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Just a matter of how much risk you're cool with.
Allow me to be the dissenter. If you're doing this for the military or the government, I would urge you to consider if your work is contributing to all of the wrong reasons why we (as a country) are there, or if it's going to contribute to helping correct the mistakes that got us there. Is war really something you want to experience? Things are calm there now, relative to a few years ago, but - imho - still is a pret…
Where can I find a job like that?
If there's a 3% chance of a mortar landing near you, is that worth it? Honest question. A lot of folks would risk their life for a 3% chance at any significant amount of money. Personally, I wouldn't- I would rather keep my 'risks of dying' to things like mugging (.05%/day), bus crashes (.005%/day), and dying in a nuclear holocaust (.00005%/day). Just a matter of how much risk you're cool with.
it didn't come in, but people died.
3% chance, more like 3 shells at a go.
You don't see much of this in the media, but Iraq is a stunningly beautiful country. There's a lot that you can learn from the people there (and certainly much they could learn from you), and the Arabic language is nothing short of remarkable.
Diving head-first into another culture is one of the few educations that the Internet and college cannot fully convey via text. You won't regret it.
sounds like an interesting decision. best of luck. one thing to keep in mind is that 200k probably means more like 100k after taxes. that only leaves you about 20k overhead after you pay your student loans. just something to think about.
Usually the first $80k is tax-free for travels to Iraq/Afghanistan, after that you get taxed at the "normal" rate.
As long as it'd be safe, I'd go for it without hesitation. New place, fun work, big accomplishment, lots of money and free time? I'm not sure what down side you see, but it would need to be huge to turn this down.
my mind says yes, but my body says stay the fuck away, I dont wanna die. So the question still remains and I definitely am looking for advice.
Pretend the salary is the same in both places, and judge the decision just on the experience factor. (I say this because for a variety of reasons, you could make that much money in the States as a reasonably curious, skilled person. You read Hacker News after all :D You know all about salary ranges, entrepreneurship, affiliate programs, Parrot Books, and Adsense. I'm not saying we all make 200K, we just all know abou…
200K for one year in Iraq might actually be significantly more than 200K for one year in California, for instance, depending on cost of living. I can't imagine actually buying anything in Iraq would cost much (or be that compelling of an option), so if room and board is either cheap or included with the job, you might save a lot of the 200K.