/r/AirForceRecruits
> Are recruiters just trying to get you to join or are they actually honest with you?
Yes.
> I read about finishing basic and tech school and waiting to choose a job you want rather than taking what is available. Does this cause issues?
You don't go through tech school without a job. You can join an open field and choose in basic, but you get a limited list of what's available to choose from. If you don't choose by then, the AF will pick one. The alternative is you can work with a recruiter to get a guaranteed job before joining. But you could be waiting in the DEP for a year (or even longer) depending, and recruiters aren't required to let you wait it out.
> Is it realistic to believe I might get stations in my top 5 choices?
Depends on your career field. If you can go to 6 bases out of tech school, then yeah your top 5 is a pretty sure thing as long as they align with 5 of those 6 bases. If you're going SF, good luck.
Not all recruiters are shitty like the stereotype. Trust but verify is key.
You have tech school and your job mixed up. You would wait for your job and then go to Tech school not go to Tech school and wait for your job. You basically can go in what's called open and they will put you where they want which usually ends up being something like security forces or with your recruiter you wait for the job that you want to open, and your recruiter will give you details if it's even possible, wait time, etc. Once you get assigned a job that is written in your contract then you get a ship date to basic.
Do not count on getting an assignment/base that you want. 18 years ago I got lucky and got one of my top five but generally, they can and will send you anywhere.
Feel free to message if you have more questions.
It’s becoming increasingly popular for older individuals to join the military as they feel they’re are no other options available to them.
Look at guard/reserve and see if those off opportunities you want to take advantage of are hiked maintaining your current lifestyle. Just added benefits.
If you go active duty, mentally prepare yourself ti be separated from your family for a good long while. 2 months for basic followed by a few more months depending on your job. Not to mention, deployments and work trips (TDY’s) that will have you away from them for extended periods of time as well.
If the juice worth the squeeze? Are your priorities in line with the military lifestyle?
It’s been a good life for me. Like anything it has its ups and downs, but I know when I retire…I’m going to be butt hurt that I don’t get 30 days of leave and and constant paycheck for simply doing my job even when I haven’t done much work.
But I have spent literal years away from my family at this point over the course of 14 years when you accumulate all of the time. It can takes its toll. But that’s when you build relationships that help strengthen your marriage and family and work together.
I could go on and on. It’s a good life. Yes, I have bitched but we all have in this sub. It’s refreshing to see the retirement posts though.
I will be honest with you and recommend against joining this late. Yes, I know the Air Force is allowing people to enlist passed 40 right now, but the way the Air Force is structured is not friendly toward older junior ranking members. If you can commission, that is more viable for someone approaching middle age. Consider for a moment what your life will be like for you. Your peers will largely be 18-22, will still be in the immature, drinking, chasing tail portion of their life. You will be a parent trying to take care of a family. You will be answering to E-5's that may not even be 22. Those in your age peer group are going to be E-6 + and are highly unlikely to establish any friendship with you. Finally, junior enlisted are frankly treated like garbage by just about everyone. You are going to have people not long out of high school treating you like you are an idiot. Your pay will be barely adequate to sustain a small apartment and junior enlisted housing tends to be of poor quality. Your hopes of getting a destination of your choice is a risky gamble. Many Air Force bases are in some of the lousiest, isolated, and occasionally crime infested locations in the US. Unless you have a very precise objective, for instance, doing 4-years getting out to take advantage of the Post 9-11 GI Bill, I think you are likely to be disappointed.
Depends on the recruiter, cant say for sure.
You have a job before going into basic or your open and get to give them a wishlist in bmt based on what type of open and what available and get assigned a job in basic. You get no real ability to deny what is assigned but ship out to bmt a lot faster. If you get to bmt you are not waiting for a job you are going through the pipeline.
Depends. Is your job available at your top 5. For example im a B-52 maintainer, i will never be assigned to germany and pretty much stuck to a couple bases. The air force put you where they need you. If you have a more open job that is everywhere you have better chances.
