So, I should be at RAF Menwith Hill by now, but I’m posting this early because I don’t know what kind of internet access I’ll have.
-Farva
AFBlues Social Networking
Members Only
Other Military Support sites
Control Panel
©1997-2012 Air Force Blues | By A. May | Powered by WordPress with ComicPress | Subscribe: RSS | Back to Top ↑
I’m sensing a theme this week…
very comm related… hmm its amazing comm gets noticed… usually we just get complaints… and our shop has a strong 24 hour response record
from haikus to limericks… what next, a sonnet?
maybe the image of the Sentry on the wall should have been a clue…
Early warnings (STS) from the Jurassic Park mug and Rubik’s Cube, nu?
Looks just like SSgt Carson, my recruiter. He was awesome. I told him I didnt want to do anything with planes, so I got Cable Maintenance (Commie). Maybe working on planes would have been a better choice…………………….
i love our cable dogs… awesome guys that are there to help us when we get stumped on working with fiber.
i can definitely say you are better off not working on planes.
Problem is, out of 8 years in the career field, I’ve only spent 3 hands on, and that’s including tech school. The rest of the time was doing QAE, project management, TDC, and UDM. Dont get me wrong, I loved the experience of variety, but I know close to nothing about Cable and nothing about antennas. Thus the reason I’m pulling special duty right now. I’m going for a record to see how many job titles I can go though before retiring. Got 12 more years!
Where can I get an Air Force poster with an AWACS in it?
If Nate had a clue what was best
he’d know to improve his test
Nothing a recruiter can do
when your ASVAB score is a two
limerick fail
Why does every high school graduate think they can tell the Air Force what job they should have? Would they go to IBM, the GAP, or Walmart (insert other commercial company of your choice) and tell the hiring manager they only want the “ABC” job? In today’s economy, I would think that Nate would appreciate ANY job.
The Air Force, like every other employer in the world, ONLY hires for the jobs they need. However, unlike most employers they use a test to determine where applicants strengths and weaknesses. Hopefully, they will avoid placing someone in a job they will never be able to do (i.e. saving taxpayer money by not wasting time).
In reality, the home-town recruiter has absolutely NOTHING to do with what job you get. They only deternine whether you meet minimum qualifications for enlistment. Your test scores and the Air Force needs determine your job.
And how assigned the billet of “king the bully pulpit”? Ever heard of the ASVAB? Or are you one of those desperate “open contract” chumps who get tossed into Rifleman, Boatswain’s Mate, Cook, or whatever “we need as many as are born every minute” Air Force equivalent? You get what you set yourself up for, and with that attitude, it’s a miracle they haven’t created a “get kicked in the teeth” billet just for you. Back in the old Corps, we didn’t waste paperwork on MOS 1369 whiners. One quick trip behind the paint shed was all it took to button their lip.
Your reply was difficult to follow, but I’ll try to understand your thought process.
First, I was smart enough not to join the Corps.
Second, I scored high enough on my ASVAB that I was over qualified for most jobs in the “general” classification.
Third, I enlisted in an “open” Electronics billet. Whilst I got an electronics job, I didn’t get to pick my job…I got a choice from the list where the Air Force had an need.
Finally, at recruiter school, they teach you how the process works.
I agree with you when you said you get what you set yourself up for. Studying in school and scoring well on the ASVAB sets you up for more jobs.
I hope this clarifies my previous post.
you can more or less tell the AF what job you want its just a matter of how long you want to wait for it in DEP. Either that or do an FTA retrain
I was in the DEP for a year and a half. Mostly because I was still in high school but I got the job I wanted. Problem with that though was 3 days after graduation I was in Texas getting screamed at.
Actually, if you went and applied at another company, that is exactly what you’d do(tell them what job you want.) When you apply for a job thats not in the military, you apply for one job. If you don’t fit the bill, you don’t get the job. But you don’t go to Walmart and say, “I’ll work anywhere you’ll put me.”
I know a lot of people that got the jobs they wanted, though it depends on what you want. Then again, I know a lot of people that didn’t, Mostly because they don’t ask and don’t listen.
You go open general, you GET open general.
Pete – My recruiter also worked at MEPS, so he actually could help recruits get jobs in particular career fields. Of course, recruits have to be a bit proactive, too. If you go in “open general,” you don’t get to complain later when the Air Force puts you in SF.
Or you can go Guard and pick your job upon enlistment.
