[Snoopy47]

One can string annual orders together while a reservist.

I've done it, but there are more con's than pro's.

So I effectively have nearly 3 years active while serving as an intel analyst while a reserve while in the USA. It entirely depends on your unit, and the active component they support. So I was lucky in that regard.

The catch is orders will never cross over fiscal years, and the money for the next year will never be ready before the current one is up. So you basically go unemployed from October till when the government allows the new budget to start being spent.

Also, the reserves only lets you do 36 months on orders (deployment time doesn't count, and restarts the clock). Then you have to take 12 months off every other year. Otherwise one could string together an entire active duty career as a reserve never having to move units, and stay at the lower ranks forever.

So after this deployment I might get one set of orders for several more months, and then that's it. I'll have used up all my 36 months time, and I'll go back into the civilian sector.

I don't know if business knows it or not, but an intel MOS completely transfers over to the civilian business sector in the form of Business Analyst, and Marketing Analyst. You take data, compile it into something and make a business decision based on it. You also use a lot of the same computer systems and databases. For the most part, intelligence databases are commercial products altered for intel use.

The TS/SCI thing isn't worth as much as one might think. The whole working with any data, compiling it into a usable format, and presenting it in a professional setting to your bosses so they can make a decision is the value of the MOS. The clearance is merely because of the subject matter of the information.