Would you do Military contracting work?

[fractionMan]

Urgh.

I just got an unsolicited mail from a software firm that develops for the MOD. It's just down the road, probably pays really well, has a good pension, flexible hours etc etc. Initially I dismissed it (who want to work for those bastards) but my current job is coming to the end in january and they do work for other organisations, not just the military so I drafted a reply.

Before I sent it I chugged through their website and changed my mind. Cases studies list things like making artillery hit things better (individuals and groups!). Which, tbh, made it really real. I don't want to do that, ever. I feel a bit sick thinking I'd consider it in the first place.

Luckily I have other options, but if I was desperate I'm wondering if I'd do it to keep bread on the table as it were. Would you do it if there was nothing else?

 

[StoneRoad]

Probably not, as I'm a pacifist, but the idea of greater accuracy has the potential side affect of reducing collateral damage .............

 

[MrSki]

 

[dessiato]

You have other options, since this would be morally difficult for you don't apply.

If it were me, I'd have no problem with it. But I've been in the military and have a long military tradition in my family. I probably don't see it the same way as many others do.

 

[MrSki]

Urgh.

I just got an unsolicited mail from a software firm that develops for the MOD. It's just down the road, probably pays really well, has a good pension, flexible hours etc etc. Initially I dismissed it (who want to work for those bastards) but my current job is coming to the end in january and they do work for other organisations, not just the military so I drafted a reply.

Before I sent it I chugged through their website and changed my mind. Cases studies list things like making artillery hit things better (individuals and groups!). Which, tbh, made it really real. I don't want to do that, ever. I feel a bit sick thinking I'd consider it in the first place.

Luckily I have other options, but if I was desperate I'm wondering if I'd do it to keep bread on the table as it were. Would you do it if there was nothing else?

If you can eat the bread on the table with blood on your hands....

 

[Spymaster]

I feel a bit sick thinking I'd consider it in the first place.

Then don't.

Would you do it if there was nothing else?

Yes.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

No, not nowadays, barring some sort of "sick child urgently needs money for treatment" type situation. It's bad enough spending your time doing stuff you have no interest in, let alone doing stuff you actively disapprove of.

I deliberately didn't go for several jobs recently when I was out of work because I didn't like what the companies did, though it was a lesser level of evil than actually blowing people up.

 

[likesfish]

Tbf the chances of anything you actually do for the Mod actually getting built or being used in anger is miniscle
They pissed twenty years and a billion quid away on a replacement for cvrt ( armoured recce vehicle )
A tracked light tank not that anyones ever made a metal box with a gun on before is it
So a committed pacifist could have a full career in mod procurment safe in the knowledge that they havnt harmed anyone.
But if you dont want to work idiots probably best avoided these are the fuckwits who thought they could write helicopter software better than boeing who make chinooks or that reusing a 1950s fuselage with modern cad/cam wings was a good idea.

 

[DownwardDog]

What do you think the MoD does? It's not full of evil geniuses building nuclear weapons. 99% of it is burned out/cynical/bone idle/semi permanently on sick leave bureaucrats.

 

[MrSki]

Tbf the chances of anything you actually do for the Mod actually getting built or being used in anger is miniscle
They pissed twenty years and a billion quid away on a replacement for cvrt ( armoured recce vehicle )
A tracked light tank not that anyones ever made a metal box with a gun on before is it
So a committed pacifist could have a full career in mod procurment safe in the knowledge that they havnt harmed anyone.
But if you dont want to work idiots probably best avoided these are the fuckwits who thought they could write helicopter software better than boeing who make chinooks or that reusing a 1950s fuselage with modern cad/cam wings was a good idea.

I think anyone making weapons whether they are used or not must take some of the blame.

 

[fractionMan]

Given I used to demonstrate outside DESi I think I'd be a bit of a MASSIVE hypocrite as well.

What if you were offered non-defense work at a firm that did defense work elsewhere?

 

[MrSki]

Given I used to demonstrate outside DESi I think I'd be a bit of a MASSIVE hypocrite as well.

What if you were offered non-defense work at a firm that did defense work elsewhere?

Would you want to earn money for warmongers?

 

[xenon]

Id do it if were no other options. Whilst recently unemployed, i kept seeing a job i could have done advertised at atos. I like to think they didnt have enough applicants.

 

[MrSki]

Id do it if were no other options. Whilst recently unemployed, i kept seeing a job i could have done advertised at atos. I like to think they didnt have enough applicants.

I would stay on the dole.

 

[nogojones]

Take the job and make sure you fuck every important thing up

 

[FiFi]

Take the job and make sure you fuck every important thing up

TBH you'd just be part of a crowd who are doing this already!

 

[weepiper]

Nope. Friend of mine who used to work in a bike shop with me while he was doing his engineering degree got a job with Lockheed Martin on graduating; stuck it for six months before his conscience got the better of him and he sacked it off to become a team mechanic instead.

 

[dylanredefined]

If I had the skills they wanted sure.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

TBH you'd just be part of a crowd who are doing this already!

Yeah, a friend of mine did a gap year with a one of the defence contractors and to say the least he was not impressed by the general professionalism and quality of work - and that was a gap year student saying that. He didn't go back.

 

[fractionMan]

It's one of those places that does outsourced work for the government and emergency services etc, defense is included in that. It's a smaller outfit and definitely not ATOS.

I turned them down but they're now offering me work on non-defence related projects only.

 

[butchersapron]

You have other options, since this would be morally difficult for you don't apply.

If it were me, I'd have no problem with it. But I've been in the military and have a long military tradition in my family. I probably don't see it the same way as many others do.

Nice to see someone taking their christianity seriously for once.