Tsk, tsk! Should’ve known better than to go Open General!
yeah luckily i had a few tell me ” do not go open general or security forces… though there isnt much of a difference”
back before I enlisted, I wanted to be a cop, but got talked into EOD because I thought it would be fun to mess with bombs…..anyways, long story short, bombed out of EOD school (pun intended), and upon filling out my reclass paperwork, put SF as my top choice…..got sent to Sheppard to be a medic….best thing that happened to me in the AF LOL
I would love to work medical again!
We medics are a special breed of open general folks
I wouldn’t advertise the “special” part, no matter how true it might be…
(for the record, I’m also a medic – 48G3)
Indeed we are a special breed….we are the lucky ones! We got to be in the training squadron where the ration of males to females was a hell of a lot better than other squadrons!
defiantly jealous on that part… only like 5 good looking girls in my whole tech school squadron :S
In my tech school, we had one female. A Marine chick. While she was very easy on the eyes, that went out the window when she’d pack half a can of Skoal in and have her Pepsi spit can close by. There were a pair of Army females a few classes behind mine, but I rarely saw them.
Luckily I got the job I wanted even though I went in open mechanical. I also got the job I wanted when I put in for cross-training too. Too bad I didn’t really get out of the south which I wanted to do.
I thoguht RAF Menwith Hill sounded familiar the first time you mentioned it. After a quick search, I knew why. I remember reading info about it some time ago. I just don’t remember when or why.
I guess I’m the only one who went in with a guaranteed job. I knew what my exact AFSC was walking into basic training, as it was a part of my contract.
I came in with a guaranteed job… I just washed out of it after 2 years and the AF put me in Ground Radio. I gotta say they knew what they were doing, I’m much happier as a comm guy!
I went in knowing my AFSC… I did not however have a clue what the job associated with the AFSC entailed. If I did, I might have turned it down and gone a different route… was a 1N6 coming in and now have been merged into 1N0s. Not really a big fan of either, but it’s more money/benefits than I was getting as a civ, so I’ll keep sticking it out until I can find a suitable replacement.
i knew my AFSC going in too i just didn’t have a clue what it meant even after looking up information on it. turns out its really hard to describe how crappy working on the flightline is and still make it sound appealing. so they just tell you at the recruiters office that you’re gonna work on the B-1. and you as a new recruit are in awe of the big plane until you get to your base and you’re working on something else and find out that all our heavy aircraft are old and falling apart.
I knew my job and what all it detailed before I joined up. I had a few friends from highschool that joined before me and called them up to see if they knew anything about 3C0s, which somehow actually paid off. Until the past year or so I’ve been working at a Help Desk, now I maintain messaging servers that weren’t covered in ANY AF training, since it’s not actually an AF system.
I wanted to come in as a 3C0, but they weren’t hiring at the time and my ASVAB scores had me leaning more mechanical. MEPS gave me 5 choices. 4 of them different aspects of aircraft maintenance and then Ammo. I knew aircraft maintenance entailed 12hr shifts garaunteed, so I had them write me down as Ammo. Best decision I ever made. I’d of been force shaped out as a 3C0 3 years later anyhow and there isn’t a career field out there that I could be more proud to be in than Ammo.
I.Y.A.A.Y.A.S!
My contract was guaranteed as well, 1N3, the nerds of the military… thankfully I love my job, haha
I went in guaranteed in Radio.
In hindsight I’m a little disgruntled that my recruiter never told me about the 6 year enlistment.
We have a guy that got transferred to my SF unit after he double failed his 5lvl CDCs for supply. THAT should tell you something.
Dang I’m a cop and I wish I was checking ID’s at a gate… or downrange… or any of the other stuff cops do. Nukes suck lol
I guess even getting the job you want in your contract isn’t a guarentee.
I’m just waiting to see if anybody is able to tell if Farva did the Rubik’s Cube correctly or not
I’ll make it easy: http://liew267.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/rubiks_cube.jpg
Cheater
Though I was looking fairly hard, and didn’t notice any mistakes even before knowing you used an actual pic for the colors 
Guess that just goes to show the kind of nerd I am *sigh*
Lol on rubix cube… seen a few people in the air force who love them things… usually the nerds… and i got lucky went in open electronics and got #1 job and then my #2 job merged with us…. now if i can get the hell outa elmendork ill be good!
btw how do change my profile pic? i cant find it under profile updates :s
It’s on the second page of comments on the home page. You go to gravatar http://en.gravatar.com/ and then sync your profile.
