Quora Answer: Should I Sign On as an SAF Intelligence Officer?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Should I sign on as an SAF intelligence officer?”

You sign on as an officer.  You get assigned to military intelligence based on certain qualifiers.  Unless things changed greatly since my time, no one signs on directly to SI&D, MID, SOE or any of the other intelligence agencies or departments.

However, should you make it as an intelligence officer, it is a fruitful career.  Generally, you are either a field operative, or an analyst.  Analysts in some areas need not even be uniformed personnel, let alone an officer.

Another advantage of being in intelligence is that once you leave, that network you built is still there.  This is very useful for business, or simply to call in favours to get things done.  As such, accomplished career intelligence officers either end up in politics or business.  They spend much of their earlier career giving favours so that they can call in these markers when needed, later in life.  In this line, when you lend someone a million dollars, you can only get back a million.  But a favour is priceless.