If John Got Kicked Out Of Atlantis…

[perfica]

You don’t have to be a fan of Stargate Atlantis to answer these questions, I'm also interested in hearing about the employment options of men in the United States once they reach a certain age and have certain qualifications.

Comments

[green_grrl]

Actually, his aptitude for math is pretty high -- he seems to be naturally gifted for it. And, I'm pretty sure, he passed the Mensa test but didn't join

[perfica]

I wouldn't put it past civilian scientists from the SGC or Area 51 to hire him as a civilian consultant to work with Ancient tech

That's an excellent point. The civilian population would be happy to use him to further their research.

(Colorado Springs also has a fairly vocal born-again/anti-gay segment of population.) Area 51 is a good alternative, though.

Yes, I've read that about Colorado Springs. How far is Area 51 from there?

[green_grrl]

Area 51 is in Groom Lake, Nevada, which is outside Las Vegas. Colorado Springs is outside Denver, Colorado. So, a fair distance. Not by jet, though.

[perfica]

Ah, thank you.

I suspect John is going to spend a lot of time travelling.

[emrinalexander]

God, there's tons of options for someone like Sheppard. He's got at least one master's degree (his USAF and they kind of insist on that, especially to get promoted past Captain and to fly their big expensive aircraft *G*), he took and passed the MENSA test (he says, in one episode that he just didn't bother to join). It's canon that he has a high mathematical apptitude and if he was an officer in the USAF, then he's got to have a bachelor's degree, probably a BS, either from the Acadamy or another university (officers feed into the military both routes). We don't know what that degree is, but given the ease with which he designed and supervised the jumper retrofit in Grace Under Pressure, I'm betting at least his BS is in some kind of engineering (maybe aeronautical or possibly mechanical

[perfica]

Remember, late 30's - early 40's may seem old if you're 20-something, but its really not.

Hee! I'm nowhere near my 20's, and didn't mean to imply it. I'm just curious as to what males (in this context) can do if they decide on a career change. In Australia, the days of staying in one company for fifty years have long gone by, and it's very difficult for people to become 'retrained' once they're not longer needed (i.e. fired or retrenched).

[emrinalexander]

I'm like, 120 in dog years *G*, so I think everybody is younger than I am.

I think it's actually a little easier for somebody like John to get back into or essentially enter the civilian workplace here - just because of the military background. People tend to - or seem to anyway - view guys with honorable discharges as being more trustworthy, better workers, better employees. A lot of retired pilots fly for airlines of all sizes and then there's test piloting, for example. You can have a lot of fun speculating on what he might do for a living after the military and I do *G*.

[dossier]

Hhhm. If we were specifically talking about John Sheppard I think he'd be torn between finding a beach type city VS staying in the 'Springs--if only to occasionally see his honey more quickly when they come through they gate. He does own a surfboard, so I think that's a decent clue. I think that emotionally he'd want to get as far away from the military as possible, because he might feel betrayed in some fashion--not that he didn't know the consequences, but the descriptions you gave sounded very much like a single man, rather than a couple being thrown out of Atlantis

[perfica]

there's literally thousands of 20-somethings that are graduating every year and they work for cheap so there's a very large percentage of laid-off middle aged men who have to become very seriously underemployed, or go into business for themselves.

That was my thinking as well, but I just wanted confirmation that that would be the case in the U.S. As to his emotional state, I think you're spot-on, but a man's got to work! (At least, once his money runs out ;-)

[dossier]

I agree. I think that John, for all of his laid back ways, has been working steadily his entire adult life. He might take a couple of months to figure out what he wanted to do, but eventually he'd get bored being unemployed.

pilot options

[anonymous]

It's canon ("Rising") that he thinks "people who don't want to fly are nuts." So that's what he'll want to do for as long as he can pass the medical.

The specific craft he mentions experience with are all helicopters. Civilian helicopters include:

Shuttles from downtown to the airport
Tourist sightseeing flights
Private/Corporate charter
Radio traffic reporter
Police and Fire Department
Forest service
Movie company or news camera-copters
Medivac, including organ network transport

If he was in Colorado this year, he could have been flying bales of hay out to snowbound cattle.

If you'd rather put him in fixed-wing craft, add passenger airlines and FedEx to your possibilities list.

I don't see him as an instructor -- he didn't seem to enjoy teaching Rodney to fly the puddlejumper.

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wendy

Re: pilot options

[perfica]

Thank you, Wendy. That's a lot of great information.

[thepouncer]

A different option: John would be very attractive (as if he already isn't!) to defense contractors. A lot of former officers make their way into consultancy. John has the helicopter experience, plus there've got to be contractors working for the SGC: who builds the UAVs and F-302s and STARSHIPS? Not the government.

[perfica]

Oh, nice one. And they'd understand that he was retired and wouldn't necessarily want to/could talk about his previous work.