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Kawasaki Nun posted:The airforce sounds so loving bizzare. If someone asked what I was doing outside working hours I'd tell them either drinking or to gently caress off. What kind of work schedule are you on where you have time to significantly volunteer? Most people in the air force work regular office hours if not shorter, which just makes the semi-mandatory volunteer poo poo worse when most shift workers just don't have the schedule to do it
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Jul 15, 2017 09:40
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Kawasaki Nun posted:What kind of work schedule are you on where you have time to significantly volunteer? I got promoted up to a Monday to Friday, 0700-1700 job. Before that I was doing 12s as a shift worker. And yes, shift workers get turbofucked re the volunteer/education crap. The Air Force is kind of backing off from it, but for the longest time, awards and enlisted performance reports were more dependent on "volunteering" and off duty college education than they were on actual job performance. The theory being that everyone was expected to do good work, so it was the extracurricular bullshit that would set the best troops apart. I put volunteering in quotes, because needless to say, it wasn't actually volunteer work for most people. It became an all but mandatory check in the box to get a good performance report (and thus get enough promotion points to pick up rank). Similarly, all the enlisted end up wasting gov tuition assistance money on worthless degree mills so they can say that they got x credits this year toward their degree, with a 4.0 average. Again, this is supposedly changing. We'll see. The AF adopted a new performance report a couple years ago, which has less space for non-mission fluff. I have little faith, though, because the people who benefitted from the old system are the ones responsible for the new one.
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Jul 15, 2017 16:55
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So I am just going to throw this out here. I graduated with a Masters degree back in May, and my degree primarly focuses on public sector work (Focus in Administration, Budgeting, Auditing, Planning) and I haven't really had much luck in my career search. A family member suggested I try my hand in the Airforce OTS with an administration career since "Every base needs administration". I have been doing plenty of research on the idea, but I wanted some feedback from the thread to see if my idea is a dumb one or not.
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Jul 16, 2017 02:09
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Fat_Cow posted:So I am just going to throw this out here. I graduated with a Masters degree back in May, and my degree primarly focuses on public sector work (Focus in Administration, Budgeting, Auditing, Planning) and I haven't really had much luck in my career search. A family member suggested I try my hand in the Airforce OTS with an administration career since "Every base needs administration". I have been doing plenty of research on the idea, but I wanted some feedback from the thread to see if my idea is a dumb one or not. Maybe you should try finding work in a different city / state since the airforce will move your rear end to wherever anyway. Where are you trying to get a job with that degree? NYC? Edit: Also your family member is dumb as poo poo and obviously hates you Kawasaki Nun fucked around with this message at 06:22 on Jul 16, 2017 |
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Jul 16, 2017 06:20
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Fat_Cow posted:So I am just going to throw this out here. I graduated with a Masters degree back in May, and my degree primarly focuses on public sector work (Focus in Administration, Budgeting, Auditing, Planning) Are you Ben Wyatt? quote:and I haven't really had much luck in my career search. A family member suggested I try my hand in the Airforce OTS with an administration career since "Every base needs administration". Either they hate you or desperately want you to move out of their basement. quote:I have been doing plenty of research on the idea, but I wanted some feedback from the thread to see if my idea is a dumb one or not. Look harder for a civilian job. As you've already been told, the Air Force will move you to shitholes like Altus and Cannon, so why not cast your job search just as wide without the baggage that comes with military service. I'd try to dissuade you from suckling on the government teat in general, but we've already established that you're Ben Wyatt and not Ron Swanson. If you do join and become a Personnel officer, gently caress you ahead of time for everything even tangentially related to AFPC and its minions.
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Jul 16, 2017 06:34
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Derek Dominoe posted:gently caress you ... AFPC
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Jul 16, 2017 06:48
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I think joining the USAF and being in personnel/admin wouldn't be the worst job for basing options. Like.. yeah Minot needs clerks, but so does Lajes Field and every single country we have an airbase in needs admin clerks. You can go anywhere, and if your smart and work the system you can live a loving slack rear end life and get paid just as much as dudes in harder more demanding jobs. I encourage folks to look into joining the USAF since I still think it's the best of all possible military options.
