Career in the Forces? (IT Related)

Woo, happy I found this thread. Currently in my 2nd year @ uni doing Comp Sci degree and seriously thinking about joining the forces (most likely RAF) as an officer when i graduate and figured I should probably start sorting it out pretty soon. Does anyone else have any experience applying whilst at university and have any tips or advice to give? I'm hoping qualifications won't be too much of a problem as the RAF is after IT specialists but I know I should start getting into better physical shape or is that not much of an issue?
 
Captain Planet said:
As said, anyone can go for a commission but I wouldn't recommend joining the ranks with the sole intention of doing that.
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Well that wouldn't be my sole reason for doing it. Joining the ranks would provide the hands on experience that i would love to do, i simply enjoy working with computers. That being said though i would want to have good future prospects if i were to want to stay in the forces long term (21 years is the limit if i recall correctly, unless you have skills that would warrent them keeping you on beyond that), and its the potential to gain a commission down the line that would make me willing to stay on that long.

Without a commission somewhere down the line there just doesn't seem like enough of an incentive to stick with the armed forces rather then learn the valuable skills and training, as well as experience all the wonders (and hardships) that the armed forces has to offer, and then simply leave for a better paying job as a civvy.
 
Hedge said:
What do they do in a medical?

blood tests?
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Urine sample, hearing test (which is very wierd), sight test (remeber and take your glasses, if you wear them.), blood pressure, cough test!, measurements, weight and thats all I can remeber.

Not a lot involved really its like a simple check up.

No - no needles at all
 
Passed out on Yesterday, such a great feeling.

Moved to Cosford for trade training today! Am on leave until my course starts on the 11th, it's really good to be able to properly relax for the first time in a long while.
 
Zefan said:
Passed out on Yesterday, such a great feeling.

Moved to Cosford for trade training today! Am on leave until my course starts on the 11th, it's really good to be able to properly relax for the first time in a long while.
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Congratulations! :)

How long will it be untill you have finished all your trade training?
 
Zefan said:
Passed out on Yesterday, such a great feeling.

Moved to Cosford for trade training today! Am on leave until my course starts on the 11th, it's really good to be able to properly relax for the first time in a long while.
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Congratulations!!

Well done Zefan. How was the 9 weeks then?

Just back from PRTC - shattered - can only imagine how you feel after those 9 weeks.

Best of luck at Cosford, hopefully see you about there sometime next year :)
 
Great thread, i am looking at the Navy, joining as an engineer. Presume the medical is fairly standard for all 3 forces?

One thing that does worry me though is i know i have bad eye sight, will this stop me being able to join or are you able to wear glasses/contacts?
 
You should be fine wearing glasses/contacts :)

If you have dodgey colour vision however it could be a problem, I believe it's trade specific.

Begbie, the 9 weeks are tough but to be honest you just run on automatic and get it done. Most people there didn't actually feel like they'd "done" anything, just been there for the ride and managed to pass out by chance. It's probably a bit confusing unless you've been through it, you should know what I mean by the end :D

Good luck :)
 
Yeah it does seem very tough, but am sure it will also be good fun.

Tbh the only thing am scared about is the sleep! 3-4 hours a night does not seem like fun :p.
 
Begbie said:
Yeah it does seem very tough, but am sure it will also be good fun.

Tbh the only thing am scared about is the sleep! 3-4 hours a night does not seem like fun :p.
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All the tasks set can be completed and a decent night sleep be had, it just takes good time management and a good team of lads/lasses who work well together. I'd advise that before training you try and adjust your body clock to sleep at 10pm and wake at 5am everyday because the early starts are a shock to the system to begin and from then on you're constantly on catch-up. It was blatant that most of the pressure guys were suffering was created by themselves but as Zefan mentioned just get your head down and go along for the ride. To put into perspective, Air Force basic training is by far the easiest of all four services.
 
I just wish the websites run my the armed forces put a little more effort into giving more details and such. The army website isn't too bad, but the navy/marines and the RAF website seem to lack a lot of information.
 
Andr3w said:
What more information would you like?
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Well i would like to know if RAF ICT specialists get any sort of choice of which area of ICT they will be doing, because ICT is a big subject. In the army the royal signals have multiple ICT trades instead of just the RAFs ICT specialist, so at least in the signals you have some sort of choice (even then though, the trades in the signals cover huge areas too). Reason i want to know this is because things like being a network admin would realy interest me and i would love to do it, but being a communications system op (using radios, sat comms etc...) would be much less interesting to me.

Also the armed forces websites don't give much info about the trades at different ranks. They give a description of what trades will do in general, but they dont give much info as to what sort of work they will be doing fresh out of trade training, and what sort of work they will be doing as they progress through the ranks. I know that the higher ranks take on more management type tasks, but surely they must also progress onto more technical equipment/skills (for instance they proberly wouldnt let the lower ranks design network infrastructure).
 
You need to ask the AFCO those questions really (although they'll probably know less than you), however I'll give it a go.

You can choose to a degree, although it's largely dependant on what the service needs at the time and your aptitude. It used to be seperate trades, they've amalgamated technical/radar stuff in with IT/network/admin now so that everyone has the same initial training.

For the more technical/specialised stuff I believe its a case of being selected/applying for more training, this is something I'm interested in myself so I'll ask the staff at Cosford when I get back from leave.

I actually just popped into this thread to let people who are considering the trade know that we are now on the higher payband at SAC \o/

And to say that Cosford is great :D
 
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Go army it make sense, and we have always been on the higher pay band at LCpl no such thing as a high pay band siggy (private soldier), and with the army (a change thats recently been made :( missed that one) you get your Lance Jack straight out of trade training for a CS Engineer (the IT based job in the Royal Signals) although some AFCO's may still know it as a IS Engineer, which means you could be on £20k+ after trade training, Basic Training and Trade Training will take about 9months to a year :)
 
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