FY 18 IWC DCO BOARD

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

@bldalton please show your recruiter this. Results have been out for a while now.

 

[bldalton]

@bldalton please show your recruiter this. Results have been out for a while now.

Thank you RUFiO, will do.

 

[bldalton]

Unfortunately I was non-select this year. Don't know why yet, would love to know so I can make improvements. I know its a very competitive program. Thank you all for your comments. I look forward to trying again for FY19. Good luck and congrats to those who were selected.

 

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

Unfortunately I was non-select this year. Don't know why yet, would love to know so I can make improvements. I know its a very competitive program. Thank you all for your comments. I look forward to trying again for FY19. Good luck and congrats to those who were selected.

No masters degree, no relevant experience.

 

[bldalton]

No masters degree, no relevant experience.

You know or is that the assumption based on rumor, fact, prior statistics or other intel? I understand you are in the know on a lot of this. My OR said the selectees that were going through the NAS JAX office were all current AD or Reserves. Talked with my OR and we will try it again this year.

 

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

You know or is that the assumption based on rumor, fact or other intel? I understand you are in the know on a lot of this. My OR said the selectees that were going through the NAS JAX office were all current AD or Reserves. Talked with my OR and we will try it again this year.

My Region OIC does quarterly conference calls. Same time last year we did one on the FY17 board and pretty soon I'm sure they'll do one for FY18. The education is huge and essentially becoming the norm not only for IWC DCO but most DCO programs overall. It looks like they took a few folks who only had bachelor's degrees, but made up the difference with their resume and experience. The work experience also comes into play, they want leadership, impact bullets (what did YOU personally do to improve the company - include numbers), and of course relevant experience. If I am a project manager seeking to be an Intelligence Officer, which requires 4-5 years of relevant experience... my chances are probably slim to none. Project Management ties closer to Supply Corps than it does with IWC...

Lastly, NRC is fighting back with people reapplying. They do not want folks who keep reapplying and making no differences in their application.

Like what @bubblehead said before, I would recommend considering enlisting back into the Reserve, ideally in a IWC rate to build actual experience.

 

[Deleted member 67144 scul]

they want leadership

which requires 4-5 years of relevant experience

This piqued my interest. I'm sure there's something more to this.

In the military world, any 22 year-old who comes out of ROTC and is commissioned is considered a leader, regardless of the duties or day-to-day.

However, in the civilian world and especially corporate America (which is very hierarchical and structured), it's a lot different. You're almost guaranteed to have little to no formal leadership experience 4-5 years in industry. If you do, it's both typically circumstantial and you're seriously stepping up in an outstanding way and killing it, as I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to do. It's usually something people start doing when they're 32-40. Still, the "de facto" nature of this is such that corporate structure won't officially call you a "leader" if you're not old 'enough', even if you're doing your managers' jobs for them.

In the military view of the civilian world, what sorts of things qualify as leadership?

• De facto leadership roles on the job on critical engineering projects for extended periods of time?
• Running the largest and most active employee network in a soon-to-be 78,000 employee corporation?
• Community service volunteering (warehouses, cleanups, etc.)?
• Serving on the board of a non-profit that promotes ocean conservation and educating youths?
• Teaching kids how to use programmable electronic boards to do cool things with simple robotics?
• Leading every group project you ever did in college?

Just a disclaimer: I haven't applied for DCO yet. I'm trying to figure out what qualifies as leadership so I can gear my motivational statement, resume, and interviews towards that. I like to strategize.

 

[Hail_HYDRA!]

For all of us who didn't make it, for the feeling of disappointment and despair, its still awesome to see the backgrounds of folks who made it as well as the potential competition of those of us who didn't [make the cut]. It's time to brush the dirt off and get back on the horse. With enough persistence, patience, and solid improvement with actual experience, we'll get in. But believe me, most of us will be trying again and have some insight into our peer group (even if it is like 1%). And there's a lot that needs to be done over the next six to nine months to be competitive. Just gotta put in the work. And if it doesn't work out, it still wasn't for nothing. If you did these things, you DID improve self as well as many others around you. It just wasn't your turn yet as it wasn't for me. Keep pushing, keep plugging away, and do whatever is necessary, but just don't quit....well, maybe do quit so I can get picked up next go around (j/k, but kinda not really, lol).

Ready for the FY 19 thread to get going with some good info once the time comes around.

 

[Crippy011]

You can commission before your clearance is adjudicated.

To add to bubble, clearance hold-ups can potentially make it tough to earn your 3I1 intel PQS within the required 36 mo. of commission. I think it’s extendable to 48 mo. with a waiver, but I have no idea what that process looks like.

Your 3 year time requirement doesn't start until you have your clearance, either fully adjudicated or your interim.

 

[bldalton]

RuFIO, would you be able to list on here what they are looking for based on the FY18 board? I'd be willing to look at the Supply as well. I've got 18+ years project management experience.

As far as leadership experience, I've been in my current position as an operations manager for 18 years. I lead a control room and maintenance staff of about 10 people. I was a youth minister for about 4 years while working in my current position and now I'm a deacon at my church, and I've been teaching karate for years. I have proven leadership experience. Maybe I didn't spell it out well enough in my packet. The board members I interviewed with all liked my leadership experience.

