Career in the Forces? (IT Related)

Chasser said:
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.
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There isn't even a section on SJAR's to comment about secondary duties (as opposed to the old 6000's) there is less focus on them now.
 
Captain Planet said:
There isn't even a section on SJAR's to comment about secondary duties (as opposed to the old 6000's) there is less focus on them now.
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I never said there was. Read the AP and the SJAR Guide, comments on secondary duties are encouraged in the performance narrative. And boarding officers still give them more attention than they should (I can vouch for this from first hand experience). To say there is less focus on them these days is just wrong.
 
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Captain Planet said:
It isnt wrong because it is how it is, first hand here too
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My comments come from observing a recent board. I was shocked to see how much emphasis was given to secondary & associated duties. I suspect that Board Presidents are 'instructed' to home in on personnel with high profile secondary duties, in particular those which reflect favourably on the RAF. Of course no one will admit to this. I too thought the SJAR was to be less focused on them than the now defunct 6000's.

Many personnel who are constantly deploying are being disadvantaged. If you act as a 1st RO, get something into your good guys performance narratives, anything which is extra curricular, believe me it really helps. My eyes were really opened over those 2 days.
 
I have been OOA and the report that followed my performance there is certainly more important on my SJAR than my secondary duties. Duties are mentioned but they tend to be put in to bolster reports that lack any other content. It might depend upon the trade but I know that in my trade the amount of experience you have OOA puts you in much better steed for promotion than other duties.
 
Agreed, SJAR inserts are crucial and are part and parcel of the pre-boarding. I hope your Trade boards have specialist officers with some backbone who can question the motives of Presidents intent on reaching Air Rank. Good luck mate :cool:
 
Im interested what else was said in this meeting?

The trade sponsors do seem to be switched on, I guess it is one of those branches where they have to though. Most of my colleagues say promotions are fair, will see soon eh!? ;)
 
It wasn't a meeting, I was observing a board. It's my assumption, based on how the president appeared to have more interest in, and was 'pushing', those reports where personnel had high profile secondary duties (particularly those in the public eye).

I came away quite frustrated and angry. Also the way of awarding 'points' from the content of narratives still happens, and secondary duties still score. The perception that they are no longer a contributing factor is flawed.
 
You guys are just talking nonsense now ;)

Begbie have you applied then? Get your MSN sorted out, I have something that might help you ya see :D
 
Ah I see, I was going to send you a practice test book I bought before doing mine, obviously useless to me now!

It's "Practice Tests for the Armed Forces: Entry Level" and covers all three services aptitude tests. It includes question examples/answers, test practice and advice which to be honest is common sense however it was pretty much the only place I could find extra practice tests so it helped me a lot.


Anyone else doing aptitude tests soon? If so add me to MSN and I'll take your details.
 
Zefan said:
Ah I see, I was going to send you a practice test book I bought before doing mine, obviously useless to me now!

It's "Practice Tests for the Armed Forces: Entry Level" and covers all three services aptitude tests. It includes question examples/answers, test practice and advice which to be honest is common sense however it was pretty much the only place I could find extra practice tests so it helped me a lot.


Anyone else doing aptitude tests soon? If so add me to MSN and I'll take your details.
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Thanks for the offer, got my old physics book just using the questions in there for examples.

Never even knew that existed!
 
Yeah, I passed.

Altough because of my rubbish school grades they have sent my HND away for an educational wavier. So I have to wait for that before getting a date set for the interview.

So just waiting on a phone call, hopefully sometime this week. If not i'll phone up next week to see how its going.
 
Good luck, I'm getting all my stuff together for PRTC this Thursday. Can't wait :D

:edit: Did you find the very last one (memory with the lit squares) harder than you expected? I was really shocked, it's the only "aptitude" test I've ever done that I've found challenging.
 
Zefan said:
Good luck, I'm getting all my stuff together for PRTC this Thursday. Can't wait :D

:edit: Did you find the very last one (memory with the lit squares) harder than you expected? I was really shocked, it's the only "aptitude" test I've ever done that I've found challenging.
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Yeah, much harder than I thought it would be! Never realised how little time you acctually had with each letter.

I found the timescales harder than I imagined, you don't realise how quick 10mins are untill you are doing it.

Thats for two days, right? Have you been told what it involves yet?

Assuming it is just to meet everyone etc?

Good luck anyway :)
 
Nah it's not to meet everyone :p, the people on my PRTC will most likely not be on my RTS intake.

It's to give the recruits a chance to sus it out, get a feeling for what training's like, do a fitness test and get their boots so they're broken in by the time they start.

It also gives them a chance to realise if it's not what they want, which cuts down the amount of drop outs early on in recruit training proper, thus saving the RAF a lot of hassle and resources through wasted spaces.

It involves a couple of lectures, a fitness test and some admin. It's actually only just over 24hrs long (arrive at Midday, leave in the early afternoon the next day) so it'll be over in a flash but I'm hoping it's a good insight.
 
Zefan said:
Nah it's not to meet everyone :p, the people on my PRTC will most likely not be on my RTS intake.

It's to give the recruits a chance to sus it out, get a feeling for what training's like, do a fitness test and get their boots so they're broken in by the time they start.

It involves a couple of lectures, a fitness test and some admin. It's actually only just over 24hrs long (arrive at Midday, leave in the early afternoon the next day) so it'll be over in a flash but I'm hoping it's a good insight.
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I meant your FS etc! :p

Ah right, yeah told you get your boots before training - thats a bonus. Might try and swap them with my own set, altough they are acctually really comfy once worn in.


That sounds pretty good acctually, least it will give you a chance to get used to the crap beds :p

Have you been given your kit list yet?
 
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