Atcrossroad wrote:
(BlackBeard)...

"Doug \"Woody\" and Erin Beal"...

Look, your best bet is NOT to enlist. Get your citizenship first and either
jump into the Navy or Air Force as an officer OR go to someplace like Eglin
AFB, NAS Pax River, MD, or NAWS China Lake, CA and get a challenging
technical job as a civilian engineer (civil servant). The pay will be
decent, and the satisfaction is great because you'll be working with cutting
edge weapons systems--hands on--an engineer's dream.

The best advice so far, but....

With the exception that his story was just vague enough to raise
flags. PhD in what? He stated electronics was just a hobby and he
doesn't have the degree in it. So is he an ME? AE? Choo-Choo
engineer? Sanitation Engineer?


2nd tier schools...Ph.D. in systems engineering...only a vague clue about systems engineering...all my
experience is in materials science/metallurgy...degree raises flags. I have a B.S. in
metallurgical engineering, not really a high demand/growth field too.

There is a significant Ph.D. glut in the labor market. Ph.D. from a
good school is not an advantage (in most of the cases) in the real
world (outside of narrow research fields). Ph.D. from a second tier is
simply a burden on one's neck.

Waaa, waaa, waaaa, $%^&-ing waaa.

Dude, get over your whining. Life sucks, it's tough out there. Saying
having a PhD is somehow a burden and holds you back is a steaming load
of horse manure. If it holds you back, it's because you let it. Do you
think resumes have the slightest impact in getting a job? HA! They are
screening forms, allowing people to throw you into a circular file.

No wonder you're underemployed. you spend all your effort making
excuses. Join the Navy, so you can be further disappointed with life's
slings and arrows, and how the system hasn't recognized and taken
advantage of your now overeducated abilities.

Buying an education is like buying a box of tools. Yours are sitting on
the shelf unused. That's your fault. Go buy a falling apart house and
use your engineering skills to restore it and sell it for a profit. Take
broken radios and fix them. Fix TVs. Want to work on electronics? Just
do it! Do great at it, and people will come knocking on your door,
instead of you knocking on theirs. Talent is always rewarded. All you
have is potential.

Or do you really want a Dilbert job where someone hand feeds you?

Go out and buy a copy of "What Color is Your Parachute" by a Mr. Bolles.
Your local bookstore will have it. study it, complete it, follow it.
You'll get what you want that way.