

Well based on that, you should easily be able to get a job at like westinghouse, and what not, but I am not sure. I don't know if they want people with 3.8s and above like NR or if they are like a nuke plant (typical) that 2.0 to go is the way. I don't know their pay, obviously. I only comment about this because I am not aware of any westinghouse/GE nuke engineers on the site.

Based on what else you said, here are some choices for nuclear power ops;

1) Do your minimum time, get out, be an SRO at a nuke plant.
2) Stay in through your department head tour, get out, be an SRO at a nuke plant.

Now, I said earlier that anything less than 05 you will be treated the same (IE be an SRO), but I do have a former skipper who is also "just" an SRO. That said, if you stay in and achieve your goals of O6/7, you won't get hired (typically) into management at a nuke site, but you could get hired in at the corporate level. None of that set in stone.

Assuming you get out before a full 20 and stay 05 or less, you can figure roughly 100K to start. That will be more or less, of course, depending on plant..., but is a good average. Added on top of that is usually a license bonus of about 20%, a yearly bonus of 15%, a requal bonus (varies wildly), etc. On average, in my experience at 2 plants, ON SHIFT SROs make 130-160K/year, with most being closer to the 150-160K range.

As far as engineering at a plant, I am not sure if they hire people in at different levels, based on Navy experience. Speaking to an engineer in my class right now, he said "they don't care," meaning typically, as I outlined above, you start where everyone else does. However, if you do your 20 and get out as an O6, then you might get special treatment.

Hope that helps.

That is great advice, I guess this thread will end up in a different direction than I hoped but it is nice to hear about specific jobs.

On the topic of corporate jobs, any idea what they involve? And I know I've read about it on the forums but what are the job specs for an SRO?

What I'm gathering is that 5 years in or 19.5 years in are about the same if I don't get to O-5? Or are you saying that I should get to O-6 to get the better standing in the civilian world? I'm not sure where you are cutting it off at.

Are there any theoretical jobs in the Nuke Eng field rather than mainly operational? I know a few of the Nuke Engs at the local plant and they tell me there's not a lot of Math involved... I do especially like math

[Higgs]

That is great advice, I guess this thread will end up in a different direction than I hoped but it is nice to hear about specific jobs.

Outside of knowing how to operate the sh*t out of a nuke plant, I am pretty stupid, so I guess I don't know where you want this thread to go. How are we supposed to answer your original questions without giving specific examples? Or, if you want to know what salaries to expect, how about I just say anywhere between 50-200K? That is about as broad as you are looking for, isn't it?

On the topic of corporate jobs, any idea what they involve? And I know I've read about it on the forums but what are the job specs for an SRO?

I can't speak intelligently about what corporate jobs you'd be qualified for, except maybe engineering. You certainly wouldn't be hired into anything that is in the path of managing operations of nuclear facilities. I have heard of the occasional Admiral that got hired in at the executive level, but outside of that, I am not sure. Perhaps one of the more experienced SROs like Broadzilla can speak to that. The point is, everyone has to get an SRO license (for the most part) at some point. It is called "getting your ticket punched." That license is almost always held above any degree you obtain. I know VPs with no degrees but they have an SRO license. The SRO license is supreme, and there is nothing you can do in the Navy or college to change that.

What do you mean by jobs specs? What the job entails or what is required to become an SRO? In either case, both of those are covered extensively on this site so I am not going to recover them..., and even if the last post was 2007, it is still current.

What I'm gathering is that 5 years in or 19.5 years in are about the same if I don't get to O-5? Or are you saying that I should get to O-6 to get the better standing in the civilian world? I'm not sure where you are cutting it off at.

What I am saying, which I am clearly not getting across well, is that all of your degrees and Navy experience add up to about 2 bullets on your resume. To the commercial nuclear power world, they are almost meaningless and merely get you in the door for an interview. For 9/10 Navy nukes, the highest you can hope to hire in at is SRO. I am not sure what you think you should be entitled to other than that. You should count yourself lucky that commercial nukes even allow people to hire in at SRO. There is no clear cut case, is what I am saying. Like I said before, I know an 05 who was my Commanding Officer on a Fast Attack submarine who hired in at the same level I did, a lowly E6 blue shirt. Hell, there is even a 6 an outer enlisted nuke on the site that hired in as an SRO. Commercial nuclear power is the great equalizer. If you want to go higher than that from the onset, then you need to be super special and be the 1/10 that what I said doesn't apply to. Maybe you are, only time will tell.

