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maffew buildings posted:Mr. Nice! would be the one to field questions about the gentleman, I only hung out with him on a few occasions. Do you like Ted Danson's Becker? If so then yes you are like that dude. Civil Engineering side there are a lot of niche opportunities for Seabees, officers and enlisted, that don't get talked about. The people that love this community loving love it. Seabees are a weird bunch but if it's a good fit for someone they'll thrive. If you want I can drop you my email and I can answer any questions to the best of my ability (I'm just a petty officer who hasn't been around it a super long time or anything) or I can get you in touch with people that can better answer anything. I'm pretty sure I could get you in contact with an officer in a few days of reaching out to my friends. Dude, if you could drop your email that would be great. I'm trying to find more stuff on CEC but information's kinda limited bc its not as high-profile as the line designators. Also, I just watched a Becker best of compilation on YouTube: that dude has perfected the art of the rant lol. Mr. Nice! posted:SWO life you will be expected to run your division while also meeting various qualification wickets. A number of these qualifications require boards with the captain and/or other senior officers. The boards vary by command, but they are a situation where you are in a room (often by yourself) and get basically grilled on the subject area. If you start to flub up or even show a lack of confidence in what is otherwise a correct answer, things can go south very fast. If you can't handle board pressure, you can't qualify. When you're not qualified, you can't stand watch or do some of the tasks that other JOs have to do, and a resentment builds. When you're delinquent in quals, you get mandatory study hours and other such fun things. My friend was someone that couldn't handle the pressure of a board and struggled in some of his basic qualifications as a result. He always has been a very high strung individual, so when he would start to flub and they'd ask him a bullshit question to gently caress with him, he'd melt down. Getting poo poo on by your peers and your chain of command will do that. His XO got fired when he was a captain for letting a goat stay onboard among other things. He was in a very toxic environment. Had he been on my ship, who knows if he would have survived, but the pressure might have got him there too. I saw the story about that XO, I'm glad he's out now if he was that toxic. I was pretty high-strung when I was a kid, but I mellowed out as I got older thankfully. Qual boards don't faze me, I'm used to getting poo poo on for not knowing stuff lol. Also, you'd think peers would look out for each other when everyone's in the same lovely situation. I don't get buddy-fuckers.
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Oct 12, 2016 20:34
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It's because you're ranked against your peers and it's effectively on a curve. Your reporting senior has an trait average that covers every JO fitrep he signs. They can't give someone a score high above their average without giving people a below average score. Those rankings can matter for special programs and such. You're competing with your peers and will be for pretty much your entire career.
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Oct 12, 2016 21:18
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Hit me up at throwsitaway@gmail.com, if I can't answer something I'll likely be able to find it out quick enough. But loving seriously man look at the private sector more, there are opportunities out there, start networking and don't stop til you have a job you're cool with unless you are deadset on the service and there is no way you will change your mind. maffew buildings fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Oct 12, 2016 |
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Oct 12, 2016 21:39
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If you do apply, make sure to include the various information warfare communities on your application. They're highly selective, but you have nothing to lose in adding them onto your list of 5 choices. They all offer a pretty solid quality of life with a wide array of potential assignments and career opportunities. Let me put it this way: retention is good enough that promotion rates to O-4 are dropping and there are zero retention bonuses.
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Oct 12, 2016 23:51
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Though you guys might enjoy the fact my 6 yr old daughter punched a captain in the balls today. We were at the dependa office getting my wife an ID and the kids were watching a fight in the Transformer movie on the TV and he walked in and asked them who their favorite one was. My son yelled out something unintelligible and did a Air kick and daughter just hauled out and punched him in the crotch. I literally almost died from internal laughter hemorrhage while trying to round them up.
