Career in the Forces? (IT Related)

[Puzzled]

pilot - you'll need a pretty 'rich' CV, stuff like voluntary work and what not, extra curricular stuff, most people are dreaming when they see 2 a-levels and think they stand a chance.

You need to be squeeky clean and have a sparkling CV etc. Then you need high aptitude scores, all the eyesight etc, and the thirst and knowledge to pass through selection interviews.
The amount of people iv heard say they wanted to be a pilot whilst sat waiting around in the afco iv been applying through is ridiculous, theres always more after a film like topgun or similar has been on tv recently too.

Yeah pretty much what I thought, I can dream though hey.

Although for me whizzing around in a jet doesn't do it for me, being able to airlift people in and more importantly out sounds far more interesting personally.

Still there is always the civvy route if the forces won't have me.

 

[peetee]

Zefan have you done your fitness btw?

 

[Zefan]

Yup, see post 151 and 153

 

[Begbie]

Not really, I'm never nervous until about 5 minutes before an event

It goes by really quickly by the way, I applied on June 24th. There've been a couple of weeks of delays due to their system being down and my AFCO being very busy so you can expect it to be quicker than this.

Yeah I think most of them are busy, waited an hour to be seen yesterday!

It does go in very quickly wasn't expecting to be going back as soon as a week, can't see me doing much work, in work, this week will be practising for Tuesday

 

[Zefan]

Got my dates today. Pre recruit training (2 day visit to Halton) on August 28th, final interview on September 2nd, recruit training October 1st.

Chuffed.

 

[Andr3w]

you can take my job if you want

 

[Zefan]

Well if you leave it's one less to compete with for promotion selection

Received my travel warrant today, it's getting a bit real now

 

[the_worrier]

Forget about promotion...there's no such thing in the Air Force anymore!

 

[peetee]

silly, depends on trade.

 

[Zefan]

Forget about promotion...there's no such thing in the Air Force anymore!

You currently serving?

 

[the_worrier]

12 years done, mate.
Living the dream!

 

[Zefan]

Can you explain what your comment about promotion means and why it's happened then?

 

[the_worrier]

What i said was dripping in sarcasm, but based broadly on truth. In many trades you are going to have to wait quite a lot of years for a 'look' at promotion. Of course, there are always anomalies, but i am refering to 'Joe Average Airman'. In some trades there has been an enforced ban on promotion recently. This has been invoked for complex reasons which reflect the specific circumstances in that trade. That said, 'Go for it!', you never know!...you definately won't get promoted if you dont put the effort in.

 

[Andr3w]

Forget about promotion...there's no such thing in the Air Force anymore!

Thats so..so true

i think i still have my travel warrent..never used it

Can you explain what your comment about promotion means and why it's happened then?

Civilians and TG4

 

[the_worrier]

Is that what its called this week....TG4?!

 

[Zefan]

Yes I understand that's the case, but what is causing it?

 

[Begbie]

Got my dates today. Pre recruit training (2 day visit to Halton) on August 28th, final interview on September 2nd, recruit training October 1st.

Chuffed.

Nice one, does it explain what the pre recruit training is about?

 

[the_worrier]

Yes I understand that's the case, but what is causing it?

Money/cost. Plus, the more civ div they employ-the more they can send Mil OOA! (Think Irakistan)

 

[Zefan]

Money/cost. Plus, the more civ div they employ-the more they can send Mil OOA! (Think Irakistan)

Sounds good to me, afterall that's what I want to do.

You're giving me the impression that it's the guys who don't get their teeth stuck it are the ones who suffer from invisible man syndrome. Is that the case?

 

[Chasser]

What i said was dripping in sarcasm, but based broadly on truth. In many trades you are going to have to wait quite a lot of years for a 'look' at promotion. Of course, there are always anomalies, but i am refering to 'Joe Average Airman'. In some trades there has been an enforced ban on promotion recently. This has been invoked for complex reasons which reflect the specific circumstances in that trade. That said, 'Go for it!', you never know!...you definately won't get promoted if you dont put the effort in.

Mmmmm. Quality should always win out, but promotion boards still focus on the content of the narrative (not necessarily the promotion recommendation) and secondary & associated duties are still a massive factor. Quite wrongly in my opinion. These days, most trades are stretched, with out of area Ops committments leaving big gaps at home. These 'gaps' are normally filled by others doing that little bit extra.

The bulk of personnel I know are honest professionals who work extremely hard. There are some who play the game, picking up a secondary duty purely to try and get promoted. Back in the day, a secondary duty was just that and often had to be completed out of hours. These days certain people put more into their secondary duties (knowing full well it's a skive, and to a certain extent 'encouraged' by the system to do so), than into their core duties. The honest hard working types suffer as they pick up more at work and then are disadvantaged when promotion boards sit.

The new SJAR was supposed to bring parity. IMHO todays promotion process is archaic and not at all fair. An excellent tradesman who works flat out all day every day often loses out to the workshy chancer who sits on some high profile charity committee purely to avoid work and get a leg-up on the promotion ladder. It stinks, just my tuppence worth.