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Comment by fancyMorsel | Hacker News Reader

Yup, I’d expect a data scientist or equivalent programmer commissioning as a captain, not a c-suite executive that is more of an MBA graduate. It all seems fishy.

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I have never been an officer, but the C-suite in the military is like "flag rank" which is above Colonel (Brigadier General.) Colonels are more like high management. But they likely won't be promoted, won't have an actual command, and rank means little more than the title.

If private industry were the military, most companies would be headed by O5 or O6; the scope of duties and responsibilities of an eg VP or CFO are actually quite comparable to a lt colonel or navy commander, CEOs are fairly like captains & colonels. These ranks are enough to head a large ship, air base, or training facility with hundreds or thousands under their command. Only extremely large companies (50k+ employees) have anything with a role comparable to admirals or generals.

Former U.S. Navy Surface Warfare Officer. This checks out, based on my experience working as a civilian since 2004.

CEOs are more like high ranking general officers, not O-6 level (Navy Captain, Army/Air force full bird colonel)

O-5 (Lt Col, Navy Commander) would be VP / GM level stuff, GS-13 through GS-14 in the federal government

O-6 equivalent in the civilian world equates to a GS-15 in the federal government, and a senior VP in the corporate world

O-7 (brigadier general) would be an EVP level position, C-level large org

O-8 (general) would be CEO

I think you’re just assuming the highest corporate role must be equivalent to general and working back from that.

For understanding their actual scope of responsibility I think my model is more useful.

Making military doctors and dentists colonels is mostly about putting them on an equivalent place on the pay scale to where they would be in civilian life.

The pay scale isn't really equivalent. For military doctors and dentists the typical lure is they will pay off all your student loans for a specific time commitment to the military.

Army colonels make $100k-$150k. Fresh MDs make more than that, everywhere.

Technically no, because you are a resident after MD. But yeah most specialties are higher paying elsewhere.

None of these people are MBA types. They’re also not “data scientists or equivalent,” but quite hands-dirty operators nonetheless.

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