xr-stu

in a bit of a dilema. been living in ireland for nearly 5 months now, i fucking hate it and want to move back to the uk. before i went i was living with my mum and stepdad but they are moving to america shortly so i wont be able to just move back in with them.

obviously then, i need somewhere to live, and an income. i dont want to end up in some shit dead end job (again) though, so basiclly ive come up with two other options. join the army or work the next 12 months and go to uni to do a motorsport engineering degree next september.

my reasons behind the army are its a roof over my head and a secure income. while im in ill be able to save the majority of my wages so will be able to come out in 4-6 years with a serious few quid. in 6 years or so ill be able to get a visa to move to the usa to live with my brother and sister in california which is what ive really wanted to do for years, this would be nice timing, as id have a ticket to california and a decent ammount of money to take with me. id probably go to an infantry based regiment and aim to get into private security/close protection or the police force when i get out and move to america. the only things putting me off is the chance of coming out with mental issues like PTSD, which my father has. and the chance of major injury. death doesnt bother me. ill be dead, so i wont give a fuck.

reasons behind uni are that id be able to study what really interests me and the chance to do something id really enjoy when i finish. id like to go for the social side of things, and also it offers slightly cheaper accomodation than if i was renting privately. the only things putting me off is the massive debt im bound to end up with when i leave.



the two things im struggling to decide between are the chance to save a serious ammount of money in the army to set myself up in america, and the chance to study motorsport engineering, setting mysef up for a hopefully interesting and enjoyable career.

would like to hear peoples opinions and thoughts as im really struggling to decide what the fuck to do.

666

go to uni and then when your dun, do a runner to usa and bump debts, best of both worlds

PoloKidger

I'd go for Uni, sure your gonna end up in debt, but you don't hav to pay it back until you've got a decent wage, plus you'll be doing something that you wanna do and enjoy.

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Join the army and save like feck mate, then when you get to the USA you will have the cash you need to do whatever you want over there, including doing an engineering degree there if you want as you'll have somewhere free to live at your folks etc anyway, if you join in the REME or similar you can even get some relevant experience
Personally I dont believe you will hack uni anyway, you'll get bored and not work hard enough, so I reckon you'll end up using the money from the army to start up some sort of business you can throw yourself into in the states!

dojj

iTrader: (3)

if you can join the army, that's the one to go for, at least you will learn real life skills that you may find easier to intergrate into the american way of life with (shooting and hunting and stuff like that) than the motorsport degree where you will be fairly limited in the fields of work you could put down on a visa application

plus, the army still deduct money from you for rent and food and stuff but you don't get to spend any of the stuff you earn really so it's fine, my cousins just bought a house with cash money he's saved up and he's only been in the army for about 7 years

LHD220Turbo

iTrader: (4)

Army for me everytime - i wish i had gone into the army, but hindsight is a wonderful thing

foreigneRS

a career in motorsport is not all it's cracked up to be. even though people tend to go into loving it, they end up hating it due to long hours, high pressure, travel etc.

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

army in a trade leading to decent quals, preferably a degree, is a viable option as you can solve money and training in one hit. eg REME or maybe even RAF. I guess its mechanical engineering you want???

dont fuck around with infantry as youll come out with skills that are readily available in the job market already. Especially in USA they have a quite large turnover of people in the US forces coming out into job market with military weapons skills etc already, so youd have to be able to offer something special to compete other than just being a brit!!

Statistically speaking dont worry too much about getting fucked up. Its more important that you know how to deal with shit before you join up and dont believe all the bottling stuff up macho bullshit cos it makes things worse. Its not what you experience thats the problem but the way you deal with it. Obviously you need to be honest with yourself how much this stuff bothers you.

Id say uni would have been a safe option in the current recession as its 3 years out of the main job world, BUT if chips right and you cant stick it out then theres no point.

xr-stu

i am worried id get pissed off with uni but i think i managed to suffer three years of aerospace engineering at college, and im more mature now, and would be more interested in the subject matter, so might do alright.

perhaps i should go army...

was thinking about parachute regiment assuming i can get fit enough, but perhaps i should go reme, ive got a good mechanical aptitude so itd suite me well enough, just since i was young i always fancied the infantry lifestyle of living outdoors, roughing it, and the combat side of things.

either way, ill end up with the same in my bank at the end of it all...

24vcossiemat

go to uni. do your degree and then move to america and use your knowledge to set yourself up there. cant say i like american cars though.

Chip

iTrader: (3)

My mate Lawrie (used to use the site as "madevo4" or something like that dont think he comes on much now though) had what I would have considered a dream job, but then seeing the hours he was doing TBH it would cancel it out, and he reckoned very few people percentage wise stuck it for more than 5 years, that was doing rebuilds and race prep on old f1 cars and mclaren f1s and stuff like that.
He's even been round the ring in a long tail macca race car, so certainly some awesome perks, but I still wouldnt want it long time as a career I dont think.

Chip

iTrader: (3)

The only car I can think of that is capable of doing sub 7:30 laps of the ring and being genuinely reliable long term is a yank motor (a corvette zr1), so they arent all bad

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

mate you still do all that in the REME. Youll be attached to an operational unit fixing/maintaining thier vehicles/weapons/kit/bridges etc depending what you specialise as. particuarly in afghan you will likely be attached to combat units in the field. I remember in the gulf there was always a VM with the unit and when not fixing stuff, went on patrol just like the other lads.

xr-stu

that wouldnt be to bad then! that would be exactly what id want to be doing but i didnt think it worked like that.

ive got to go and drop my medical forms off at the recruiting office at some point when im back in ireland so will sit down and chat with the fellas there and try and figure out the best option for me. id imagine they would want me in an engineer role with what i did at college and a reasonable mechanical aptitude anyway.