Now, I don't have my Master's yet. I've been working on it off and on over the last 7 years. I've been trying to do it at a brick and mortar institution (Florida State University), but with work demands, its been difficult to regularly attend. I'm looking at a couple of online institutions to see how that works out. I've talked to a few admissions counselors. Now, I need to find the $$.

While I'm disappointed I didn't get selected this year, I'm ready and looking forward to getting back on the horse and giving it a go again.

 

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

RuFIO, would you be able to list on here what they are looking for based on the FY18 board? I'd be willing to look at the Supply as well. I've got 18+ years project management experience.

As far as leadership experience, I've been in my current position as an operations manager for 18 years. I lead a control room and maintenance staff of about 10 people. I was a youth minister for about 4 years while working in my current position and now I'm a deacon at my church, and I've been teaching karate for years. I have proven leadership experience. Maybe I didn't spell it out well enough in my packet. The board members I interviewed with all liked my leadership experience.

Now, I don't have my Master's yet. I've been working on it off and on over the last 7 years. I've been trying to do it at a brick and mortar institution (Florida State University), but with work demands, its been difficult to regularly attend. I'm looking at a couple of online institutions to see how that works out. I've talked to a few admissions counselors. Now, I need to find the $$.

While I'm disappointed I didn't get selected this year, I'm ready and looking forward to getting back on the horse and giving it a go again.

Once again, nothing has been released IRT the FY18 board yet.

 

[bubblehead]

In the military world, any 22 year-old who comes out of ROTC and is commissioned is considered a leader, regardless of the duties or day-to-day.

Apples and oranges.

This is a competitive commissioning process and "they" need a way to weed people out. ROTC, OCS, etc value different things than does the DCO process, which is comprised of experienced professionals.

You're almost guaranteed to have little to no formal leadership experience 4-5 years in industry.

Depends on the industry and what you are doing.

Leadership

• De facto leadership roles on the job on critical engineering projects for extended periods of time?

Community Service

• Running the largest and most active employee network in a soon-to-be 78,000 employee corporation?
• Community service volunteering (warehouses, cleanups, etc.)?
• Serving on the board of a non-profit that promotes ocean conservation and educating youths?
• Teaching kids how to use programmable electronic boards to do cool things with simple robotics?

Seriously?

• Leading every group project you ever did in college?

 

[devilbones]

For all of us who didn't make it, for the feeling of disappointment and despair, its still awesome to see the backgrounds of folks who made it as well as the potential competition of those of us who didn't [make the cut]. It's time to brush the dirt off and get back on the horse. With enough persistence, patience, and solid improvement with actual experience, we'll get in. But believe me, most of us will be trying again and have some insight into our peer group (even if it is like 1%). And there's a lot that needs to be done over the next six to nine months to be competitive. Just gotta put in the work. And if it doesn't work out, it still wasn't for nothing. If you did these things, you DID improve self as well as many others around you. It just wasn't your turn yet as it wasn't for me. Keep pushing, keep plugging away, and do whatever is necessary, but just don't quit....well, maybe do quit so I can get picked up next go around (j/k, but kinda not really, lol).

Ready for the FY 19 thread to get going with some good info once the time comes around.

Sounds great, start it up.

 

[Hail_HYDRA!]

Sounds great, start it up.

Done.

 

[Deleted member 67144 scul]

Seriously?

That point was purely facetious. It comes from a few of my fellow engineering students who were in ROTC and got commissioned joking to me that they did more leadership in their group and term projects in college than they did as O-1s to O-3s.

The Navy Reserve, being uniquely as competitive as it is, applies some metrics well, but also applies some metrics it doesn't really understand. For example, expecting electrical engineers and software engineers to have IT certifications and be EITs is an odd one. I've yet to find someone in my industry who has heard of these (some have heard of EIT), because they're irrelevant. If you are an EIT as a HW/SW engineer, you're more likely to get asked "Why even?" than anything else. It's a thing for civil/mechanical engineers, and little if anything else outside the DoD. But when the PAs for some designators bluntly list certifications as being "strongly preferred" and multiple officer recruiters reinforcing this, it's easy to see where it's going.

But I'm a strong believer in "When in Rome", and to drive the point home, I've picked up a certification and in the process of picking up a couple more this month. Then I'll work towards the FE exam, then DoD approved IAT certifications. From a career standpoint, it is completely pointless for me outside of Navy DCO, but when in Rome, you do as the Romans do.

Depends on the industry and what you are doing.

It absolutely is.

Just to explain an example for the curious, if you're any kind of engineer in bureaucratized tech corporations (mostly electrical and software engineers) , then 4 years in, you'd be lucky to even manage a small project/component, nevermind more encompassing programs or personnel. It simply does not happen. You need very special circumstances (like too much work and too few people to manage everything, or a bunch of your team leaves/laid off) and to seriously be stepping up (read: work half the hours in a week or more) to get any leadership role and even then it'll be temporal and circumstantial. There's already tons of people in their 40s-60s to handle all the management and tech lead work. Small companies and startups can obviously be different, but the whole scope of things.