[dylan604]

20 year mark is key. Sign up when you're 18, do 20 years, you're now only 38 which is < 40.

Edit: if you're super ambitious, you take the skills from your military specialization (pilot, nuke engineer, etc) to the civilian world and work another 20 years. you're now 58 which is still younger than the typical 65 for retirement, but now on 2 pensions or 1 gov't pension plus a really nice portfolio.

[aj7]

At the national labs, you can basically walk out with proprietary technology, as long as it’s not classified, with many modules and processes dual use, where the civilian use has yet to be exploited. I’ve seen this done many times. Proof of concept is extremely expensive for the gov’t: rack mounted heavy-duty modules, premium subsystems bought from market leaders. A good engineering team can whittle costs by 90%.

[Pokepokalypse]

The most marketable skills are going to be in logistics, or procurement.

Then - the corps (corporations) come looking for you.

[ipaddr]

Does signing up at 50 work?

[peter303]

Usually not over 35 unless special circumstances such as active war or rare skill, e.g. doctor. Plenty of middle aged signed up for 911 war.

[dylan604]

depends on if we're in an entrenched shooting war on the ground needing frontline infrantry. usually, that type of service doesn't come with a sign-up bonus