Ask Slashdot: Working As an IT Contractor In a War Zone? 352
Capt. Picklepants writes "I have been feeling malaise about the IT and technical job market in the United States. I'm interested in doing some IT work for our government in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Africa. I've heard it pays very well. Got any advice, or pointers, aside from the usual combing corporate websites and social networking?"
Stay out of warzones (Score:1, Insightful)
The money isn't worth it if you wind up kidnapped and looking at a video camera while they cut your head off.
Look at working in Europe or if you want to try the language China, even better Australia routinely hires for IT and they speak English (sort of).
Malaise (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd consider that your "malaise" problem might be greater in a war zone. Your freedom of movement is constrained; you're limited to corporate-cartoon-kitsch America; and you're surrounded by an alien culture that (for safety reasons) you are unable to freely immerse yourself within.
If you were a dude that liked to save money and read books in your spare time, then it might be a good thing. But if you've got malaise now, just imagine what you'd get in Afghanistan.
Re:Why explicitly war zone? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why explicitly war zone? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Stay out of warzones (Score:5, Insightful)
The money isn't worth it if you wind up kidnapped and looking at a video camera while they cut your head off.
Look at working in Europe or if you want to try the language China, even better Australia routinely hires for IT and they speak English (sort of).
Is the money worth it if you're killed in a car accident during rushhour traffic on your way to work in *insert city here* USA?
Life is a risk, death is always a risk, and the statistics about risk are often pretty far off what people estimate in their gut.
Ask to work from home (Score:4, Insightful)
Works for me.
Seriously. They have interwebs and everything out there. Leave the kidnappings to the oil engineers and charity workers.
Re:Why explicitly war zone? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why explicitly war zone? (Score:5, Insightful)
What's wrong with wanting to work in a war zone? The pay is usually better, and some people like the daily excitement.
Because gleefully exclaiming that the money is worth the risk is probably an indicator of an unstable personality at best, if not a depressed/suicidal disorder. People are *supposed* to fear death, it's what makes them generally live longer and therefore be a more reliable employee. A competent manager would have the same reservations about hiring someone who drove a 1000cc sportbike to work every day with no helmet on because they were "a busy person".
More deeply, by and large someone who has never worked in a "warzone" who says "i want to work in a warzone" should be directly enlisting in the military, as they have the resources to protect n00bs from killing themselves too easily. Someone who says "i want to freelance in a warzone for the kicks!" who has never done it before in all likelihood has NO idea what they are actually getting themselves into, and will be a risk to themselves and others until they have a significant amount of experience.
The pay isn't actually better. (Score:4, Insightful)
Offers to work in combat zones initially look great. They'll back a dump truck full of money up to your house and all you have to do is go have an adventure overseas for 12-18 months. Woo!
The reality is that you'll be working 7 days a week, 18 hours a day. It's expected of you, everyone is doing it, and if you did try to work 8 hour days you would quickly go nuts from boredom because there is nothing to do. There are only so many magazines and videos and games around. Your office will be hot like an oven from all the desktop machines. If you're lucky the server closets will be a little cooler. You will be working harder, in those 18 hours a day, then you've ever had to work before.
If you want that kind of life, get an IT job on an oil rig. Or take a break from IT and go work on an Alaskan fishing boat. The hours, money, boredom, and stress levels are basically the same.
Re:The pay isn't actually better. (Score:4, Insightful)
Ugh. I forgot to return to the title. So that $150-160k/year they offered you, when you work it out for 18 hours a day 7 days a week, comes to $22-24/hour.
That's like making $50k/year at a regular 9-5 job.
Re:Why explicitly war zone? (Score:4, Insightful)
What's wrong with wanting to work in a war zone? The pay is usually better, and some people like the daily excitement.
Start with taking a "great job" at an office in your local neighborhood inner city and see how you like it. That's where I am. Two shootings within the last 6 years within 200 feet of our lot although no one died (as far as I know), and they pulled a dead body out of the river just a couple months ago, just a couple feet from my window, theres a sight I didn't need to see. Smashed glass everywhere and riots after the annual street festival, which was finally cancelled after two years in a row of shootings (shootings not near my office). Anyone who leaves anything in a car can expect smashed windows... I park underneath a security cam, near the door, work in the daytime, never keep anything in the car, all good so far... Siege mentality gets tiring after awhile, but at least I only have to live it for about 40 hours a week, you'd be stuck there 24x7.