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Oct 13, 2016 00:05
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sweg420blazeit posted:Also what's the day to day like for an NFO? Pilots have a pretty obvious job description, but the role of NFO seems a bit more nebulous. Pretty much the same as a pilot, just instead of monkeying around with a stick and rudder, you're monkeying around with a sensor scope or other equipment. Exactly what equipment that is really depends on the platform you're flying. As far as life on the ground goes, it's all the same. You go through initial flight training, get assigned to a platform and eventually a squadron, get assigned to a division in charge of some sailors (or just doing random jobs like Public Affairs or Legal Officer), and work on getting more quals in the aircraft. Basically the flying part is the same kind of stress and pressure that the SWOs are describing, but then you get to land and work in a place that (ideally) you don't hate, that doesn't hate you, and that doesn't completely suck. And you're legally required to get an adequate amount of time off for rest before you fly again, so none of that bullshit "I only got two hours of sleep and now I'm on watch" SWO martyrdom. Some squadrons are lovely, just like some boats are awesome, but it's rare for a squadron to be lovely for the entire ~three years of your first tour.
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Oct 13, 2016 00:13
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Jimmy4400nav posted:Correct, technically not qualified for pilot since I didn't know how to do the depth perception test, but since NFO is the route I wanted to go anyways, I'm not too torn up about that. I did my first tour as a P-3 NFO and then transitioned to P-8 on my shore tour, both in FL, before I got out and transferred over to NOAA. I liked it - it's kind of unique since you have huge squadron and you fly with a crew of like 10 people. You definitely can make some decent cash from per diem depending on deployment site (I made $3.50 extra a day in the desert for 7 months, but also $93 a day for 7 months in El Salvador flying counter drug ops). And you can drink when you aren't flying instead of doing whatever it is boat guys do in their free time. I think most of the bad reputation VP has is that we are huge dorks about a lot of stuff, and the ones that boat guys are going to see most often are the "golden path" tools that do their disassociated sea tour on the carrier. Generally those guys make command and continue to promote lovely culture. Also the junior NFO on the crew does all the tactical comms, so usually we sound like idiots.
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Oct 13, 2016 01:14
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Mr. Nice! posted:The boards vary by command, but they are a situation where you are in a room (often by yourself) and get basically grilled on the subject area. If you start to flub up or even show a lack of confidence in what is otherwise a correct answer, things can go south very fast. If you can't handle board pressure, you can't qualify. When you're not qualified, you can't stand watch or do some of the tasks that other JOs have to do, and a resentment builds. When you're delinquent in quals, you get mandatory study hours and other such fun things. For years I worked hard to train people to KNOW rather than just know. It's a fine line and its piss easy to tell someone who knows the poo poo vs someone who memorized enough to make it to board. I started helping quietly filter people out who were incapable of applying knowledge to a function early before they embarrassed themselves on a board. KetTarma saw the type every day at Nuke prototype. And to no ones surprise I see the same thing in civilian engineering daily. loving college graduates who not only need a full year of help but can't seem to get it through their skulls that they aren't being productive. Any soul who tries to improve I will drag kicking and screaming into the light but God help you if you think you're hot poo poo and start spasming on a project of mine.
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Oct 13, 2016 06:26
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Wonder Free posted:I did my first tour as a P-3 NFO and then transitioned to P-8 on my shore tour, both in FL, before I got out and transferred over to NOAA. I liked it - it's kind of unique since you have huge squadron and you fly with a crew of like 10 people. You definitely can make some decent cash from per diem depending on deployment site (I made $3.50 extra a day in the desert for 7 months, but also $93 a day for 7 months in El Salvador flying counter drug ops). And you can drink when you aren't flying instead of doing whatever it is boat guys do in their free time. Good to know! I've always been really interested in VP and one of my family friends whose in a squadron has lots of good things to say, but being a family friend I was always wondering if it might just be a bias on their side. Glad to hear others have good stories in those squadrons.
