Graduating from college, one always has options, some more enticing than others. I should already issue a correction: Unless your major studies were in the liberal arts and you did not have family connections, one always has options upon graduating from college, some more enticing than others. For me, one option was Iraq.
It was early 2003, and I was about to start the second semester of my graduate studies at the top school in the country for my program, the University of California at Berkeley. I was studying geotechnical engineering, and despite the fact that the economy was on the verge of exploding (in a positive way), engineering companies were hesitant in full-scale blanket hiring.
Enrollment in specialty graduate programs comes in waves. Typically during economic expansions marked by mass hiring, enrollment is low, and during economic recessions, marked by — at the very least — hiring freezes, enrollment is high. Two years after I graduated with a class of 25 (a relative high for the program historically), the school graduated a class of 8. School enrollment, especially voluntary enrollment like in graduate school, is directly related to national and global economic conditions, and it is routinely cyclical. Typically.
Job offers were not easy to come by for my class of twenty-five. When you were able to land an interview, you didn’t tell anyone else, because you were absolutely sure that they wouldn’t be reciprocating the courtesy. It was a fierce battle. Some of my classmates moved from the area chasing jobs. It was also the first time in more than a decade that companies didn’t pour-in through the front doors of the engineering building looking for talent, or that the professors’ phones weren’t off the hook with former colleagues looking for the next rising star, or so this is what our professors told us.
Instead of sorting through multitudes of offers, trading them with classmates like baseball cards, students had to fend for themselves. This led to a stressful last couple of months of school. It was custom for students to have jobs lined up in December, and now lining up a job for June was the most difficult assignment. This also served as a perfect example of free-market capitalism, forcing students to leverage their individual skills and political machinations, and also teaching not to spend too much energy on what may ultimately become a lost opportunity cost.
The invasion of Iraq began in March 2003, but the rumblings concerning the reconstruction, and the jobs that that would require, started much earlier. It was mid-January when I first got wind of the news. I had just returned from Buffalo, which I would not visit again for nearly six years, and my mouth was still sore. I had my wisdom teeth pulled while vacationing at home if only to ensure that the operation was covered by my parents’ insurance.
I was sitting in the computer lounge, surfing the internet for god knows what in the waning days of my final winter break, when a classmate informed that companies were looking to send engineers — hundreds of them — to Iraq to help re-build the country. Bechtel has a long history with the University, and they were one of the premier firms that were gearing up to land in Iraq once the short war was to be declared over. In what was to be the largest reconstruction project in the history of the world, San Francisco-based Bechtel was looking for engineers to send to the Middle East, especially young ones — those without families to care for, those that tend be take a little more risk in personal decision-making. You know, dumb college students. This is where I entered the equation.
The rumored offers were enticing: $200k, tax-free, plus no expenses. Engineers would work, eat and sleep on a campus built by Bechtel (and presumably protected by the U.S. Army, although at that time, this wasn’t a concern since the U.S. would be welcomed with open arms as an occupying force). The deal was to work for two years and return home with $400k in your bank account. I seriously considered this offer. How could any sane person not?
My memories of this potential offer to work in Iraq came rushing back while reading Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. In his memoir, John Perkins labeled large engineering and construction firms as a guiding force behind the corporate push for global empire (for the exclusive benefit of the United States). On more than one occasion, he specifically mentions Bechtel, although Bechtel was not the only engineering firm looking for debt-ridden engineering students to send and re-build the Middle East.
The offer was ultimately not for me. At the time, I doubted my decision to not pursue it further — to at least set-up an interview — since it seemed to be the perfect answer in an effort to pile-up some cash. I had a pretty girlfriend that I wanted to keep. I really enjoyed living in California and didn’t want to leave. And yes, I was scared. Eating in a mess hall with other young engineers would have been fun, but forgoing common sense that this assignment would be in a war-torn country, surrounded by known (and unknown) enemies of the state — of the country that I represent — would have been illogical. I realized this then, and I still realize this now.
I played it safe instead, and took a job locally. It wasn’t the six figures that an Iraq field-trip promised, but I left school with the highest starting salary in my class, and that wasn’t anything to look upon with regret.
Iraq was an option, and not all options are equal. I could have had a unique once-in-a-lifetime experience. I could have been a foreign contractor with a bulls-eye on my back. I could have come home with a pile of cash and an appetite for land. I could have come home in a body-bag. I believe I made the right decision.
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