I was able to get 2M thinking it would be the shit when I hit the civilian world. The reality was that the skill/labor was either not desirable or low paying. I think I had one lead which was teaching soldering at a community college, and it went cold when they dropped the course.
My direct industry where ended up (life science equipment) has little or no need for the skills. Not a lot of component level troubleshooting occurs. Troubleshooting is barely taught to manufacturer field technicians for that matter. They get taught to swap modules until the fault goes away, then charge $$$ for a low cost part and exorbitant labor rates that the tech receives a pittance.
I did do some work with med device customers that would have some hand soldering in R&D, but nothing near the 2M curriculum. Mostly they would shoehorn a tech into the position and OJT them what the rest of the techs knew.
You have to remember, the point of the 2M program is to get military systems back online due to component level electronic faults (saving money on repairing modules is secondary). A radar is down and needs to be up because of a combat environment. Knowing that, the training investment is worth it for the navy. There is simply nothing in the private sector that falls into that risk classification.
Bottom line, if this is an interest I wouldn't pursue it, but I would expect much more beyond that. Just my opinion based on what I've seen, I welcome opinions from other industries.
I second this notion. Soldering for living pays nothing. I've been in the civilian "high-tech" maintenance space for five years, and component-level trouble shooting just doesn't come up.
The other reason the military cares more is that we often use much older technology that is no longer available new. OEM manufacturers don’t need someone to fix a card they can just pull new off a shelf.
Like the other ET2 said, it's not a good civ job. I know its very treasured in the Navy, often requiring an arm and a leg and washing Chiefs car just to go. I asked for it in 3 consecutive career development boards before I got it.
But on top of not paying well on the outside, it's a very dull job. Most full time civ techs sit at a bench for 8-10 hours soldering wire harnesses and other uninteresting components. I would focus on revisiting your ATT basics as that is a lot of what is asked during interviews and can get you some great jobs troubleshooting advanced equipment. I'm a prior ET and now recruit ETs so feel free to message if you have questions
There are times that contractors need soldering skills.
Making harnesses or assembly-level wiring.
Most boards are outsourced to a shop and those don't hand solder.
I was able to get 2M thinking it would be the shit when I hit the civilian world. The reality was that the skill/labor was either not desirable or low paying. I think I had one lead which was teaching soldering at a community college, and it went cold when they dropped the course. My direct industry where ended up (life science equipment) has little or no need for the skills. Not a lot of component level troubleshooting occurs. Troubleshooting is barely taught to manufacturer field technicians for that matter. They get taught to swap modules until the fault goes away, then charge $$$ for a low cost part and exorbitant labor rates that the tech receives a pittance. I did do some work with med device customers that would have some hand soldering in R&D, but nothing near the 2M curriculum. Mostly they would shoehorn a tech into the position and OJT them what the rest of the techs knew. You have to remember, the point of the 2M program is to get military systems back online due to component level electronic faults (saving money on repairing modules is secondary). A radar is down and needs to be up because of a combat environment. Knowing that, the training investment is worth it for the navy. There is simply nothing in the private sector that falls into that risk classification. Bottom line, if this is an interest I wouldn't pursue it, but I would expect much more beyond that. Just my opinion based on what I've seen, I welcome opinions from other industries.
I second this notion. Soldering for living pays nothing. I've been in the civilian "high-tech" maintenance space for five years, and component-level trouble shooting just doesn't come up.
The other reason the military cares more is that we often use much older technology that is no longer available new. OEM manufacturers don’t need someone to fix a card they can just pull new off a shelf.
Like the other ET2 said, it's not a good civ job. I know its very treasured in the Navy, often requiring an arm and a leg and washing Chiefs car just to go. I asked for it in 3 consecutive career development boards before I got it. But on top of not paying well on the outside, it's a very dull job. Most full time civ techs sit at a bench for 8-10 hours soldering wire harnesses and other uninteresting components. I would focus on revisiting your ATT basics as that is a lot of what is asked during interviews and can get you some great jobs troubleshooting advanced equipment. I'm a prior ET and now recruit ETs so feel free to message if you have questions
There are times that contractors need soldering skills. Making harnesses or assembly-level wiring. Most boards are outsourced to a shop and those don't hand solder.