Should I do it?

theotherguy

theotherguy

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Okay, so I just got the opportunity to win this scholarship from the National Security Agency which would pay 100 percent of my college tuition (which is quite alot for the school I want to go to), and pay me a full salary while at college, but will then require me to work for the NSA for six to fourteen years. Depending on the degree I get.

I really need the money for tuition, but I really do not want to work for the NSA, and don't want to be trapped in a career path I don't want to go down.
 
Asking help on helplife2.net

Really smart :D

I say take it. But i dont know much about NSA, so dont really take my advice.
 
if you dont want to go to the nsa (what is it?) then dont go
 
You sure it wouldnt be cool? :)
Look at it this way, you have fees paid for... AND guaranteed a semi-decent job aftewards, seems like a good deal to me. But if you REALLY wouldnt like the work dont bother cause itll be hell.
All im saying is, I dont think you know for sure you wouldnt like the job.
 
Never take a job that you know you are gonna hate, especially for that long...
 
If you can bear the idea of blatantly working for The Man, go for it. I would not though. What do you want to study?
 
If you don't want to work at the NSA, don't take it. It's not worth the money to you.
 
I'd probably take it, but you should try and inquire what you might be doing before turning it down on the assumption you'd hate it... Probably just a desk-job but who knows.

Alternatively: Take it, and then flee the country after you get your degree :eek:
 
Yea, if it's a desk job - f*ck no.

If they make you a Splinter Cell, or some kind of government assassin - f*ck yes :D
 
Well the idea of having your entire college being paid for and having a relatively steady job afterwards sounds promising. Talk about a free ride. But if you couldn't stand working there, then there's no amount of money they could pay you to work there.
 
If it were me, then I would take it. Free ride through college, full pay during it, good job guarenteed after it, then once your time is up, you can get any ****ing job you want. You then have a college degree in whatever, plus work experience for the ****ing NSA. If that doesnt make a stellar resume, then I dont know what would.
 
tbh, even if it is for the full 14 years, what's wrong with that? I mean, what is the worst desk job at the NSA? Well... Probably a pretty bad one, but if they are paying for college and everything, what the worst that they'll give you? I doubt they'd waste all that money just to make you a filing person..
 
You'd be crazy to take that. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the "6 to 14 years" deal was just to warm you up to the idea, and they end up slapping 14 years on you.

What college are you looking at? And how hard would it be to pay for tuition without that scholarship?
 
Dude, the whole reason you go to college, is so that you can get any job that you want.

Why the hell would you go to college if you know you're going to be stuck into one job?

BUT...

I'd say try to find out how much money it'll cost to break the contract. What you could do, is get the college degree, work there for a bit, and try to cut down as much as possible on personal expenditures during your stay at the NSA. Then, once you've got the money, quit the job, and just pay the penalty for breaking your contract.
 
sinkoman said:
Dude, the whole reason you go to college, is so that you can get any job that you want.

Why the hell would you go to college if you know you're going to be stuck into one job?

BUT...

I'd say try to find out how much money it'll cost to break the contract. What you could do, is get the college degree, work there for a bit, and try to cut down as much as possible on personal expenditures during your stay at the NSA. Then, once you've got the money, quit the job, and just pay the penalty for breaking your contract.
Click to expand...

...The ****? It's the NSA, they've obviously thought of that loophole. If he were to break a contract like that, he'd probably at LEAST get a real hefty ****ing fine that will be ****ing him over for the rest of his life, or worse, he could get his ass thrown in prison.
 
Find a loophole.

But do what you want.
 
Don't do it. If you start the course and either: lose interest or fail, you'll get landed paying back the fees.
 
Covering up the alien conspiracy sounds like a good job to me...
 
Having a job you like is much more important then money, do not take it.
 
Eh, if cant imagine working for the NSA every day for 14 years I wouldnt even think about taking it. How much would this free ride be worth anyway? Dont you think you could make that much after working 14 years in something youre actually interested in?
 
Taboo said:
Eh, if cant imagine working for the NSA every day for 14 years I wouldnt even think about taking it. How much would this free ride be worth anyway? Dont you think you could make that much after working 14 years in something youre actually interested in?
Click to expand...

He has a good point. You'd be at least 35, probably more if you went to grad school which pretty much everyone does.

Basically they're saying to you "hay wanna go through college only to devout your life to us?"
 
Depending on the stipulations of the contract, you could just try to stay in University for longer than necessary, ala Van Wilder, and get paid for it.

That is, whether you enjoy the University lifestyle or not, I guess :|
 
Alright, thanks for the responses guys.

And yes clarky, I was thinking of that exact movie, lol.

Here's some more information:
I want to go to Carnegie Mellon and study Computer Science with an emphasis in robotics. The tuition of Carnegie Mellon is close to $40,000, and with room and board is over $50,000 per year.

The program would require me to work for the NSA for "at least 1.5 times the length of study", meaning if I got a bachelors I'd be working for six years, if I got a master's I'd have to work for eight years, and a PhD 14-15 years. And if I chose to leave the NSA before my contract was up I'd have to "pay the tuition in full plus a substantial fee", I would also have to do that if my GPA fell below 3.0.

The job description they have for computer science majors is "writing programs for database storage, networking and intelligence gathering" meaning, in short, I'd probably be sitting in a cubicle debugging some guy's code for some pointless networking program.

