TL;DR: The Army gives zero consideration to a soldier's preference or educational background when assigning careers, even when highly-qualified soldiers are available.
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From the Article:
"We're looking for America's best and brightest just like any Fortune 500 company out there," said Lt. Col. Sharlene Pigg, head of the Jacksonville-based 2nd Recruiting Brigade. "We're looking for those men and women who excel in science, technology, engineering and math."
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Hmmm. I'm among the enlisted soldiers with a STEM degree from the civilian world (BS - Mechanical Engineering) and 4 years industry experience. I can say for a fact that I received zero incentive to join the military beyond that of a 18 year old high school grad with a 2.0 GPA (save an automatic promotion to E-4 grade which would normally happen in about a year or so after enlistment).
Today, 2.5 years into my military career, I have had not one conversation about how my skills from the civilian world could be used to benefit the Army. There is about as much substance to Pigg's argument as there is to the STEM shortage myth in the civilian world. Lt. Col. Pigg presumably wants to use this as a reason to throw more money at the problem in the form of bonus pay and enlistment bonuses, or perhaps to relax the already generous minimum standards for physical fitness instead of utilizing the best and brightest within the ranks who perhaps would be more productive behind a computer than behind the steering wheel of a cargo truck.
Another example: I speak Italian and German fluently, yet this is not at all taken into consideration when deciding which soldiers will be stationed in Germany or Italy. Neither is the soldier's preference considered.
The Army has a long transition ahead to change an organization of interchangeable warm bodies into an organization of non-interchangeable professionals with dissimilar skill sets and career goals. Any kind of incentive to attract more outside talent would only be a small piece of the puzzle.
NOTE: I'm in combat arms because I joined to blow stuff up and play in the mud. If I wanted to sit behind a computer, I could bring in a lot more $$$ and put up with a lot less s*** as a civilian.
