Posting on behalf of my daughter, who is vaguely interested in computer science but not totally 100% sure what she wants to do with it.

My take as an outsider is that cryptography, security and data mining are going to be huge in the near future, and experts in these fields will have no problem finding good jobs. Game programming (which she might be interested in) I think will do well over time but I expect there will be competition for those jobs.

Seems to me that the military could potentially be a good place to gain experience in each of those areas, even game programming. In some areas, maybe the best place to get relevant experience.

So, did any of you guys come up through the military? Valuable experience or waste of time?

I can't imagine the military being anywhere close to good for learning how to program well. I'm sure it has other advantages but in terms of learning good programming skills applicable outside of the military - nope.

Edit: The military is traditionally well behind in best practices for programming and I would guess they don't use a lot of open source code. I would guess you're stuck learning older technologies with older techniques and just generally being far from the cutting edge.

^^Excellent point. Thank you.

She should just find the area she's most interested in and pursue that imo, best chance of happiness and success. Focusing on which area of computing will likely have the best job prospects in the future isn't imo a good idea or starting point.

How old is your daughter and what makes you think she has an interest in programming? Cryptography and game programming are so different that you can barely even put them in the same category.

Also, one could argue that the best way to learn programming (and probably many other things) is to make mistakes. A lot of mistakes. I doubt the military is the best environment where mistakes are treated as part of the learning process.

The military I have no idea about, so you are probably correct. However, the DoD, Homeland Security, DoJ, etc. are all pretty big users of open source. We actually use a quote in our proposals about the security of open source:

"Continuous and broad peer review, enabled by publicly availably source code, supports software reliability and security efforts."

David M. Wennergren | Department of Defense CIO | “Clarifying Guidance Regarding Open Source"

While I'm sure the use of open source is becoming more common, I'm skeptical of a claim like "the DoD, Homeland Security, DoJ, etc. are all pretty big users of open source" at least in comparison to its use in private companies. Just my gut instinct, no evidence behind it.

A lot of kids these days want to develop games and get into programming because they play them a lot.

If she's good with Maths, especially Geometry, Trigonometry, and Physics then she should go for it, otherwise she'll hate it!

Have her take free or paid programming courses online and she will over time realize which field she wants to devote to and will enjoy it compared to picking a field before she REALLy can program.

Do not send her to the military.
If she can't become a decent programmer with searching online for all the free learning material, she is going to have a bad time.

Good point. Certainly a really bad idea to pursue something you hate just because the job prospects are good.

I should mention though that her cousin, who has a graduate degree in humanities, is currently making minimum wage. Probably won't hurt to at least think about job prospects.

My experience has been that the military contracts out the software they need and really is pretty much involved in software development at the program management level only.

Sounds like excellent advice. Last time I checked there are versions of C you can download for free, and a whole world of tutorials out there. I can gently suggest such things.

I think in general if you don't really want to be in the military, you shouldn't go.

A lot of people in my generation took the scholarships and did their time, knowing full well they would hate being in the military. All grew to regret that decision. The only exception was a friend who became a flight surgeon, served in Gulf War I. It wasn't easy and he certainly doesn't want to be doing it now, but it was a very important part of his life, is an important part of who he is now, and he's very proud of his service. I think that's kind of where you need to be.

There's at least an element of her that would make her proud to serve. If she comes back after four years with a line on her resume saying, "Spent the last two years at Tyndall developing the next-gen F22 flight simulator" and can claim she loved every minute of it, maybe it wouldn't be a bad choice.

Course, if she comes back saying, "I spent the last two years trying unsuccessfully to un-**** some ******ed outdated LAN at some backwards base hospital out in the middle of nowhere Nebraska" that will be another matter altogether I suppose.

Ugh. This is what she needs to hear. Thank you.

This is not 100% thorough, but it paints a decent picture of the growing support: http://gov-oss.org/

Cavuto recently hosted a good special about computer security in the military and a yearly week-long hacking war game that the academies of the 4 branches participate in. I forget who the attacker is, maybe the NSA. It was interesting to watch.

I don't know how things are now, but when I was younger, the competition in the game programming realm seemed pretty intense because that's what people wanted to do and they would sacrifice quality of life to do it. I knew a guy from computer camp who spent a summer getting high and writing code 70 hours a week.

Also, I'm glad someone is thinking about the future, in terms of job prospects, before finishing high school.

Most people are not rational like you but yes that is one of the reasons I wrote not to join the Military. I think the young people that sign up, do not know of many things like you listed and maybe I should just write be cautious about joining next time.

Most things people actually read online are from complainers because people that are happy or content don't write online as much as the other group.

When I look back before entering university, I wish that I had taken online courses and prepared beforehand. I think in 2014 the material online is most likely better than the material you get from Universities and I've seen people come out of top tier schools not knowing how to program because they don't write code, which ends up making me have to show them.

However, from my experience, a lot of the military officer corps has advanced degrees so there are educational opportunities. Stay in the military until you reach full retirement then double dip working for a contractor. I think you can still do that.

Looks like a lot of "policies" have been released.

She is in her last semester at community college. Was on an engineering track but not in love with the idea. She works out with a lot of people in the tech industry. She is starting to see the light. She's got a good head for math, a critical and creative thinker. Also kind of a bad-ass, is a black belt ninja. Seems to prefer sword but she can kick your butt with a belt, like pootie tang, which is something I didn't imagine I would see in my lifetime.

Who knows what will spark her interest. She's complicated.

There's a handful of people in this forum who are completely self-taught and began working in the industry within a year or two. There's no need to go into the military to learn this stuff.

She should try it first! You can't really practice at being a lawyer or a doctor or a banker before going to college, but you can definitely find out if you like to program by trying it out. If she's not interested enough to try it outside of school, it's much less likely she's going to find it's for her once she goes to college.

I could be reading this wrong but just based off quotes like these I get the impression she hasn't dabbled in computers a lot...if she had you wouldn't need to be suggesting languages or tutorials. Versions of C, and most mainstream languages, are usually free; in fact, it would be unusual to spend money on them particularly as a beginner, and she would know this.
I have no experience with the US military but big government bodies in general don't seem like the best place to learn software development skills, and I'm not surprised that the other posters are warning you off it.

Data related areas are growing at a rapid rate with no signs of slowing. There will never be another Fortune 500 company that is not fundamentally data driven. Get a strong education in software engineering and math/stats. Data scientist and data engineer are pretty lucrative and attractive careers. In general software engineers have a very high job satisfaction and great working conditions compared to average corporate America.

Game programming is a brutal field. Extremely competitive industry, long hours, low pay, and very niche area of software engineering.

Computer security is very different from the previous two areas. It requires a different method of thinking. You have to want to tinker and break things, and understand how computers and the internet work. It's like solving intricate puzzles.

I really appreciate all the thoughtful replies. Thanks for letting me use you as a focus group! I'll have her read this thread next time she's over.

Do not go for game development. It's always the same story: A buttload of unpaid extra hours, low payment.