Step Son Joining Air Force, Advice?

Famm

Famm

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Title says it all I guess. He got his ASVAB back and scored 99 percentile. Has the psych and physical scheduled next.

He was looking at trying to do some sort of aircraft mechanic shit before, but now that he has his score he's wondering if he should try for something higher skilled or more technical.

I know we have a lot of ex-military including AF. Would anyone have suggestions? Should he be trying to go officer training instead of enlisted? He wants to get into something skilled with a good amount of training hours for the college credit as well as having potential to get him some kind of career after he gets out.

They gave him this huge list of jobs before he tested, but we are sort of guessing when we try to decide on them. I was supposed to have a friend of a friend who is career AF getting back to me to talk to him, but haven't gotten his contact info yet so I'm coming to rerolled for advice. Thanks for any info.
 
Famm

Famm

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He's actually wondering if he should switch to Navy and go for nuclear technician now that he's seen his scores. Also I get the impression that they actually have to have job openings for what he picks as well.

Oh and his eyes are bad so don't say pilot, heh.
 
Eidal

Eidal

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Nuke schooling is notoriously hard and grueling. Also, has above-average suicide rate I believe. Not necessarily saying no, but I very much encourage him and you to read about what that entails and then investigate how actually transferable those skills are. Not my forte.

He needs to be a college grad to do "officer training."

Regarding transferable skills to the civilian sector, I'd propose Intelligence since it'll guarantee him a TS/SCI clearance. If he has the discipline and motivation, he could be almost done with a B.S. in Comp Sci or something like that by the time he leaves Active Duty. A strong STEM degree + TS/SCI clearance = really fucking solid job opportunities.
 
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a_skeleton_03

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Famm_sl said:
He's actually wondering if he should switch to Navy and go for nuclear technician now that he's seen his scores.
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No, no, no, no.

After he gets out he can work for the .mil or the .gov or the .mil or the .gov or defect to China.

You would think there would be other good jobs but our country is too stupid to use nuclear reactors for energy.
 
Big Phoenix

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Yeah Nuke school is like almost 2 years worth of training I think before even setting foot on a sub/carrier.

What exactly does he want to do? I wouldnt exactly worry about something that gives/transfer to a college seeing as how you can take college classes free with tuition assistance while in and then use that sweet sweet gi bill when
out.
 
Borzak

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Don't believe anything the recruiter says.
 
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Tenks

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Big Phoenix_sl said:
What exactly does he want to do?
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I feel this question is being a bit lost in this thread. I know too many people who tested well on SAT/ACT and decided to go into 'harder' majors which they detested. If he wants to just be a mechanic he should just be a mechanic.
 
Cad

Cad

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Famm_sl said:
Title says it all I guess. He got his ASVAB back and scored 99 percentile. Has the psych and physical scheduled next.

He was looking at trying to do some sort of aircraft mechanic shit before, but now that he has his score he's wondering if he should try for something higher skilled or more technical.

I know we have a lot of ex-military including AF. Would anyone have suggestions? Should he be trying to go officer training instead of enlisted? He wants to get into something skilled with a good amount of training hours for the college credit as well as having potential to get him some kind of career after he gets out.

They gave him this huge list of jobs before he tested, but we are sort of guessing when we try to decide on them. I was supposed to have a friend of a friend who is career AF getting back to me to talk to him, but haven't gotten his contact info yet so I'm coming to rerolled for advice. Thanks for any info.
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If he can make 99 percentile on ASVAB tell him to cancel his enlistment and fucking go to college.
 
Big Phoenix

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Cad_sl said:
If he can make 99 percentile on ASVAB tell him to cancel his enlistment and fucking go to college.
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Why? Honestly I would recommend it for anyone leaving highschool unless you already have a free ride to MIT or Standford or similar opportunity already lined up. Its kind of like going off to college(possibly to some place awesome, like Hawaii or Italy etc. or if youre unlucky possibly a shithole like minot or 29palms) while getting paid without the soul crushing debt.
 
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a_skeleton_03

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Cad_sl said:
If he can make 99 percentile on ASVAB tell him to cancel his enlistment and fucking go to college.
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I did it and I am glad I joined the Marines. College isn't the solve everything wand. It really depends on the kid and what he has done to prep for college now.
 
Famm

Famm

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He's got five semesters of college and nearly dropped out, I basically let him stop going and live with me (divorced), work shitty jobs and help me out instead of school, rather than having him fail a semester. Not that he couldn't make grades but lost motivation and I didn't want to pay for a semester if I thought he might fuck it up. He was taking business/accounting and got to year three and realized he hated it.

