For South Korean engineering students, is the military a place to avoid or an opportunity to grow?

Male engineering students are at a crossroads between joining the military and choosing an alternative service. This article explains the necessity of the military and the realities of alternatives, and argues that military service can be an opportunity for growth and self-management, rather than something to be avoided.

 

As a male engineering student at a Korean university, one of the first things you think about when you enroll is when to go to the military. This is the question of when to go to the military, whether to go to the military or to substitute other ways to fulfill the obligation of national defense. I am writing this article especially for male students in engineering colleges because I believe that many students do not want to go to the military because the length of alternative service is wider than other colleges.
South Korea is a divided country. We are currently in a ceasefire, not a war, so the expansion of the military is an inevitable option. Since there is a limited amount of money to spend on defense, we cannot choose a conscription system that pays soldiers a lot of money like the United States, so if you are a male born in Korea, it is your duty to defend the country. Many people don’t want to join the military because they are required to spend about two years in the military or in alternative service, regardless of their career path in society. Some people also avoid the military because they are afraid of being beaten and verbally abused, which is a long-standing tradition in the military. Another reason is that the military requires you to be completely cut off from society, and you have to use limited vacation time to see friends, lovers, and family.
There are many students who are undecided about their career paths due to this vague fear of the military. In Korea, if you don’t fulfill your duty of national defense, you become a criminal, and there are many difficulties to go abroad, so companies don’t hire undocumented people. Therefore, students with undocumented status naturally go to graduate school, which causes various problems. Since they are in graduate school to avoid the military without a clear purpose, they are less attached to their majors, and even if they find that graduate school is not for them or that it is difficult to continue their graduate studies, they may reluctantly continue their studies because they do not want to have to go back to the military if they quit. Especially since alternative service seems to be relatively easy, and there are many options such as professional researchers and industrial technicians, it has become a good way for students who do not want to go to the military to postpone their national defense obligations.
But is the military a place to be avoided? My argument is that it is not. On the contrary, it’s a place where you can gain a lot more than you lose. If you don’t have a clear goal in mind and are wondering whether you should go to the military now or postpone it for later, I would say go for it. In the case of the Specialized Research Personnel, which most engineering students think of as an alternative service, it may seem like you only need to go through four weeks of military training, but the actual service is 36 months. The reason for this seemingly long period of service is that the time spent completing a doctoral program counts as service, which means that you need to have a doctorate to serve as a professional researcher. The number of engineering graduates who receive a PhD is very small, the number of people who can apply to PhD programs is also small, and since you are not in civilian status during your service, you have to work under the influence of your supervisor, i.e. your professor, under more stress than a typical graduate student. In addition, alternative military service through overseas volunteer programs such as Koika does not give special weight to engineering students, and although the service period is 30 months, the interview and waiting period for acceptance is very long, so it is actually a three- to four-year investment.
The duty of national defense is literally ‘duty’. Korea’s Constitution designated the basic duties of citizens as education, work, taxation, and national defense, and later added the duties of public welfare in the exercise of property rights and environmental conservation. As such, it is the duty of national defense that must be fulfilled since we are born as citizens, but due to lack of awareness, many people think of the military as a punishment rather than a duty. Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote, “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today,” is a cliché but very important life attitude. The idea is that unless there is a compelling reason not to fulfill an obligation, it may be beneficial to do it now because it will have to be done someday. Alternative services are longer, more difficult to qualify for, and have their own set of challenges that are different from the military, so avoiding the military can lead you to a harder place.
It is often said that the military is the oldest and most successful organization. It is said that an ineffective military has no reason to exist, but putting aside the validity of that argument, social life, at least in most companies, often has the same corporate culture as the military. In its simplest form, the military takes the form of a hierarchical organization that has been around for a long time. In companies where you can get a job after graduating from engineering school, there is a high percentage of male employees, which naturally leads to a military-like hierarchy, and the military is the place where you can experience this from the bottom. If you compare a second-class soldier to an employee, you can say that a sergeant is about the same rank as a chief, but in real life, it takes nearly 10 years to be promoted to a chief, while in the military, you can be promoted from the lowest rank to the highest rank in less than two years, so you can feel the characteristics of each rank. In the case of lower ranks, there is no responsibility, but there is a lot of work to do and you can feel a sense of relative deprivation because you are in a position to take orders, while in the case of higher ranks, you can do relatively less arduous work, which is a little easier, but you have to take responsibility because you are in a position to give orders. These are some of the characteristics of different ranks that are hard to understand unless you have experienced them yourself.
Another reason I think it’s beneficial to join the military is that it teaches you how to manage yourself. After living a rigid schedule and lack of freedom in high school, when you get to college, the restrictions on smoking and drinking are lifted and the label of being underage is removed, and the freedom that comes with that often leads to poor self-control and unhealthy behavior. Irregular eating, late bedtimes, and lack of exercise can lead to weight gain and poor health, which in turn can lead to poor academic performance and failure in school. I believe that the military is the most logical answer to this holistic problem. In the military, you have to wake up at a certain time and go to bed at a certain time. You’re allowed to smoke, but you’re not allowed to drink, and you have to do a certain amount of exercise and eat regular meals. This is because keeping a soldier in tip-top shape is the best way to keep the military in tip-top shape, and it forces you to take time for self-care that you wouldn’t be able to do as a student because of assignments, exams, and drinking. If you can get used to this enforced discipline and maintain it after you leave the military, you’ll know that your two years were not wasted.
One of the biggest myths about the military in general is that you’ll spend two years wasting away. While this is true in some cases, it’s also not true in others. The Department of Defense is doing a lot of work to change this negative perception, so if the unit you’re assigned to gives you a lot of free time, you can use it to study or work out. Each unit has its own legends of people studying for and passing their administrative exams while in the service, and even if it’s not a big test like the GED, it can still be enough time to study for certifications like those required by engineering schools, as long as you’re serious about it. Especially in the military, there are more positions than you might realize, so you can spend time learning about different things and developing your skills. For example, if you apply for and are accepted as a Catoosa, you can spend two years living with U.S. soldiers and learning English, or as an interpreter, you can study English. If you’re assigned to a prison or police academy, you’ll have plenty of time to study on your own, and some of the less common positions allow you to utilize your major. The Department of Construction and Environmental Engineering teaches a field called remote sensing, which is also useful in the military, so if you apply for a job in the same field, you’ll have the opportunity to hone your skills. And if you join a selective group like Katusa, you can meet people from different walks of life that you wouldn’t normally meet in your daily life, and you can make connections with people from different backgrounds that will last even after you leave the military. Korea has a small population and a social culture that emphasizes networking, so if your network is narrow, the military is a great opportunity to expand it.
The final reason to join the military is that leaving school to join the military is like a forced vacation. Most students in college have been bombarded with exams and assignments for a long time. Especially in engineering schools, some subjects have exams four times a semester, and many subjects have assignments once a week. But in the military, this completely changes, and you can’t study even if you want to. Of course, there are other non-academic challenges, but the military can give you a chance to really think about what your future studies mean to you and why you want to study. It can give you a break from the constant choices you have to make and the choices you have to make will determine your path. Given the fact that many students choose different paths after the military, such as choosing their exams and choosing a career path, and the possibility of discovering their true aptitude in a new career path, it is argued that engineering students need a break from the fast pace and a change in thinking.