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Oct 13, 2016 16:35
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Wonder Free posted:I did my first tour as a P-3 NFO and then transitioned to P-8 on my shore tour, both in FL, before I got out and transferred over to NOAA. I liked it - it's kind of unique since you have huge squadron and you fly with a crew of like 10 people. You definitely can make some decent cash from per diem depending on deployment site (I made $3.50 extra a day in the desert for 7 months, but also $93 a day for 7 months in El Salvador flying counter drug ops). And you can drink when you aren't flying instead of doing whatever it is boat guys do in their free time. The problem with VP is not so much the individual people per se but he community culture. I know lots of good people that are VP aviators but the community is very SWO like in many ways, probably because of relatively small number of command opportunities compared to the amount of people. Every VP person I know (and granted the sample size isn't a huge one) pretty much agree that the culture of the community sucks. The flying itself doesn't seem all that exciting to me either but that's subjective.
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Oct 13, 2016 16:52
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My school had summer labs for ChemE's that were basically hazing rituals. One part of it was the proposal panel. We'd come up with a method for some process in the lab, write up a proposal for it, and then present it to a panel of our professors. The professors would interrogate each member of the team. Any soft answer you gave, they'd hound you on it until you had a real, correct answer. Some people would stand up there for 20 minutes just mumbling, not being able to answer. Made some of the people with weaker intestinal fortitude cry (probably didn't help that we were also sleep deprived). I'm not trying to say that panel was anywhere near the same level of grilling that a board would be, but I'm familiar with the method. Changing subjects, a thought occurred to me. How do subs retain all the officers they need? All sub officers are nukes, they all start their DIVO tour back in the nuke compartment trying to qualify EOOW. So every sub officer in the Navy has been through the miserable time you guys were describing, right? If so many JOs drop out, it's amazing they have enough people to fill all the other officer roles on the boat.
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Oct 13, 2016 19:13
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sweg420blazeit posted:My school had summer labs for ChemE's that were basically hazing rituals. One part of it was the proposal panel. We'd come up with a method for some process in the lab, write up a proposal for it, and then present it to a panel of our professors. The professors would interrogate each member of the team. Any soft answer you gave, they'd hound you on it until you had a real, correct answer. Some people would stand up there for 20 minutes just mumbling, not being able to answer. Made some of the people with weaker intestinal fortitude cry (probably didn't help that we were also sleep deprived). I'm not trying to say that panel was anywhere near the same level of grilling that a board would be, but I'm familiar with the method. Some people eat poo poo all day and love it i guess.
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Oct 13, 2016 19:17
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I figure the sub community is about the same as the rest - they can easily support a JO attrition rate of 70-80%.
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Oct 13, 2016 19:36
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My recruiter has ~6 months left before his 20 years is up, and he's a 1st class. Is it common for someone 20 years in to still be 1st class? Also, currently filling out all my application paperwork, woop woop!
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Oct 13, 2016 19:42
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It is. You're going to love learning about the e7 selection process
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Oct 13, 2016 19:43
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sweg420blazeit posted:My recruiter has ~6 months left before his 20 years is up, and he's a 1st class. Is it common for someone 20 years in to still be 1st class? It used to be possible for E5s to retire at 20. Also sub life is nuke life with an even smaller crew.
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Oct 13, 2016 19:58
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sweg420blazeit posted:Changing subjects, a thought occurred to me. How do subs retain all the officers they need? All sub officers are nukes, they all start their DIVO tour back in the nuke compartment trying to qualify EOOW. So every sub officer in the Navy has been through the miserable time you guys were describing, right? If so many JOs drop out, it's amazing they have enough people to fill all the other officer roles on the boat. Out of a given group of ~17 first-tour JOs, the submarine force needs 3 of them to stay in for a second tour. To get me to stay in for a second tour, I was offered a $30k/yr bonus, a year sabbatical (still on active duty) between my shore duty and my second tour to work on a paid masters degree, and a guarantee to get a specific job on a specific class of ship at a specific homeport. This is all on top of the fact that I will be at 15 years in the Navy by the time my shore duty is over. It's no coincidence that almost all STA-21 pickups are nukes--the program exists in large part to get submarine JOs who will stay in through a department head tour so that they can get their retirement.