There tends to be pretty intense "blame the victim" attitude in slums, maybe war zones too. She shouldn't have been wearing that outfit, walking in the parking lot after dark, he shouldn't have left anything to steal inside his car, they should have known there would be racial incidents after the street festival like every year, the victim is always to blame, that's why I personally have no reason to fear, right? Its a defense mechanism. An annoying one.
My wife and kids are categorically denied to visit me at work under any circumstances except maybe during sunlight in the winter and even then watch your back at all times, and they would only live/work in a slum over my dead body. Speaking of which, you may find family members threatening to chain you up in the basement to prevent you from going to a warzone, hard to say.
Been There, Done That (Score:5, Insightful)
Working in a war zone is not for everyone. The money is great, the weather is terrible, the hours are almost as bad as the weather, and not everyone can handle the stress of the occasional rocket hitting the FOB (Forward Operating Base). The good news is that you will probably never leave the FOB except to get in and out of country, so you are almost as safe as in the US. When I worked at Camp Victory, the joke was that it was safer there than Detroit, but I don't know if that was true. The biggest cause of death was traffic accidents, so it could have been true. Keep in mind that it's one thing to know that intellectually, but another thing to experience it.
Iraq is being spun down, so you will get to miss out on 130F heat (only 110 at night!), the most bizarre rainy season I've ever seen (the mud is unbelievable), and dust storms must be experienced to be believed. I've only spent a few weeks total in Afghanistan, but my impression is that Khandahar was like Iraq but a little milder and with mountains. Bagram is even milder and seemed like a decent place to be.
The facilities will vary wildly depending on where you live. Major bases like Khandahar and Bagram have very good facilities, but smaller bases will be much more primitive. The food is surprisingly good but the internet even worse than you think it will be.
Bring a durable laptop, preferable with a large screen. This will probably be your only computer. You will make good money, so don't focus on price and just get the best one you can. Not every place can have a TV, I had to use a USB TV-in to hook up my XBox to my laptop, which worked surprisingly well. Don't bring anything you truly care about, as the dust ruins everything. When I came back I opened up both my laptop and XBox and they were so caked with dust I'm surprised the 1st gen XBox survived (it had heat problems in the best of situations). Find the lightest, coolest shirts you can, cargo pants, good sturdy boots, and a good pair of sunglasses. I also found a large, floppy hat to be useful. I looked like a dork, but I was a cool dork whose head was always in the shade.
If you have ever been in the military or worked for them, then you know a little of what to expect. If not, then be prepared for a very different office experience than exists anywhere else. Even if you are familiar with the military culture, a war zone is unlike anything else. Everyone is armed and there is a level of intensity that doesn't exist here in the states. It's very different, but I have found that people can get used to almost anything and even a war zone can become eventually become routine. The days will drag on forever, but the weeks will fly by.
The money is great, but you only make it while over there. I suggest getting some investment advice, set up a plan, and follow it. That is what I did, but unfortunately 2007 wasn't the best year for throwing over a hundred thousand dollars at the stock market. Even the best plan can be sabotaged by poor timing. Even with the bad stock market, I'm still looking at cutting several years off my retirement age.
Consider the tax benefits of staying a whole year. 330 days out of the US, and your first $85,000 (guess, I don't know what it currently is) is tax free. Less than 330 days, you don't get the tax break. Some shady or misinformed tax preparers have been known to try to pro-rate the break, but I've known a few people who got in trouble with the IRS for this.
I mentioned the stress of constant attack, but it bears repeating. I still jump when I hear a dumpster lid shut (it sounds spookily like a mortar hitting), and I've been home for four years now. Just relax, and remind yourself that you are inside the wire, the bad guys are outside it, and treat those soldiers and marines who go out on patrol with the respect they deserve.
Good luck! You are considering something that very, very few people will ever have the opportunity to do. I think of my time as an adventure and I'm very glad I went. If you have a security clearance, getting over there should be easy, but I'm not sure how things look if you don't.