If you know you would love being in the armour corps, that is where you should be. A military career will never be held against you, and it probably will help get you in the door for many interviews at the point that you decide to retire. It is still viewed as a good place to learn disclipline, leadership, and management. I‘m sure it helped me get my first job as a lawyer, which leads to the following comment.
There are many ways to get rich: the army isn‘t one of them, and law is not a fast track to big money with no effort or stress. [It has potential, I hope, to let me make some money and to something I will feel good about. I discovered, however, that corporate law isn‘t the area to meet both of those goals, and the second is more important than the first.]
Not to burst anyone‘s bubbles, but my work as a lawyer in a major firm was much tougher than anything I did in the army -- although probably not as fulfilling.
The hours were much longer on a daily basis, I worked many more weekends, and when my hours were higher than usual, they were that way for far longer periods than when I was on ex. I suffered fatigue more often, and to an equal or greater degree. The work also has far less comraderie.
The pay at that level was excellent (although only on a total, not hourly, basis), but the money the average lawyer (who works hours comparable to most officers) makes is not really much better than in the military. The average lawyer also doesn‘t have a pension plan, and in many cases, he is or she the business owner and bears all the risk that goes along with that.
Suffice it to say, when you see a lawyer‘s "hourly rate" quoted, it does not mean he takes that home for every hour he is in the office. If he owns the practice, he gets between 40 and 50% of his billable (a billable hour being one actually spent working on the file - it doesn‘t touch admin, etc.). Otherwise, he probably gets about 20 - 25%. To get 30 billable hours, most lawyers work 40 hours. Your mechanic doesn‘t get paid $70 per hour, either, does he, but he probably gets a guarenteed number of hours per day by the guy who charges you $70 per hour to have your car in his shop.
Since you had no desire of going into law in the first place, you probably have re-affirmed that choice by now. But don‘t assume that the military is the only place you can go to find challenge, either. Stress often arises from challenge - check out who has high stress -- brokers, traders, police, firefighters, small business owers, etc. In many ways, the military actually reudes stress and makes it easier for you to do your job -- structure, organization, consistency of rules, quality leadership, etc. Of course, now that much of that is in turmoil, stress and its related illnesses are probably increasing.
Again, if you are driven to be in the army, I still say "go for it!". Best of luck.