I don't know, my parents are really pressuring me to do this (for the obvious reason of not having to pay that much money every year), but I'm not sure I want to sign away a substantial portion of my career for the money. Then again, it would give me a tremendous amount of experience and would provide me with contacts that I could use in the future.
 
"pay the tuition in full plus a substantial fee"
Click to expand...

Sounds like an extortionate condition to me, but if you're confident you can stick at it for that long without needing to pay the fee then go for it.
It won't do your CV any harm, but if you're the kind of person who likes to change jobs often it won't be the right choice.

Also, it depends if you want to do a Phd or what.

$40000 is a lot, I guess I'm quite lucky that over here, Uni cost me about $6000 for a 3 year batchelor's and that I can take a dynamic career.
 
If it was NASA, I'd do it, but not the NSA.
 
This is easy.
1. Sign up on this kick-ass program.
2. Study hard and get a bachelor degree with honors.
3. Save yourself and or your parents 160-200k in tuition, _and_ get paid to study.
4. Do a six year stint at a desk for the man while collecting an average paycheck.
5. Do another couple of years of studying at your own expense to get a Masters and maybe even a Ph.D. (This point is in its entirety optional.)
6. Rule supreme on the job-market with your fresh education and superior work-experience.

Points 1 through 6 includes banging ample-bossomed models that love you for your geekish good looks, not for your money.

Turning this down would be extremely stupid and possibly quite egoistic, depending on how much your parents are going to struggle with helping out with your tuition.
 
boglito said:
This is easy.
1. Sign up on this kick-ass program.
2. Study hard and get a bachelor degree with honors.
3. Save yourself and or your parents 160-200k in tuition, _and_ get paid to study.
4. Do a six year stint at a desk for the man while collecting an average paycheck.
5. Do another couple of years of studying at your own expense to get a Masters and maybe even a Ph.D. (This point is in its entirety optional.)
6. Rule supreme on the job-market with your fresh education and superior work-experience.

Points 1 through 6 includes banging ample-bossomed models that love you for your geekish good looks, not for your money.

Turning this down would be extremely stupid and possibly quite egoistic, depending on how much your parents are going to struggle with helping out with your tuition.
Click to expand...

That's a good point. I could get the bachelors first, work, then go back to school, paying for it with the money I earned.
 
boglito said:
This is easy.
1. Sign up on this kick-ass program.
2. Study hard and get a bachelor degree with honors.
3. Save yourself and or your parents 160-200k in tuition, _and_ get paid to study.
4. Do a six year stint at a desk for the man while collecting an average paycheck.
5. Do another couple of years of studying at your own expense to get a Masters and maybe even a Ph.D. (This point is in its entirety optional.)
6. Rule supreme on the job-market with your fresh education and superior work-experience.

Points 1 through 6 includes banging ample-bossomed models that love you for your geekish good looks, not for your money.

Turning this down would be extremely stupid and possibly quite egoistic, depending on how much your parents are going to struggle with helping out with your tuition.
Click to expand...


Yeah, if you can bare the idea of debugging networking code in a cubicle for 6 years and not being able to do what you want with your life until youre 37. Plus, if youre planning on being any kind of family man you would probably end up juggling family, work and pretty rigorous school work.

But honestly, that is alot of money and I guess its a good deal if you really want to go there and its a problem for your family to pay for. Meh, good luck in whatever you do.
 
Taboo said:
Yeah, if you can bare the idea of debugging networking code in a cubicle for 6 years and not being able to do what you want with your life until youre 37. Plus, if youre planning on being any kind of family man you would probably end up juggling family, work and pretty rigorous school work.

But honestly, that is alot of money and I guess its a good deal if you really want to go there and its a problem for your family to pay for. Meh, good luck in whatever you do.
Click to expand...

Assuming he starts out at 20 my deal would have him out of nsa by 30, with a master degree at 32 and a PhD at 34. All the time with a comparatively very good economy including the possibility of a full-fledged family life not excluding kids from the very start.

You make it sound like the alternative to "debugging networking code in a cubicle" is lubing up Jessica Alba before she does foto-ops, but the fact is that most work is pretty mundane, and that's why they pay people to do it. Getting a truly interesting job is hard, but having 6 years of grinding@NSA on your resume should make it quite a bit easier.
 
I'd say do it. Of all the government employers the NSA is the best to work for. My grandfather worked for the NSA spying on the Russians and shit. He got to go to Norway and spy.
 
boglito said:
This is easy.
1. Sign up on this kick-ass program.
2. Study hard and get a bachelor degree with honors.
3. Save yourself and or your parents 160-200k in tuition, _and_ get paid to study.
4. Do a six year stint at a desk for the man while collecting an average paycheck.
5. Do another couple of years of studying at your own expense to get a Masters and maybe even a Ph.D. (This point is in its entirety optional.)
6. Rule supreme on the job-market with your fresh education and superior work-experience.

Points 1 through 6 includes banging ample-bossomed models that love you for your geekish good looks, not for your money.

Turning this down would be extremely stupid and possibly quite egoistic, depending on how much your parents are going to struggle with helping out with your tuition.
Click to expand...

Good points. Plus, in addition to having the ****ing NSA on your resume, you will also have gotten some nice benefits from working for the government.

As for the "cubicle" job... wtf else are you going to do with a degree in computer science? You're going to be writing and debugging code no matter where you go, so you might as well do it somewhere that will benefit you in the long run.
 
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