Kinda off topic, but either I’m missing something or it just hasn’t been finished. Sorry if I sound like an impatient fool, but what happened to that pinup wallpaper you mentioned in the 10 June strip?
Still working on it.
We need a section for pinups or is there one in the members only? I’m not a member….. yet! :Þ
And THIS is why you need to stress to the new guys to get their jobs guaranteed in writing before they sign ANYTHING.
Actually guys, a 3C0X2 (communications-computer systems programmer) is a garanteed contract out of MEPS. You have to take a test called the EDPT. If you make like a 50 on it they will give you the contract to be a programmer. I did it, and got to spend 3 wonderful years doing help desk at Kirtland AFB, and another 2 teaching at Keesler. But you can basically tell them what you want to do if you can pass the test.
The EDPT is one of the strangest tests I, or anybody I know, has ever taken. I left MEPS with a guaranteed 9S contract, and I had to pass it with a 57. I’m still not exactly sure what it actually tested.
Hey, I resemble that remark! Though I got lucky, open general meant finance for me. What’s funny is they wouldn’t retrain me either, so now I fix computers in the finance squadron, and probably do more database and webpage development than 99% of the 3Dxxx types out there.
Aint that the truth. I was an Admin and Computer Geek and they started me as a crew chief.
The only thing I was guaranteed when I came in was a steady job that I couldn’t get fired from (as long as I didnt get in serious trouble) and a paycheck twice a month. I got lucky when I walked into the assignments section of CBPO during lunch and the guy threw me the “mechanical” book of jobs and said…”here, pick what you want”. Pavements and Equipment (3E2X1) was the best choice I ever made in my life. Then i was forced to retrain…
I was lucky enough to have a retired weapons loader MSGT. for a father. When I told him I wanted to go to the recruiter the first thing he said was “don’t trust a word they say, get everything in writing” followed by “Don’t fall for that BS that they can’t guarantee you a job. You have great ASVAB scores, don’t sign until the job you want comes up, and if you sign for six years make sure they give you an extra stripe.”
But boy did it piss him off when his son went AMMO
IYAAYAS
Did you all really get the job you wanted OR did you choose a job from the list the MEPS recruiter handed you?
If you said you chose a job from the list they gave you, do you think the MEPS personnel might have ONLY shown you the jobs that they needed at that time (that you were qualified for)?
Like Panthrman above, the MEPS recruiter handed him a list of jobs he was qualified for AND that the Air Force also had a need for. Sorry to hear about the “forced to retrain” – Do you think Air Force needs might have driven that also?
I got the job I told them I would take. My ASVAB was high enough for every job in the Air Force. They showed me what would get me into the AF immediately. Linguist wasn’t on the list. I told them that I would take Linguist or I would walk across the hall to the Navy recruiter. They found a Linguist slot for me, I would just have to wait 5 months in DEP. Worked out well. Linguist was a great job, but with no opportunities to deploy (at the time) so I crosstrained to 1N0. I found that I love targeting and I’m going through the paperwork to become a 1N1X1B. The AF has been good to me, but I also didn’t settle on what was on the list.
Same thing here. ASVAB was high enough for every job. Since I already had a family, I couldnt sit around and wait for the “perfect” job. So I went open mechanical as most of those jobs were right up my alley and it got me another $4k sign-on bonus. The guy at MEPS was still trying to sell me on aircraft stuff (Oh, you’ll love working backshop on the new F22 stuff, really…), but I stuck to my guns. I picked a few jobs at MEPS and again at BMT. Didnt find out what I was doing until the day I left basic.
i had 96′s and 97′s on my ASVAB scores unfortunately there are no jobs that require a score that high so i could pick anythig a FTA could go into. I got the job that i picked but i only picked it because it sounded a lot cooler than it turned out to be and the recruiter didn’t know squat about the job
It sounds like you were EWQ (Extremely Well Qualified). This is an un-puplicized program in Recruiting for people scoring above 95 on the ASVAB and means the recruiters at MEPS have to get you one of your top 5 job choices. After all, they don’t want to lose you to the other services, right?
Bottom line is: you still had to wait and ONLY got hired to fill their need
What I find disturbing is Farva is worried about why he can’t see men at his TSY locale?! ; )
VD
It’s a play on the name of the base “Menwith Hill”–sees a hill, but no men with it.
OK now I am an idiot that can’t spell “TDY”!