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Jul 16, 2017 06:57
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Essentially you should consider looking for work in all the cities you don't want to live in, because the Air Force would likely send you somewhere similar and make you do stupid poo poo while you were there.
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Jul 16, 2017 09:18
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I appreciate all the responses, and yeah I've been throwing out resumes everywhere and I am still on the hunt currently. My grandfather was the one who put the idea in my Dad's head about the Air Force, and he went around asking everyone else he worked with about it. OTS would be something I look into farther down the line if my luck is still poo poo with finding a career, I am primarly doing research now. So Administration is hit or miss then? I guess it would be a dumb question asking what is a "non poo poo" Base job 
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Jul 16, 2017 12:10
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I'll give my two cents here: Admin, or Personnel/Finance is kind of made fun of because it's not the point of the military. It's a necessary evil of the bureaucracy, and when you guys gently caress up, everyone else suffers the repercussions on pay, Orders, Dependent Travel or whatever fuckall I'm leaving out. That being said, a good Personnelist/Finance person is worth their weight in gold. As far as the actual job, it's easy as hell if you don't mind regurgitating regulations, being in charge of people, and playing military with squirt guns every once and a while. Remember that as an Officer, you won't be doing the Admin duties themselves, but will be in charge of the people who are doing the Admin duties. As for the job on a personal level, it pays well for what you're doing. Bonus points if you're single. Even after the BS I've been through, I still recommend the military as a stepping stone. The benefits, foundation, and safety net the military provides are second to none. Being able to transfer the Post 9/11 GI Bill to a spouse or your children is invaluable. I would however, caution against doing a career unless you die hard love it, otherwise you'll burn out and be miserable (like most of us here...) but that decision point is a good 5-12 years away, and it's a good problem to have. So I'll go against the grain, even as I'm getting out, and say apply for it. Realize the Recruiter -> Application -> OTS is about a 9 month odyssey, so have a plan in the mean time. As for the bases, some of them blow, but some of them are awesome. My absolute favorite job was in whopping Enid, Oklahoma. You could get Hawaii, or you could get Del Rio. YMMV. Any more questions, ask away! xaarman fucked around with this message at 13:31 on Jul 16, 2017 |
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Jul 16, 2017 13:26
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Yeah, you gotta accept that the stuff you learned about will not play a large role in your military career, even if you're doing personnel/finance. Your first few years will largely revolve around supervising enlisted personnel, many of whom may have just graduated high school. Most of the admin officers I know really enjoy their lives, and they can be stationed almost anywhere (check out \this cute little wikipedia image to see where). There are a few careers in the Air Force where your college degree leads directly into what you're working on, but they're mostly related to engineering and cybercrap. Having said that, the mishmash of degrees also works in your favor - you may qualify to fly things or have other options you may not be aware of. As xaarman alluded to, if you think you might be interested in the military then you also might want to consider getting the ball rolling on OTS because it can be quite a while between submitting your application and actually joining.
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Jul 16, 2017 14:15
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Prop Wash posted:Yeah, you gotta accept that the stuff you learned about will not play a large role in your military career, even if you're doing personnel/finance. Your first few years will largely revolve around supervising enlisted personnel, many of whom may have just graduated high school. Most of the admin officers I know really enjoy their lives, and they can be stationed almost anywhere (check out \this cute little wikipedia image to see where). There are a few careers in the Air Force where your college degree leads directly into what you're working on, but they're mostly related to engineering and cybercrap. Having said that, the mishmash of degrees also works in your favor - you may qualify to fly things or have other options you may not be aware of. As xaarman alluded to, if you think you might be interested in the military then you also might want to consider getting the ball rolling on OTS because it can be quite a while between submitting your application and actually joining. Lets say another career pops up during the time I get the ball rolling, and when I go, I can drop it at any time without penalty correct?
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Jul 16, 2017 15:12
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The penalty would probably be never being able to serve in the air force. If you get a commission slot and turn it down, you're done.
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Jul 16, 2017 17:26
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xaarman posted:Realize the Recruiter -> Application -> OTS is about a 9 month odyssey, so have a plan in the mean time.
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Jul 16, 2017 17:57
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Hotel Kpro posted:The penalty would probably be never being able to serve in the air force. If you get a commission slot and turn it down, you're done. I'm not sure this is a bad thing.