Are there any theoretical jobs in the Nuke Eng field rather than mainly operational? I know a few of the Nuke Engs at the local plant and they tell me there's not a lot of Math involved... I do especially like math

I can't speak to that outside of a nuke plant, but I don't think the "nuclear engineering" would be too interesting to you based on what you said, at a nuke plant. They don't do any real "engineering," like design and what not. Sure, they put a core together, but it isn't challenging and where I've been, they pretty much use a computer program to do it anyway. Now, I am not and never will be in nuclear engineering here, but they showed me what they do, and most of them aren't happy..., mostly because the work is mundane and they are severely underpaid compared to ops. So take what I say about engineering with a grain of sale. Like I said before, according to the engineers in my class, little credit is given to your Navy experience unless you are the rare special snow flake. Again, you may or may not be, only time will tell.

What it boils down to for commercial nuclear power is this;

If you want to maximize your pay when you get out, then SRO is your only choice in 9/10 cases. If you are that 1/10 person, then I don't know.

If you want someone to drool at your college accolades and Navy achievements, you need to look outside of commercial nuclear power.

Good luck.

[DDMurray]

I am a retired MCPO.  I hired in as Direct (aka Instant) SRO.  In my ILT class were 3 retired LCDRs (2 sub line officers and 1 LDO).  They started at a higher wage than me.  When our licenses arrive in the mail, we will all draw about the same pay, except they will draw STA pay which adds about 3-5K per year, I think.  I'm not eligible for STA right now because I have a Business/Management degree instead of a technical degree.

Here's an example of a 1/10 guy:  Retired O-6 (former Reactor Officer on a carrier) hired into the Maintenance and Mods Dept at my plant.  He completed an SRO certification (watered down licensed SRO curriculum) and is now the Operations Manager at one of our sister plants.

[retired nuke]

I am so glad we have been able to have this intelligent conversation on such a vital topic! That's OK, I know a lost cause when I see one. It's been great trying to extract information from an unwilling crowd. After a dozen posts no one has anything useful to say.

BTW, thank you HouseDad for calling me an arrogant git. That was greatly appreciated. BRING ON THE BAD KARMA!!! Do you all in fact know what the consequences of giving someone bad karma are?

*It seems I will not need to spend much more time on these forums... while I would like to give advice to people who need it, you folks are one problem I don't need to deal with*

Also, if you don't understand some of my comments [Enter Sarcasm Here] afterwards and they might make sense Good luck all.


Ant to MacGyver, the point is not that it is 90 days old, but rather that much of the consolidated information was back in 2007, with a few specific careers being discussed last year or so, AND the fact that as I was posting the forum told me to start a new topic, which I did and was received with animosity.

Thankfully, I'll be retired before your ears are dry, and you come out to the commercial world to impress us.
I've seen a bunch like you - want someone to get the answers for them, tell everyone how bright they are, and end up trying to direct a load path over the core during an outage....



Try and accomplish something real - not just college.

[Higgs]

I am a retired MCPO.  I hired in as Direct (aka Instant) SRO.  In my ILT class were 3 retired LCDRs (2 sub line officers and 1 LDO).  They started at a higher wage than me.  When our licenses arrive in the mail, we will all draw about the same pay, except they will draw STA pay which adds about 3-5K per year, I think.  I'm not eligible for STA right now because I have a Business/Management degree instead of a technical degree.

Here's an example of a 1/10 guy:  Retired O-6 (former Reactor Officer on a carrier) hired into the Maintenance and Mods Dept at my plant.  He completed an SRO certification (watered down licensed SRO curriculum) and is now the Operations Manager at one of our sister plants.

Ah yes, thanks brother for reminding me of the other "ticket punching...," the SRO cert. Had a bunch of those at ustaplant, not so much here, so I've forgotten about that.


So there you go Stormon, more experience backing up what I am telling you.

There is nothing wrong with setting your goals high, you most certainly should..., you may just want to reevaluate your expectations a bit, IMO.

Justin

[Stormon]

Thank u guys for those last few posts. They were very useful. I have been reading up on the SRO certification stuff. Very interesting. Yes I do hope I am one of those 1/10 guys but who knows! Yes HouseDad you are correct, I am a mere college student with high hopes, but no, I do not expect others to do anything for me in life. With that in mind I will not let them hinder me either so you can post rude comments all you want but I will continue to plan and make goals despite what any individual thinks of me. But you are correct that I have not accomplished anything, but why should I not dream?

[cheme09]

All good info here especially on the ops stuff, but from your descriptions of your interests, it doesn't sound like you would want to work in operations or much less, at a utility.  I am a graduate nuke engineering student and have interned with a utility, am doing a summer at a shipyard, and am going back to a utility in a different nuke engineering role than before.  I have done extensive research into the nuclear field as far as careers (including NUPOC), so I'll try to give you my opinion.

