HACKER Q&A
📣 throwmetothesea

Skills to Learn for Wartime?


What are some technical skills that I can pick up that will make me desirable for desk positions during wartime?


  👤 OutOfHere Accepted Answer ✓
Learn how to quickly escape the country before they close the borders, preferably with your money in tow. You don't owe it to anyone to fight a war for the warmongers that trigger it.

👤 bbor
lol I assumed you were referencing preparation for civil war, and had lots of things to say! If you know that any war will be waged by your nation state, then any male under 40 is kinda at the whims of that nation state, ultimately. That said, assuming you’re in Europe or America, it would take a massive shakeup to start drafting people into the infantry again, especially anyone with a useful degree.

Practically speaking, if you’re still seriously worried, take a look at contractor jobs for the DOD! What they need now is probably what they’ll need during the war:

- tech buzzwords: C/C++, embedded programming, static code checking, data pipelines in general

- industry buzzwords: satellite ground resource management / telemetry, tracking, and control (GRM/TTC), Command and Control (C2), signals intelligence (SIGINT), bombs


👤 stop50
In wartimes, usually the capable are sent to the front first, so if you have an bad enough eyesight or an disablement from an past injury, then another one will be send to the front.

if you are already in a desk job for an war critical comany or organization, then they would take another person first.


👤 josefritzishere
For anyone who hasn't thought of it yet... this is a fine time to explore dual citizenship options.

👤 bell-cot
With recent trends, anything cybersecurity.

Drone-related stuff might also be good.


👤 nosmokewhereiam
Anything logistics.

👤 mettamage
I always thought that being a pentester would be handy, it seems to be a useful skill during both peace and war time.

👤 RudyStone
Saying no.

👤 red-iron-pine
IT and general CS skills are good. Accounting, medicine, mechanical skills; the latter may not be desk jobs but they'll keep you out of the way.

Get a back back or bad knees. Work on getting really fat. Asthma helps.


👤 xenospn
The front lines prefer motivated soldiers. If you show disinterest or flat out object, there’s a big chance you will be assigned somewhere else. Also being allergic to gun oil.