Officers will have a head-start on managerial experience, commanding personnel at the mid- to senior-level corporate executive level.

The remaining 18% are officers, who are responsible for overseeing operations and enlisted personnel. They are primarily responsible for carrying out military operations. MissionsĮnlisted personnel make up 82% of the military. Once complete, OCS/OTS cadets will commission just like academy and ROTC cadets. Cadets who already have college degrees will undergo a three-month training program that includes military academics and leadership training as well as boot camp. Once academy or ROTC cadets graduate and receive their degrees, they commission into active duty and receive orders for their first assignment, which, like enlisted personnel, will probably include a job-specific training.Ī third route to becoming an officer is to complete an Officer Candidate School (or Officer Training School, depending on the branch). For officer candidates, boot camp is the rite of passage that will elevate cadets to the leadership fundamentals portion of their training. Half-way through their studies, they will attend a summer boot camp, much like the enlisted boot camps except that cadets will already be expected to meet physical fitness and academic requirements. Two options for cadets without college degrees are to attend a military academy, such as West Point or the Air Force Academy, or to join the Reserve Officer Training Corps while attending the qualified college of their choice.Īcademy cadets and ROTC cadets will learn about the military while completing their undergraduate or graduate degrees. In order to earn a commission into the United States military, officer candidates must complete an officer training program. Qualifications for commissioning in the military: After about eight weeks of boot camp, enlisted personnel will receive their first duty assignments (probably at a job-specific training location) and they’ll be ready to actively serve in the military. It is a strenuous introduction to military life, from the medical in-processing to the physical training to the hazing discipline. Pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) testįor each branch, enlisted personnel begin their military experience with a form of boot camp.Qualifications for enlisting in the military: We’ll cover everything from pay and benefits, mission execution to culture. In this article, we’ll be going over some of the differences between officers and enlisted personnel across the five branches of the military.

The biggest factors that go into your military experience are which branch you join and whether you enlist or commission as an officer. The military is a major commitment and will probably affect the rest of your life, whether you serve for four years or forty. That’s one way to go about signing your life away to Uncle Sam, but it’s not what I would recommend. I know a lot of veterans who based their military careers on whichever recruiting office they walked into first.

Define enlisted