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Oct 13, 2016 20:44
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Similarly, a destroyer has around 20 junior SWOs and needs four or five of them to stick around to be department heads to meet manning requirements. They give bonuses similar to what Cerekk was saying to retain them.
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Oct 13, 2016 20:56
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And even with perks like those you will literally be surrounded by people who are on the brink of clawing at the wall to gtfo of the Navy. Many of whom, on the enlisted side, opted to extend their contract for the boatload of cash that was offered and subsequently regret their decision.
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Oct 13, 2016 21:04
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sweg420blazeit posted:My recruiter has ~6 months left before his 20 years is up, and he's a 1st class. Is it common for someone 20 years in to still be 1st class? Yeah, some rates it's rare for people to make Chief. Some rates they don't even advance at times because they're so full of people. As long as he's not the kind of person that hounds recruits for money he's probably a good person if that's what your question was referring to (like asking if he's a shitbag or something).
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Oct 13, 2016 23:15
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Kawasaki Nun posted:And even with perks like those you will literally be surrounded by people who are on the brink of clawing at the wall to gtfo of the Navy. Many of whom, on the enlisted side, opted to extend their contract for the boatload of cash that was offered and subsequently regret their decision. Point of consideration: Even with a 90,000$ reenlistment bonus, the electronics technician rate was unable to pass "critically undermanned" levels many years while I was in. KetTarma fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Oct 14, 2016 |
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Oct 13, 2016 23:20
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Also a point of note, reenlistment bonuses get double taxed, unless something has changed since I got out. Tax on signing and tax on the annual piece of the bonus. I would have been given a 30k bonus if I had stayed in as an STS.
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Oct 14, 2016 04:25
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ded posted:Also a point of note, reenlistment bonuses get double taxed, unless something has changed since I got out. Tax on signing and tax on the annual piece of the bonus. Thats why you take orders out of the country at the end of your contract and resign your papers while tax free? I thought I heard that was a thing.
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Oct 14, 2016 04:28
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LingcodKilla posted:Thats why you take orders out of the country at the end of your contract and resign your papers while tax free? I thought I heard that was a thing. It is advantageous to take the bonus when you are in a CZTE area but the timing doesn't always work out.
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Oct 14, 2016 05:26
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Thronde posted:As said, find something in the engineering field over Navy, but if you truly feel the need to go in, there's also the Engineering Duty Officer system. They promote fast, and it's decidedly less backstabby than SWO. Still a miserable existence, but at least you'll see your house more often. Can anyone elaborate on the engineering duty officer thing being a miserable existence? I'm on track to direct commission in February as EDO in the reserves and from everyone I've talked to (mostly during my interviews when I was asking them questions to get a feel for whether or not this would be a good fit for me), they said they have had a really enjoyable experience? They were also all O5/O6 and reservists so that might contribute to the general positive feelings.
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Oct 14, 2016 08:05
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vulturesrow posted:The problem with VP is not so much the individual people per se but he community culture. I know lots of good people that are VP aviators but the community is very SWO like in many ways, probably because of relatively small number of command opportunities compared to the amount of people. Every VP person I know (and granted the sample size isn't a huge one) pretty much agree that the culture of the community sucks. The flying itself doesn't seem all that exciting to me either but that's subjective. I agree that the culture isn't great in some parts. With the new aircraft they've at least started moving away from a lot of the "stump the chump" type culture that was already starting to go away when I started. I've seen a lot of it blamed on having one gigantic FRS that dominates the community culture. Couple that with having like 10 O-4s in various stages of a DH tour trying to make a name for themselves and you get some weird stuff in the squadron. It really seemed hit or miss with each squadron. I still enjoyed my tours, and still can't fathom spending any significant time on a ship.
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Oct 14, 2016 11:37
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IratelyBlank posted:Can anyone elaborate on the engineering duty officer thing being a miserable existence? I'm on track to direct commission in February as EDO in the reserves and from everyone I've talked to (mostly during my interviews when I was asking them questions to get a feel for whether or not this would be a good fit for me), they said they have had a really enjoyable experience? They were also all O5/O6 and reservists so that might contribute to the general positive feelings. Reservists universally feel much better about the Navy than active duty.