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Jul 16, 2017 18:17
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Hotel Kpro posted:The penalty would probably be never being able to serve in the air force. If you get a commission slot and turn it down, you're done. I meant, anytime before that, like before you get offered anything or before any testing is done.
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Jul 16, 2017 18:22
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I think your recruiter would be disappointed and not want to work with you again but dropping out early on probably doesn't matter. Some other poor soul will fill in sooner or later
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Jul 16, 2017 19:36
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Casimir Radon posted:Who is still in in some capacity still? It has to be pretty small nowadays. I'm in the standby reserve, which means I have zero obligation, don't get called to muster, but still get ID cards/full base privileges for me & the kid. Which I use to park in the officer parking lot at work. Fat_Cow posted:So I am just going to throw this out here. I graduated with a Masters degree back in May, and my degree primarly focuses on public sector work (Focus in Administration, Budgeting, Auditing, Planning) and I haven't really had much luck in my career search. A family member suggested I try my hand in the Airforce OTS with an administration career since "Every base needs administration". I have been doing plenty of research on the idea, but I wanted some feedback from the thread to see if my idea is a dumb one or not. You don't get to pick your career field unless you're going to be a pilot, navigator, or air battle manager. You get to list your top 3 or 5 or whatever, but the AF will assign you according to its needs. You might very well end up overseeing contractors and determining if they're meeting their obligations. Or you might end up an aircraft maintenance officer. Or doing whatever the gently caress services officers do. I think you'll be able to find work on the outside where you can count on some stability, live where you want, and not get punished because some 19 year old who works in the office down the hall that you've met twice got a DUI with a hooker passed out in the back seat. As mentioned, applying to OTS is 9-12 months depending on when you apply. If you don't get selected, you get to start over. If you do, you could go to OTS anywhere from a month later to 10 months later. And you won't find out your career field until halfway through OTS itself. LtCol J. Krusinski posted:I think joining the USAF and being in personnel/admin wouldn't be the worst job for basing options. Like.. yeah Minot needs clerks, but so does Lajes Field and every single country we have an airbase in needs admin clerks. You can go anywhere, and if your smart and work the system you can live a loving slack rear end life and get paid just as much as dudes in harder more demanding jobs. Remember when they moved 95% of the finance community to FE Warren? Godholio fucked around with this message at 22:28 on Jul 16, 2017 |
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Jul 16, 2017 22:19
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Godholio posted:
From what I've been seeing, OTS classes are filled up for a while. Apparently people who were selected at the most recent boards are getting late 2018/early 2019 class dates. The AF is talking about shortening OTS so they can squeeze more classes per year in So for the dude asking, I'd start the process ASAP, because there's a good chance even if you're selected, it could be 2 years from now until to leave.
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Jul 17, 2017 00:23
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pkells posted:From what I've been seeing, OTS classes are filled up for a while. Apparently people who were selected at the most recent boards are getting late 2018/early 2019 class dates. The AF is talking about shortening OTS so they can squeeze more classes per year in What would even be the point. I'd probably have some other job + the needed expierence by then. I'll be talking with a recruiter tomorrow to get their two cents
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Jul 17, 2017 01:11
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Make sure you talk to an OTS recruiter about commissioning, and not a normal recruiter for enlistment.
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Jul 17, 2017 05:02
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xaarman posted:Make sure you talk to an OTS recruiter about commissioning, and not a normal recruiter for enlistment. At least where I was it was the same guy. Either way make it very clear.
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Jul 17, 2017 05:16
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Casimir Radon posted:Who is still in in some capacity still? It has to be pretty small nowadays. I'm still in. I'm in sort of the same spot as Arc Light, I blitzed to E6 and I can reliably coast for another decade. It's easy and I'm lazy and I'm pretty sure I can do whatever the gently caress I want with a retirement check when I get out. e: assuming my fat rear end doesn't get kicked out for going over on waist size on a PT test.
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Jul 17, 2017 09:00
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Xenoborg posted:At least where I was it was the same guy. Either way make it very clear. There was a brief time (like 1 year) where they got rid of the OTS specialty and every recruiter handled everything. Apparently it didn't work well, because they dropped that poo poo surprisingly fast and are now using recruiters dedicated to officer accessions again. Or you might've had one of the unicorns who actually does both. My entire state only had one OA recruiter, though, for reference. They're not at every office.
