Weather Officer

pred75

Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2021
Messages
17
Hello,
I am going into college and I am very interested in AFROTC. I am thinking about changing my major to meteorology. Will I be limited to just a weather officer career? If so, what is this career like? Lastly, is a meteorology degree useful outside of the military? Thank you in advance.
 
Try a quick google search, post-military options may be broader than you think... I know people with meterology degrees employed by large construction companies to provide input on project schedules, professional sports team with outdoor stadiums and some worked alongside air traffic controllers.

My youngest DS loves weather so we have frequent conversations about meterology :cool:
 
AF does love their meteorologists and sometimes volunteers those with meteorology degrees into meteorology. However, the majority still get to decide (as much as that is possible) what they want to do. As for what they can do with after they leave the military, I don't know about you but in Los Angeles, all of the Weather people on the news are either beautiful voluptuous women with meteorology degrees or men with weather sounding names like Dallas Raines or Johnny Mountain
 
Two of our USNA sponsor mids went Navy oceanography/meteorology/hydrography.

One is out of the Navy and working weather for Southwest at their main op center. Loves it. Free flights plus companion passes for family out the wazoo.

The other one is now a GS-14 Federal civilian working for NOAA. Loves it.

Go to usajobs, the Federal service job site. Have some fun and put in meteorologist. All kinds of scientific and weather ops kinds of roles. Don’t overlook the “ABC” agencies such as FBI, CIA, DHS, etc. They have a need for weather experts/operational people, especially veterans.

Think of airlines, passenger and cargo. Shipping lines. DOD contractors who build related gear for military clients.

A friend of mine was a Navy wx guy. He used his GI Bill benefits after he separated to go back to school for finance, an interest area of his. He’s now an executive with a major national investment firm.

Think bigger than your officer specialty - junior officers (and senior ones) are hired for their leadership experience, resource management skills, ability to operate in high-pressure operational situations, analytical thinking, team-building, security clearance, work ethic, understanding of things civilians don’t.

There are also placement firms that specialize in working with separating degreed military, who are paid by Fortune 500 companies to find them good candidates for their management pipelines. Google Lucas Group, Orion Talent, Bradley-Morris.
 
A good friend retired from the Navy after being the Commander of the Navy Oceanographic and Meteorological Command and through him, I came to know quite a few of his folks. None of them had much difficulty gaining employment after leaving the Navy. My nephew graduated from AFROTC with a Meteorology Degree and did a few junior officer tours as a Meteorologist before transferring to the Reserves. His civilian jobs have been mostly Project/Program Manager jobs in the Aerospace Industry and at the same time, he kept on being a Meteorology Officer in the USAF Reserves. He got recalled/Mobilized a couple of times and deployed to the sandbox to forecast sandstorms and the like for an A-10 unit.
 
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