This is a long one, but it's important to me...
I am working twoards a law enforcement degree and if all goes well (which it is, with a 4.0 thank you very much
), I will be officially hireable as a Law Enforcement Officer in Minnesota early next year. I have also been an Explorer and (now) a Reserve with a local dept. for the past half decade or thereabouts, so I have some fairly good related experience to put on a resume. Toying with the idea of joining the military while I still can, it occured to me that I happen to live relatively close to one of the only Marine Corps Reserves MP stations in the country.
My question to you is, would it be possible to graduate/get liscenced, go directly to boot camp/MOS training/etc., and come back and be able to find a real cop job at a dept. before getting deployed? Would a department even want to hire a green USMC Reserve, knowing that he might be taken away from the department for a year or so in the near future? Would a hiring dept. be inclined to think that the half year or so spent in training would cause me to forget most of what I just learned in school? Or would the extra military experience help me, regardless of the MOS (I realize that one does not need to have MP as an MOS for it to help becoming an LEO)? Half of me feels I sorta "missed the boat" by not joining some branch of service out of HS and doing so now will only hurt my future, another part of me says there's still time and it will help me.
I'm also trying to decide where I'd fit in another two years of college.
To clear things up, this is the sequential order of what I'm thinking of doing:
1.) Finish Law Enforcement degree (two years), perhaps go directly to another two years of school before step number 2
2.) Join USMC Reserves as an MP
3.) Find a job as a cop in the area (or go to school for two more years if not done in #1)
4.) Get deployed (or if going to school in #3, assume deployment during those two years sometime), if ever - OBVIOUSLY I have little/no choice in this, which is how it should be
In summary, I'm asking:
- Is it possible to sort of "quick" join the Reserves between ending school/beginning a career (or during school)?
- Would it help/hinder my pursuit of a LE career?
Thank you all very much, I know that was a long/somewhat confusing post, but this is a big decision that could affect the course of my life.....which is why I ask Arfcom
I tried talking to a college career guidance counsellor, but she basically just said "I don't know"/"you don't want to join the military, do you?"...