Hi All,

I'm a 7 year army infantry vet(yay 25th! Jk ew), went to college during and after my service, got my degree in mathematics, and now I'm a data scientist working for one of your favorite drink companies you probably see commercials of on NFL Sundays. The technical capabilities of my role involve a healthy mix of coding, building statistical models, querying/studying data, excel etc etc.

There's a lot going on in the world right now with the rise of technology/A.I affecting certain industries and I wanted to come here and share with fellow vets and current members some options and advice for you that I've personally noticed as well as others I'm close with in these industries.

1. If college suits you, use that goddamn G.I. bill and go to college. It's 2023, almost every D1 university offers online degrees. If you want an accredited, fast option that isn't a sham like U of Phoenix/Devry etc, look into WGU or SNHU. Don't let it go to waste. Its one of the best benefits you'll ever receive. Unfortunately, we are beyond the days where having veteran on your resume guarantees you anything more than entry level work in most industries.

2. Trades. I work in a tech role and one industry that will be affected the slowest/least by A.I. is the trades. America needs electricians, plumbers, HVAC techs, etc. If you guys go on LinkedIn and look at job openings for some of these roles in states that require pay transparency, you'll notice that people can't fill trade jobs fast enough and depending on your location, they pay anywhere from $28-$50 an hour, plus you get full benefits/union etc. We are not anywhere near building robot electricians and plumbers lol. It's insane that you'll see a job posting for an electrician 6 states away with only 8 applicants after 2 weeks meanwhile an entry level data analyst role will have 800+ applicants within 1 weekend of being posted.

3. If you're interested in going into tech, maybe like a role such as data analyst, data engineer, data scientist, software developer/engineer, etc. These are great fields but they are currently extremely saturated at entry level and A.I. will definitely change the scope and roles of some of these jobs in the near future. Being a veteran helps a lot, being a veteran with a degree helps you even more. Being a veteran with a degree and a clearance guarantees you a job as a software engineer at lockheed/raytheon/northrup/booz allen/etc etc pretty much(most times). Defense companies move slow, projects are slow, work is slow, filling billets and getting people with clearances is more important than taking the next oppenheimer onto their team.

4. If you want to get into tech, no I would not suggest going to a bootcamp. If you don't want to physically move or go to a college campus, just do school online. Many accredited D1-D2 universities offer much cheaper fully online, asynchronous computer science degrees that you can complete on your own time. Bootcamps today in this current tech market are frowned upon and they're overly expensive and often times predatory. Social media and bootcamps have convinced anyone that they can become a software developer in just 3 easy months, but it's not true. This is helping cause such a bottleneck at the entry level tech roles.

5. Anything tech related that touches a physical product, so embedded engineering/electrical/mechanical/ etc(your internet of things devices like your Bluetooth microwave) there's less entry level bottlenecks, probably more demand, but also the knowledge required is more to enter the field.

My personal study recommendations.

• Want to be a Data analyst? Major in either math, stats, CS, data/business analytics, or economics. Learn SQL, Excel, Pick Tableau or Power BI, learn some Python.

• Want to be a Data scientist? Major in statistics with a minor in computer science. Though math/CS works as well. Learn same skills as above but more in depth as well as statistical concepts. Machine learning and all that jazz will come later, focus on fundamentals.

• Want to be a Data/Software engineer? Major in Computer science. For data engineer learn SQL, Python, and data engineering ETL/ELT processes.

Want to learn to code? Pick one of C, C++, Python, Java, HTML/CSS/Javascript, C#, GO, Rust, and stick to it and learn it well. Don't let yourself get into analysis paralysis or tutorial hell. Start building projects early and learn as you go.

Realistic starting salaries(all location & industry dependent and not including major silicon valley companies like google, apple, etc)

• Data Analyst: 60k-90k

• Data Scientist: 85k - 125k

• Data Engineer: 85k-125k

• Software Developer: 60k-100k

I cannot stress enough. Being a veteran doesn't guarantee you anything in our current and evolving economy. Don't let yourself fall behind and think you have your veteran status to fall back on, do what you can to keep up or stay ahead of the changes.

Hope this was helpful! Thanks.