To anyone following the current situation in the armed forces, and the expected drawdown to manning levels that pre-date 9-11 levels, it should be obvious that the job market is going to get considerably tighter for JMOs who plan on getting out within the next one to five years.


The Marine Corps is offering bonuses to officers who decided to leave early and sign up with the Selected Marine Corps Reserve, and options for prospective candidates to even join the Marine Corps are getting slimmer as the accession numbers drop and fewer junior officers are required.  


This all means that there will be more folks in the job market than otherwise normally encountered, and where the job market might have been hungry for JMOs three or four years ago, the increased supply is going to allow the market to be more selective.


Salaries can be expected to stagnate a bit as well, and it will be even more important for JMOs to work their salary requirements strategy and stick to it when they come to that phase in their job search, and certainly understand that what they might have commanded then might not be the case now.


All this go back to rule #10 from the inaugural post of this blog.  JMOs have to have a plan for extended unemployment that could run into months, or certainly under-employment until they can land the job they rate relative to their skills.


Save money while you can, stay the course, and continue to network.