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Oct 14, 2016 20:44
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IratelyBlank posted:Can anyone elaborate on the engineering duty officer thing being a miserable existence? I'm on track to direct commission in February as EDO in the reserves I only know one EDO, and he is an amazing officer, loves his job and, after two at sea tours, gets to go to one of the best universities in the world for a living. From talking to him, it seems like a well organized and managed community. I have no knowledge on how the reservist part will affect you, but see above.
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Oct 14, 2016 22:19
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IratelyBlank posted:Can anyone elaborate on the engineering duty officer thing being a miserable existence? I'm on track to direct commission in February as EDO in the reserves and from everyone I've talked to (mostly during my interviews when I was asking them questions to get a feel for whether or not this would be a good fit for me), they said they have had a really enjoyable experience? They were also all O5/O6 and reservists so that might contribute to the general positive feelings. The officers at my last command were exclusively EDOs (active duty tho.) They were all fantastic people and seemed to really love their jobs except the part where in Japan, they are tasked with much higher workloads, shorter avails, and creepier dudes (if you're a woman.) We had a big harassment problem between them and our engineers but I certainly don't think that's a systemic EDO issue. We had a lot of reservists come out, too, and they were always cool as gently caress.
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Oct 15, 2016 00:00
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Mason fired on (possibly) for a third time. That whole crew must have a blood-coffee level of about 50% at this point.
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Oct 16, 2016 02:31
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Their is too much blood in my caffeine system. Although I feel fairly confident in US missile defense against anything short of the cutting edge of Russian or Chinese make. And even then...
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Oct 16, 2016 03:50
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Wingnut Ninja posted:Mason fired on (possibly) for a third time. General Dynamics and Raytheon are jerking each other off so hard right now
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Oct 16, 2016 05:23
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have you guys ever heard of someone failing to get secret clearance or TS clearance? Someone I know had a couple things happen around them when they were 14-15 that could come up if someone dug far enough.
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Oct 17, 2016 00:20
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sweg420blazeit posted:have you guys ever heard of someone failing to get secret clearance or TS clearance? Someone I know had a couple things happen around them when they were 14-15 that could come up if someone dug far enough.  Disclose it. It's stupid minor poo poo. If they ask be honest. No one cares about you getting arrested for pot when you were 15. They care about honesty.
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Oct 17, 2016 00:28
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sweg420blazeit posted:have you guys ever heard of someone failing to get secret clearance or TS clearance? Someone I know had a couple things happen around them when they were 14-15 that could come up if someone dug far enough. I uh... know a guy who admitted to smoking so much dope when uh .... he was 21-22 that he couldn't give a certain number of times when he was going through the TS clearance at age 37 so I doubt they give a flying gently caress about what you did as a minor. He does have a pretty spotless background otherwise with a track record of good fiscal responsibility. Just be honest.
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Oct 17, 2016 00:40
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ok cool, thanks. I definitely don't have any arrests, I just experimented a little in 9th grade.
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Oct 17, 2016 00:47
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sweg420blazeit posted:ok cool, thanks. I definitely don't have any arrests, I just experimented a little in 9th grade. "Experimented" says sweg420blazeit. Seriously dude just be honest. We all know you probably hotboxed the basketball gym.
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Oct 17, 2016 00:49
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sweg420blazeit posted:sweg420blazeit Did anybody *not* see this coming? If the military banned everyone who has ever smoked pot, there would be about 200 people in it. As long as you're honest about it (and, obviously, don't do it any more), it's about as disqualifying as jaywalking. That includes getting a TS clearance - that screening process is concerned with very different factors.
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Oct 17, 2016 00:56
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LOL this is just my go-to username for most forums, it's not really indicative of anything. I figured it would raise some eyebrows here 
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Oct 17, 2016 01:00
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Make sure you tell your recruiter you want to get stationed in Washington so you can do it legally.
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Oct 17, 2016 01:01
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