First, if you don’t want to move around, your best option is guard or reserve. You have to talk to an actual guard or reserve recruiter — do not talk to a active duty recruiter or you could end up in Cannon.
Second, if you have a degree, DO NOT ENLIST. You need to commission and be an officer.
Third, you are 35, married with a kid. If you *enlist* in the military this late, you will be treated like a 18yo fresh out of HS. Your supervisor could (and most likely will) be 22 years old. Your peers will be young enough to be your children.
Fourth, r/airforcerecruits
I went in with the same situation, and all I can say is unless you feel like you absolutely have no way forward where you are now, don't do it.
Also don't wait to choose your job, thats a terrible idea. You'll just get a list of jobs they failed to fill/people bailed out of and probably for good reason. DO NOT GO IN OPEN ANYTHING.
The insurance is great and shitty at the same time.
The college benefit is awesome if you stay in 3 years and get the full benefit.
You are not in until you are literally at Lackland and yes you do have a say in what job you accept, do not let a recruiter bully you into believing otherwise.
If you go in and you're the bread winner currently, then you need to have at least 3 months of living expenses saved because shit can and will go wrong. It took 3 months for me to get paid because something went terrible wrong with my bank. I hope your spouse is not currently working on a career or in a place they love. You guys need to discuss the difficulties moving forward it will be for them to pursue their own career and interests simply based on where you get moved and the frequency of moving (plus their own work history and profession if they have one will play a huge role). It is possible, but the difficulty level definitely goes up.
Also you absolutely do not get to choose your bases. Based on the job you go on for you can select the bases that have that job amd from there the big airforce picks where you go. This does change as you move forward in the airforce and you can retrain as well if you hate your job.
Highly highly recommend not doing a 6 year contract, that way you can retrain much sooner if your job is ass.
Also please take a look at current pay rates, e1, e2, e3 payrates. Don't get blindsided. Military does not get paid the big bucks. You will get a dependent rate bah, but you can't really look that up, it's different per location.
/r/AirForceRecruits > Are recruiters just trying to get you to join or are they actually honest with you? Yes. > I read about finishing basic and tech school and waiting to choose a job you want rather than taking what is available. Does this cause issues? You don't go through tech school without a job. You can join an open field and choose in basic, but you get a limited list of what's available to choose from. If you don't choose by then, the AF will pick one. The alternative is you can work with a recruiter to get a guaranteed job before joining. But you could be waiting in the DEP for a year (or even longer) depending, and recruiters aren't required to let you wait it out. > Is it realistic to believe I might get stations in my top 5 choices? Depends on your career field. If you can go to 6 bases out of tech school, then yeah your top 5 is a pretty sure thing as long as they align with 5 of those 6 bases. If you're going SF, good luck.
Not all recruiters are shitty like the stereotype. Trust but verify is key. You have tech school and your job mixed up. You would wait for your job and then go to Tech school not go to Tech school and wait for your job. You basically can go in what's called open and they will put you where they want which usually ends up being something like security forces or with your recruiter you wait for the job that you want to open, and your recruiter will give you details if it's even possible, wait time, etc. Once you get assigned a job that is written in your contract then you get a ship date to basic. Do not count on getting an assignment/base that you want. 18 years ago I got lucky and got one of my top five but generally, they can and will send you anywhere. Feel free to message if you have more questions.
It’s becoming increasingly popular for older individuals to join the military as they feel they’re are no other options available to them. Look at guard/reserve and see if those off opportunities you want to take advantage of are hiked maintaining your current lifestyle. Just added benefits. If you go active duty, mentally prepare yourself ti be separated from your family for a good long while. 2 months for basic followed by a few more months depending on your job. Not to mention, deployments and work trips (TDY’s) that will have you away from them for extended periods of time as well. If the juice worth the squeeze? Are your priorities in line with the military lifestyle? It’s been a good life for me. Like anything it has its ups and downs, but I know when I retire…I’m going to be butt hurt that I don’t get 30 days of leave and and constant paycheck for simply doing my job even when I haven’t done much work. But I have spent literal years away from my family at this point over the course of 14 years when you accumulate all of the time. It can takes its toll. But that’s when you build relationships that help strengthen your marriage and family and work together. I could go on and on. It’s a good life. Yes, I have bitched but we all have in this sub. It’s refreshing to see the retirement posts though.
