I agree, to an extent. Do not under any circumstance tell your fellow 1835s or anyone in your own community you want to re-designate because there is just no reason to do so and it can only damage your reputation early on -- however I would strongly encourage you to contact the community manager of the community you wish to re-designate to in order to inquire, express your interest, find out the process and exactly when you can apply for re-designation, and explain your circumstance that makes you eminently qualified for that community. I didn't want to be an 1835 or be part of the IDC (I guess its called the IWC now, I can't keep up), I wanted to be a FAO (1715) and the second I commissioned I contacted the FAO community manager, expressed my interest, and he asked that I send him a resume, which I did. He was pleased and helped me out. Didn't matter that I was a two-day old Ensign. Its your career and in the reserves you are the only one who manages it, no one else. If you don't want to be an 1835 or whatever, that's fine, no one will fault you for wanting to serve somewhere else in the Navy especially if you're already qualified to serve there as a civilian engineer, IT guy, or something of the sort. Keep in mind that re-designating inside the same community (i.e. 1835 to 1825) is a vastly different process than re-designating to a new community (i.e. 1835 to 1715). From my experience, it is easier to re-designate OUTSIDE of the IDC than it is to re-designate from within, because you will have a community manager of a different community effectively serving as an advocate for you to the IDC.