Edit: Darn! I glossed over your intention to get out. Civilian HR =/= Navy HR, so if you're dead set on being a civilian, I'd advise against HR personally. If you think you may stay in and go HR, keep reading.
Former enlisted nuke, 8 year SWO(N), 9 year HR, now PMP here. I could write a dissertation on POCR, HR, and more. If you want to DM me, feel free, but here are some thoughts (my own of course):
- Does being the mastermind capable of moving billets, shaping accession decisions, structuring high level N1 policy, working N8 projects, and truly understanding the Navy's backend systems appeal to you? If yes, then HR may be a good choice. I was astonished at the influence I had as a senior LCDR / junior CDR at my HR role in the pentagon. I could make magic happen from an N1 perspective. Yes, I wasn't launching missiles or running reactors, but that tedious backend Navy systems stuff that no one likes -- I was worth my weight in gold. It isn't glamorous, but it's important.
- While my analytical skill sets put me in the N1 lane, HRs also exhibit tremendous ownership over the N6 and N8 pathways. Additionally, while an N1 function, I think of recruiting as separate in my mind and recruiting command is largely an HR endeavor.
- Command opportunities don't have the glory of a submarine or DDG, but NRC, NTAG, MEPS, RTC, and OTC are all HR command opportunities. My CO tour was phenomenal and I had the full gamut of experiences: sailors in hospitals for wonderful (childbirth) and tragic reasons, Captain's Cup events, NJP, and everything else.
However, the HR community does carry a weird stigma, some of it fair, some unfair IMO.
As a newer community, the Navy's HR cadre is still finding its footing and fighting to prove itself. The original cohort of Navy HRs in the early 2000s were the "GURLS" -- General Unrestricted Line Officers, who also happened to be predominantly women. These women, facing stigma for a lack of warfare experience (ironically, having not been given the opportunity to earn pins) as well as sexism, forged through it all to help shape the HR community into a valued cadre of manpower, IT, FM, and analytical experts today. However, wounds still linger.
Whether an unfortunate med DQ such as yourself or someone who just lacked the talent, the HR community does consist of many diverted career paths. Moreover, HR receives a lot of application traffic from fleet officers wanting an easier quality of life but I always caution against easy in this case. Yes, deployments are very rare, duty rare as well, but the jobs are still complete grinds and often more thankless in many ways because they lack excitement and/or glory of operations. Thus, while every community has rockstars and slackers, the polarity of those extremes, especially toward the slacker side, is higher with HR in my opinion. There are complete superstars, warfare pins and those without alike, but also some egregious knuckleheads. Sadly, the latter contribute to the stigma I see HRs battle today.
Conclusion: If you opt to go HR you'll have wonderful opportunities, be able to have massive influence, but also battle some unfair external prejudices as you prove yourself.
Bonus: As a nuke you have the aptitude to be a Postgraduate School Operations Research student. Do it. That's #1 on the HR promotion board convening orders each year. I found it to be harder than nuke school, but so very worth it.