MBA advice needed

If you join the military, do it for the right reasons. Just don't try to become an officer as a positioning move. It's a hard life. Are you ready to die to impress an Admissions Committee? Seriously. This is coming from a Marine.

"At this point, I'm strongly considering becoming an officer in the army through officer candidate school because most of my family has been in the military and I know its respected work experience in the eyes of business school admissions officers. However, what type of clout does military experience have on say wall street if I were to get an MBA after 4 years or so in the military then seek a job there? Thanks for any advice you have. "

I strongly agree with Piggles here. The life of a military officer is very hard and much more complicated than you might expect.

We have a completely different set of technical and tactical skills such as navigation, marksmanship, radio communications, the military decision-making process etc. I have known people think they just walk in, become an officer, and order people around.

That is not the case, as piggles said, if you do not have your heart in it - not only could you die but you could also get some of the best people in our country killed, jack up an important mission, or kill civilians.

Also there are a number of specialties, and just like business school, so you would need an idea of what path to take. In the Army you could be assigned to Armor, Air Defense, Chemical, Infantry (my branch), Logistics, Military Intelligence, Military Police, Aviation, Ordnance, Personnel, etc.

Each branch has its own culture, duties, and responsibilities, and you will gain different skill sets from each. Some are very dangerous - Infantry, Armor, some more technical - MI, Logistics etc, some incur longer committments - Aviation

OCS will mean you go to basic training, then OCS, then your branch specialty school, this will take roughly 6-8 months (depending on your branch) and it will not be a one-stop model. be prepared to be far from home with little free time and staring down a tour in Afghanistan. You will do 3 years in exchange for an OCS commission which will likely equate to one 12-15 month deployment.

As far as networking, it really depends, the veteran network is tight. I know my West Point network, as well as the other service Academy networks are well-established on Wall Street. I am sure the same can be said of strong ROTC programs.

OCS fills its ranks from alot more "career-changers", enlisted Soldiers or Sergeants with potential, etc versus the more academic type commission sources like ROTC and Service Academies.

Either way, think long and hard about this and do your due diligence.

Pick up "One Bullet Away" by Nate Fick if you want to read a pretty good account of a somewhat naive Ivy Leaguer deciding to become a Marine Officer.

As others have said, don't join the military if you're just doing it to impress an AdCom down the road. The Marines/soldiers/sailors you'll lead deserve better than that. And you'll probably find yourself pretty miserable pretty quickly.

But to answer your original question, yes, military service is viewed favorably by AdComs and top firms...assuming you have a strong service record. Joining for the wrong reasons and subsequently being miserable are unlikely to result in a strong record. Former military guys/girls are heavily represented in management consulting and finance in particular.

I think I came off a little too harsh earlier. Your family has military experience, so you may have some idea of what you're getting into. However, my original statement still stands.

Just remember, business school isn't an end, it's a means to an end. Your goal probably isn't HBS, it's the opportunities that will open up because you attended HBS.

It seems like you want to go into some type of finance, marketing, general management field eventually, so why not try to join one of the corporate management rotation programs. It will give you exposure to several functional areas and give you a feel for what you might enjoy. If you hate it, you can always try to find something else.

That last part is something I found very difficult about the military. You can't just walk away if it's a bad fit for you. There was a certain point in OCS where we were allowed to quit with no negative ramifications, but OCS doesn't give you a feel for actual military life or the lifestyle of an officer. By the time you finish OCS and whatever follow-on training the Army gives you, you can't walk away anymore.

The military isn't a good fit for everyone. Personally, I find the enormous bureaucracy absolutely suffocating, and knew it as soon as I hit the fleet. Unfortunately, I still had six years of commitment left. Think about what you want out of life and make a decision based on that, not what may impress someone else.