Airforce or Navy?

[AnimeKnight]

I think I have decided to go for Air Force. I just have couple more questions to ask the recruiter on Tuesday morning then I willl be taking the ASVAB.

Reason that I chose to join the AF

1) their life style is closest to civilian life compare to other services
2) Although Navy sounds reall good in the first 5 years because of all the traveling but I am thinking long term service and that joining the Navy will be hard to have families.
3) I still believe that AF has more Tech stuff which means I have more opportunities.

The 2 questions that I am going to ask my recrutier are

1) How fast can you advance in the AF?
2) I was told by the Navy Recruiter that I will not get a job guarntee instead I will get choices of 8 jobs that I am interested and at the end of the boot camp I will then know what job I have been picked.

What's a good ASVAB score?

thanks again for all you guys' inputs!

 

[SlowSS]

Originally posted by: AnimeKnight

2) I was told by the Navy Recruiter that I will not get a job guarntee instead I will get choices of 8 jobs that I am interested and at the end of the boot camp I will then know what job I have been picked.

I think there is a bit of miscommunication between you and the Navy recruiter.

You can be guanteed of getting a Rate, i.e., Eletronic tech, Aviation Electrician, Radioman...etc. before going into the boot camp.

What the recruiter was talking about is the orders for your permanent duty station.

Which you will get upon completion of your "A" school. You should get some choices for your next duty station based on your class standing.

 

[jteef]

I don't think the Air Force is offering many guaranteed AFSC's right now. instead you sign up for one of a few general aptitude areas (prolly like maintenance, electronics, etc) and then pick your afsc out of whats available in that area while you're in basic. If you get a really good asvab score, then they might give you a guaranteed afsc.

The asvab is scored on a percentage scale. 50 is average. "good" would probably be like 80+ beware of jobs with high enlistment bonuses!

 

[AnimeKnight]

Originally posted by: SlowSS

Originally posted by: AnimeKnight

2) I was told by the Navy Recruiter that I will not get a job guarntee instead I will get choices of 8 jobs that I am interested and at the end of the boot camp I will then know what job I have been picked.

I think there is a bit of miscommunication between you and the Navy recruiter.

You can be guanteed of getting a Rate, i.e., Eletronic tech, Aviation Electrician, Radioman...etc. before going into the boot camp.

What the recruiter was talking about is the orders for your permanent duty station.

Which you will get upon completion of your "A" school. You should get some choices for your next duty station based on your class standing.

Sorry I meant.. the Navy Recruiter told me that Air Force don't have the job guarntee not the Navy. I know Navy has them. That's why when I told the Navy Recruiter that I am going to go join the Air Force he told me besure to get a job guarntee from AF.

 

[Workin']

You obviously don't know too much about the Navy. You don't just sit on your ass and do nothing while floating, you work your ass off.

Umm, relax, sailor! I never said you just float around like on a cruise ship. Or even implied that. All I said was that you mainly see water. Which you did not deny. People work hard in every branch of the service.

The asvab is scored on a percentage scale. 50 is average. "good" would probably be like 80+ beware of jobs with high enlistment bonuses!

It's scored on a PERCENTILE basis, not percentage (but I'm sure that's what you meant, please take no offense). Your raw score is compared with all the others ever taken, and ranked accordingly. So a 50 is average because that means half the people did better and half the people did worse than you. A 80 means you did better than 80 percent of the other test-takers. A higher score qualifies you for better jobs. My ASVAB score was 98th percentile - I could choose from any job offered to enlisted members. However, I still enlisted with only a "career field" guarantee, not a guaranteed specialty. They told me my 98 ASVAB score would help, and in fact I did get my first choice AFSC. I also got my first choice follow-on base assignment after tech school. Your mileage may vary... Oh, I could have had my specialty guaranteed but then I would have had to wait 8 months to enlist instead of 3 weeks, and I needed a job sooner than that. So if you have good ASVAB scores and time to wait before you need to enter the service, you may have a good chance of getting a guaranteed job.

What jteef meant by beware jobs with high enlistment bonuses is that many times those jobs suck and no one wants to do them, so they have to pay extra to keep people interested. But that is not always the case - sometimes the job is great but there are directly equal civilian jobs that pay much more, so the military pays extra to keep those people in. That was the case when I was in - my job had a re-enlistment bonus because civilian jobs doing the EXACT same work paid over 3 times as much as the Air Force, and people were leaving in droves for those civilian jobs.

The Navy would have been a fine choice but I think the Air Force is a better choice. Keep us posted on your journey.

 

[Aimster]

I think I want to join the Air Force. I don't care about the job they give me I just want my degree by the time I am 26. I am 21 right now. Is that a realistic goal? I take my ASVAB Tuesday. I got a 75 on my practive ASVAB is that an OK score?

 

[Workin']

I don't think you can realistically get a 4-year degree in 5 years when 4 of those years you will be working full time. I think you could do it in 6 years, though. Unless you don't care what your degree is in, either.

A 75 is an OK score, that puts you in the top quarter. Probably not high enough to be able to get the most technically demanding jobs, but good enough to give you some good options.