Pros
The Navy offers a great opportunity, for officers, to lead directly out of college. The time you're missing in the business world, learning about how a company runs and how the market reacts to different situations, is not that costly in the long run due to the great experience you get in leading young sailors. Your opportunities for advancement and recognition are quite high, but at times, it can seem that doing well isn't really rewarded, or if it is, it's rewarded with more work, from other officers, who make the same paycheck you do, but don't work as hard. Benefits can include free health care, good salary, and great opportunities to become a leader.
Cons
The time you spend from your family and friends at sea is not a horrible thing, at first. Some of the best memories that I've developed is while on deployment sailing the ocean and being away from home for up to 10 months. Luckily, my wife and I are able to deal with not being with each other and when I returned, there was a small transition time of getting used to each other again, but all in all, we made it through. The problem is, the more you're away, the harder it is to keep your relationship strong. Now that I'm starting a family, being away, missing swimming practice and birthdays, and sometimes not even being home to watch your first born child be born, can be difficult for even the saltiest sailor.