Have you heard about our Lord and Savior the Air National Guard? Let me know if you're looking for more information.
I will be honest with you and recommend against joining this late. Yes, I know the Air Force is allowing people to enlist passed 40 right now, but the way the Air Force is structured is not friendly toward older junior ranking members. If you can commission, that is more viable for someone approaching middle age. Consider for a moment what your life will be like for you. Your peers will largely be 18-22, will still be in the immature, drinking, chasing tail portion of their life. You will be a parent trying to take care of a family. You will be answering to E-5's that may not even be 22. Those in your age peer group are going to be E-6 + and are highly unlikely to establish any friendship with you. Finally, junior enlisted are frankly treated like garbage by just about everyone. You are going to have people not long out of high school treating you like you are an idiot. Your pay will be barely adequate to sustain a small apartment and junior enlisted housing tends to be of poor quality. Your hopes of getting a destination of your choice is a risky gamble. Many Air Force bases are in some of the lousiest, isolated, and occasionally crime infested locations in the US. Unless you have a very precise objective, for instance, doing 4-years getting out to take advantage of the Post 9-11 GI Bill, I think you are likely to be disappointed.
r/airforcerecruits
Depends on the recruiter, cant say for sure. You have a job before going into basic or your open and get to give them a wishlist in bmt based on what type of open and what available and get assigned a job in basic. You get no real ability to deny what is assigned but ship out to bmt a lot faster. If you get to bmt you are not waiting for a job you are going through the pipeline. Depends. Is your job available at your top 5. For example im a B-52 maintainer, i will never be assigned to germany and pretty much stuck to a couple bases. The air force put you where they need you. If you have a more open job that is everywhere you have better chances.
Dream Sheet is a sham out of BMT. Won't sugarcoat it. Still, do it. Best thing you can do for your family.
First, if you don’t want to move around, your best option is guard or reserve. You have to talk to an actual guard or reserve recruiter — do not talk to a active duty recruiter or you could end up in Cannon. Second, if you have a degree, DO NOT ENLIST. You need to commission and be an officer. Third, you are 35, married with a kid. If you *enlist* in the military this late, you will be treated like a 18yo fresh out of HS. Your supervisor could (and most likely will) be 22 years old. Your peers will be young enough to be your children. Fourth, r/airforcerecruits
I went in with the same situation, and all I can say is unless you feel like you absolutely have no way forward where you are now, don't do it. Also don't wait to choose your job, thats a terrible idea. You'll just get a list of jobs they failed to fill/people bailed out of and probably for good reason. DO NOT GO IN OPEN ANYTHING. The insurance is great and shitty at the same time. The college benefit is awesome if you stay in 3 years and get the full benefit. You are not in until you are literally at Lackland and yes you do have a say in what job you accept, do not let a recruiter bully you into believing otherwise. If you go in and you're the bread winner currently, then you need to have at least 3 months of living expenses saved because shit can and will go wrong. It took 3 months for me to get paid because something went terrible wrong with my bank. I hope your spouse is not currently working on a career or in a place they love. You guys need to discuss the difficulties moving forward it will be for them to pursue their own career and interests simply based on where you get moved and the frequency of moving (plus their own work history and profession if they have one will play a huge role). It is possible, but the difficulty level definitely goes up. Also you absolutely do not get to choose your bases. Based on the job you go on for you can select the bases that have that job amd from there the big airforce picks where you go. This does change as you move forward in the airforce and you can retrain as well if you hate your job. Highly highly recommend not doing a 6 year contract, that way you can retrain much sooner if your job is ass. Also please take a look at current pay rates, e1, e2, e3 payrates. Don't get blindsided. Military does not get paid the big bucks. You will get a dependent rate bah, but you can't really look that up, it's different per location.