First off, you'll be SWO(N) for at least 5 years.  If you decide to get out then, you'll be without an engineering degree, so the only nuclear experience you'll have is through the navy.  Utilities will likely not want you as an engineer, but rather for ops - and you've received very good ops info here.  If you stay in and get an engineering degree along the way (sidenote: a degree in Nuclear Engineering and Nuclear Engineering Tech are not the same) then you'll have the opportunity to move into engineering.  But the longer you stay in the navy, the less a civilian company will want to hire you for your degree.  For example if you stay in for 20yrs, you will likely not be getting hired for your engineering degree that you received 15yrs ago.  They'll most likely be hiring you for your leadership experience (read: management).  The exception to the rule is ops.  As a NTO, you are a well trained nuclear operator therefore they will hire an O-5 or O-6 into an SRO position.

Outside the navy, as far as utility work goes, sounds like you'd be most interested in core design.  All those guys do is crunch number/run codes to map flux, shuffle the core, help with transient analysis, etc.  Safety analysis might also be a good fit.  Other than that, there's really not many "math intensive" stuff at a utility - its engineering.  Your background is physics and math, so you get into a lot of that theoretical stuff.  Engineering is about application of the theories/equations you guys come up with - we don't do a lot of derivations.  Codes (computer programs) are written to perform all those intensive calculations for us.  We just need to understand the parameters and how the code comes up with the answer.

But utilities are just one part of the nuclear industry.   Sounds like you want to go into research or at least into an analytic-type role.  Look into the national labs and the companies that support commercial nuclear power (B&W, Westinghouse, Areva, etc).  There are a handful of companies working on newer designs also.  Do some research and find out what interests you.  The best advice I can give to you as a student is to attend the annual ANS Student Conference held every spring.  You'll get exposed to all the research going on in nuclear science and get to talk to a bunch of companies and labs. This coming school year it's in Las Vegas.  I'm sure with your NUPOC money, you'll be able to make that trip.

Good luck.

[Higgs]

Excellent post!

[drayer54]

The best advice I can give to you as a student is to attend the annual ANS Student Conference held every spring.  You'll get exposed to all the research going on in nuclear science and get to talk to a bunch of companies and labs. This coming school year it's in Las Vegas.  I'm sure with your NUPOC money, you'll be able to make that trip.

You just made this ANS member very happy. I guess I need to read the bulletins a little closer. Anyone want to discuss core design over some blackjack?

[Stormon]

I would LOVE to go to that conference.

Is there anyone connected to the National Labs and/or Jefferson Labs on here I could chat with about types of jobs/ careers?

[cheme09]

But the longer you stay in the navy, the less a civilian company will want to hire you for your degree.  For example if you stay in for 20yrs, you will likely not be getting hired for your engineering degree that you received 15yrs ago.  They'll most likely be hiring you for your leadership experience (read: management).  The exception to the rule is ops.  As a NTO, you are a well trained nuclear operator therefore they will hire an O-5 or O-6 into an SRO position.

Just thought of it, but as a SWO(N), if you make it to your Reactor Officer tour, you might be able to hop into a reactor engineering position.

[NukeLDO]

I highly doubt there are many of you in my shoes

This one is unique....just like the rest of us! 

[drayer54]

Don't worry... because I highly doubt there are many of you in my shoes and I would rather have useful information from many people than useless information from few.

This one is unique....just like the rest of us! 

[Rennhack]

Stormon,

Good thing you are more persistent than sensitive.  It seems that if you stick around long enough, some of these people might actually help you.    Congratulations on getting over that hurdle.  There are a plethora of folks on this site from all walks of life.  However, your question was aimed at the folks that behave the way you saw.  I'll bet a per diem check, when you get out, you act just like they do.  But for now, please stick around, and stick it out.  Stay with us for your career, and share you experience with others.  And try to do it nicely, so the only voices aren't the harsh voices you have heard.

I'll echo that the job most geared toward physics/math/theory are at national labs.  At those facilities, they won't look at you with less than a PhD, and the Navy time will mean little to them in my limited experience.  All they care about is the Paper you received (PhD) and where you received it.  At the Nat Labs, the folks with masters degrees mop the floor, and push brooms.

People like to be around people like themselves.  They hire people with similar experiences to theirs, so they can relate, and they know what to expect.  People at the Nat Labs, have PhD's, and are only interested in others with PhD's.  Commercial Power plants are full of folks from the Navy program, and LOVE LOVE LOVE guys in the Navy program.  The power plants make a product, and are funded by that product.  You will get the best overall income there, IMHO.  The Nat Labs are funded by Washington, and the funding shifts with the favor and flavor of the moment. -- Just a little something to think about.

You may not be 'challenged' as an SRO, but your mortgage will be paid, and your neighbors will respect you.  You wife won't  leave you, and your kids will know who you are.

[Gamecock]

The OP hasn't logged on in ten days.