When he was thinking the mechanic thing he was saying he'd prefer to work with his hands than a desk job, but now he's not so sure again, once again realizing that he's smart enough to potentially pick anything. His life is stagnant, he's twenty-four but is finally maturing and knows he needs to get his shit together somehow. I'm not paying for him to go back to school and I think we both want him to move out. This is mostly his idea but I'm supporting it, yet I want him to do it right not just aimlessly enlist in Army infantry or something.

So that's another aspect to the college credit thing. He could conceivably come out of this with an easy BA or at least be close to a BS in another major since he's got his basic ass first two years out of the way. I wish he knew what hewantedto do even generally, but he really doesn't. He's smart, likes tech I guess as much as any gamer kid. Doesn't get into trouble or use drugs or anything. He's just been kinda lazy and directionless. He's not opposed to comp sci but also worried it might be a saturated field coming out as a civilian.

Right now we discussed that maybe he should focus on something to get closer to a STEM degree, be it computer based or engineering, pending any more specific ideas from somewhere.
 
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a_skeleton_03

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Yeah I see the same lack of motivation I had at that age and the military helped.

Big P said the exact right thing by asking what does he want to do, not what will they let him do.

Air Force Specialty Codes

Have him scroll through that and find out which ones sound like something he would like and then google each one of those and see what they actually do.
 
Srathor

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My Dad always said to fuck up something once, make it small, make it semi easy to spot but it gives the brass something to find and stop looking for the big fuckups. If you can then fix it it also gets you noticed as someone who can learn. Of course he was in the Air Force during the Korean war so it was a while ago.
 
Cad

Cad

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Famm_sl said:
He's got five semesters of college and nearly dropped out, I basically let him stop going and live with me (divorced), work shitty jobs and help me out instead of school, rather than having him fail a semester. Not that he couldn't make grades but lost motivation and I didn't want to pay for a semester if I thought he might fuck it up. He was taking business/accounting and got to year three and realized he hated it.

When he was thinking the mechanic thing he was saying he'd prefer to work with his hands than a desk job, but now he's not so sure again, once again realizing that he's smart enough to potentially pick anything. His life is stagnant, he's twenty-four but is finally maturing and knows he needs to get his shit together somehow. I'm not paying for him to go back to school and I think we both want him to move out. This is mostly his idea but I'm supporting it, yet I want him to do it right not just aimlessly enlist in Army infantry or something.

So that's another aspect to the college credit thing. He could conceivably come out of this with an easy BA or at least be close to a BS in another major since he's got his basic ass first two years out of the way. I wish he knew what hewantedto do even generally, but he really doesn't. He's smart, likes tech I guess as much as any gamer kid. Doesn't get into trouble or use drugs or anything. He's just been kinda lazy and directionless. He's not opposed to comp sci but also worried it might be a saturated field coming out as a civilian.

Right now we discussed that maybe he should focus on something to get closer to a STEM degree, be it computer based or engineering, pending any more specific ideas from somewhere.
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There's no real jobs in the world where you "work with your hands" and get paid. If he wants something more practical and less bullshit than a business degree, steer him into something useful. Engineering, architecture, comp sci. Something like that. But outside of outlier circumstances there are no jobs out there for 19 year olds that pay anything worth a shit.

He just needs to sack up and do it. If he can't finish college he's just going to fuck up other things, switching tracks due to lack of motivation isn't the answer. Finding motivation is the answer.
 
Famm

Famm

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Cad_sl said:
There's no real jobs in the world where you "work with your hands" and get paid. If he wants something more practical and less bullshit than a business degree, steer him into something useful. Engineering, architecture, comp sci. Something like that. But outside of outlier circumstances there are no jobs out there for 19 year olds that pay anything worth a shit.

He just needs to sack up and do it. If he can't finish college he's just going to fuck up other things, switching tracks due to lack of motivation isn't the answer. Finding motivation is the answer.
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The shit he's doing to make this happen is the most motivation I've seen in a while, so in a sense he's found it. His car is an old POS, I'm not paying for him to go back to school at this point even if he could reliably commute there and work. So this option..like P said...gets him a place to live, a paycheck, training, college credits and eventually a degree without him taking on a bunch of student loan debt. His school that he did under me is already paid off so I've given him a basis but he needs to build on it.

I think there's worse plans than getting him living in another area and learning how to be 100% responsible for himself. It was his idea, I didn't push him on it, my back up plan was maybe to pay for online classes just to get the degree over with, but this seems like a more complete approach overall.
 
ZyyzYzzy

ZyyzYzzy

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Anecdotal, but in rega4rfs to the Navy I've met a decent amount of guys who enlisted for medical stuff and either became officers (lots are O-5 and 6) or went to nursing or medical school (obviously getting decent jobs).

That being said intel is never a bad choice as a_skeleton_03 mentioned. Getting a TS/SCI and full scope poly will give him an advantage for a ton of positions with contractors.
 
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