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Jul 17, 2017 14:50
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Talked to the recruiter over the phone, and was told "We're 200% backed up as of two months ago, so it would be about two years if you wanted in OTS". Well there goes that idea. 
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Jul 17, 2017 20:39
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Fat_Cow posted:Talked to the recruiter over the phone, and was told "We're 200% backed up as of two months ago, so it would be about two years if you wanted in OTS". Well there goes that idea. How quickly did he spin that into "...but if you enlisted, I could get you out the door in a month!"?
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Jul 17, 2017 23:13
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How early should I start looking into a commission/AMS? I've got 2.5 years left on my enlistment.
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Jul 17, 2017 23:17
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pkells posted:How quickly did he spin that into "...but if you enlisted, I could get you out the door in a month!"? He was trying to recommended that as an "alternative path" at the end of my phone call. Oh well
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Jul 18, 2017 00:26
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4 years till beard time for me. And looks like I'll be able to finish out my time in Korea too so I'm pretty stoked. The only motivation I have to make Master is being able to have a vehicle without jumping through exception to policies.
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Jul 18, 2017 00:34
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Casimir Radon posted:How early should I start looking into a commission/AMS? I've got 2.5 years left on my enlistment. If you're guard, you should talk to your unit. Fat_Cow posted:He was trying to recommended that as an "alternative path" at the end of my phone call. Oh well Are you sure you actually talked to the officer recruiter? They don't usually pull that poo poo because they don't need to.
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Jul 18, 2017 01:26
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Godholio posted:If you're guard, you should talk to your unit.
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Jul 18, 2017 01:35
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Godholio posted:If you're guard, you should talk to your unit. He didn't give me the number for the Officer recruiter because "You guys swarm him So I could forward your info to him". That's when he told me about how they were backed up and stuff. There is another recruiter I could contact tomorrow to see if they'll say something else Fat_Cow fucked around with this message at 01:49 on Jul 18, 2017 |
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Jul 18, 2017 01:43
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Fat_Cow posted:He didn't give me the number for the Officer recruiter because "You guys swarm him So I could forward your info to him". That's when he told me about how they were backed up and stuff. There is another recruiter I could contact tomorrow to see if they'll say something else Wow what a piece of poo poo. That sounds extremely shady.
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Jul 18, 2017 01:59
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Ckwiesr posted:Wow what a piece of poo poo. That sounds extremely shady. I know nothing about recruiting so I assumed nothing of it. There is another recruiter close by though so maybe he'll say something different tomorrow. Who knows.
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Jul 18, 2017 02:01
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Fat_Cow posted:I know nothing about recruiting so I assumed nothing of it. There is another recruiter close by though so maybe he'll say something different tomorrow. Who knows. Did he actually talk to the officer recruiter at all? Or did he just tell you that they were backed up?
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Jul 18, 2017 02:22
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Ckwiesr posted:Did he actually talk to the officer recruiter at all? Or did he just tell you that they were backed up? Nope. There wasn't an officer recruiter at station I called. So he offered to forward my information, and then told me about OTS being backed up, I declined after I heard about the two year wait.
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Jul 18, 2017 02:26
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Fat_Cow posted:Nope. There wasn't an officer recruiter at station I called. So he offered to forward my information, and then told me about OTS being backed up, I declined after I heard about the two year wait. I'm pretty sure you can see where this is going, but I wouldn't take that guys word for it.
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Jul 18, 2017 02:28
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Fat_Cow posted:Nope. There wasn't an officer recruiter at station I called. So he offered to forward my information, and then told me about OTS being backed up, I declined after I heard about the two year wait. Consider this your first lesson. Recruiters are scum and will say anything to get you to sign their papers over someone else's.
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Jul 18, 2017 02:36
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Yeah you need to talk to an officer recruiter.
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Jul 18, 2017 02:41
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Definitely do not take his word about the officer recruiter being swamped, or so backed up you'll never get in or whatever. He wants you to enlist so he can make his numbers.
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Jul 18, 2017 02:56
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