Application delays

[red_ryder]

There's no reason to do that. In fact, DONT DO IT.

It will do you no good to be a tool to a man who believes in what he's doing. The best thing that can come of it is that he doesn't care. He probably won't because he has deal with Code Pink nutjobs all the time.

The worst thing that happens is that he actually calls the OSO, who is probably a pretty cool guy who loves his Corps and the Marines in it, and he sympathizes with the Sgt about how much of a friggin tool you are and you don't get into the Marine Corps.

No matter how hard the recruiter brings the sell, the OSO doesn't need your ass. He's probably 75% of the way to his quota for FY 08 already and it just started in October.

Ha, I made that mistake in the beginning. My recruiters kept showing me NUPOC because of my engineering degree and because it's such a good deal, and I asked them if they weren't just trying to push me to that instead of pilot. BIG mistake. I could tell it hurt their feelings. Now that I know better and when I make it in, I think I'm going to apologize. :icon_tong

 

[Spekkio]

Ha, I made that mistake in the beginning. My recruiters kept showing me NUPOC because of my engineering degree and because it's such a good deal, and I asked them if they weren't just trying to push me to that instead of pilot. BIG mistake. I could tell it hurt their feelings. Now that I know better and when I make it in, I think I'm going to apologize. :icon_tong

And despite how much people are "in-demand" for NUPOC candidates, the Navy still is slow as balls with my application.

Latest update: they lost my fingerprints taken at MEPS, so now I gotta go into the NRD this Sat to re-do them and sign some forms AGAIN. The kicker: I went to MEPS in the last week of July, and now that they're trying to rush me to the tech interviews next Wed, they are now trying to get everything together at the last minute. I haven't told them that I won't be able to take off work on such short notice anyway, or that I'm not going down there without a mock interview which has not been done and will not have time to be done within the next week because I want everything finally squared away.

But wow, this thread grew to 5 pages quick. It was refreshing to see that the enlisted recruiter didn't try his damndest to sell you on enlisting when he knew you wanted to become an officer. I've definitely heard stories otherwise.

Oh, and get used to the friends/family members/random strangers who are going to tell you that the military is just out to fuck you and you're being brainwashed by a recruiter for joining. But for every one of those, there are 5 who are going to say "wow, you're joining the military? I could never do that, good for you..." And if it weren't for the haters, you would have never found this site and gained all the information you have now, so I guess they're useful in some way, too.

 

[red_ryder]

And despite how much people are "in-demand" for NUPOC candidates, the Navy still is slow as balls with my application.

Latest update: they lost my fingerprints taken at MEPS, so now I gotta go into the NRD this Sat to re-do them and sign some forms AGAIN. The kicker: I went to MEPS in the last week of July, and now that they're trying to rush me to the tech interviews next Wed, they are now trying to get everything together at the last minute. I haven't told them that I won't be able to take off work on such short notice anyway, or that I'm not going down there without a mock interview which has not been done and will not have time to be done within the next week because I want everything finally squared away.

Don't they scan yours into a machine? My fingerprints, except for the two paper copies printed out for my package, are now in the system tubes as data. Though, to be honest, the machine was broke when I first went in and I had to come in twice more over 2 weeks to get it done.

But wow, this thread grew to 5 pages quick. It was refreshing to see that the enlisted recruiter didn't try his damndest to sell you on enlisting when he knew you wanted to become an officer. I've definitely heard stories otherwise.

Ah, this was the officer recruiter, who I only talk to. At one time, before I considered joining to fly, I was looking for engineering jobs in the service, made the mistake of going to the (enlisted) air force recruiter to ask. They said I'd never make officer in a million years with my low GPA and I should give up and enlist. BULLs**t. My buddy commissioned before me and insisted I start with an officer recruiter, so that's what I did here, and never regretted it.

Oh, and get used to the friends/family members/random strangers who are going to tell you that the military is just out to fuck you and you're being brainwashed by a recruiter for joining. But for every one of those, there are 5 who are going to say "wow, you're joining the military? I could never do that, good for you..." And if it weren't for the haters, you would have never found this site and gained all the information you have now, so I guess they're useful in some way, too.

Yeah, good point. It will be, and is, nice to get into a community of people who understand.

 

[Spekkio]

Don't they scan yours into a machine? My fingerprints, except for the two paper copies printed out for my package, are now in the system tubes as data. Though, to be honest, the machine was broke when I first went in and I had to come in twice more over 2 weeks to get it done.

Yep, they did. Hence my exasperation that they lost them somehow.

What's even worse is that they knew this stuff was needed a long time ago, and now they try to rush and get it all done 4 business days before the trip.

Ah, this was the officer recruiter, who I only talk to. At one time, before I considered joining to fly, I was looking for engineering jobs in the service, made the mistake of going to the (enlisted) air force recruiter to ask. They said I'd never make officer in a million years with my low GPA and I should give up and enlist. BULLs**t. My buddy commissioned before me and insisted I start with an officer recruiter, so that's what I did here, and never regretted it.

Oh, I've heard a lot of similar stories. When I went down to GA, some kid was telling me that he had a fun run-in with an enlisted Marine recruiter before getting to the officer station. Apparently the Sergeant just ranted for 30 minutes about how the Corps is the most important thing in his life, and if he had to choose between his own family and the Corps, he'd choose the Corps.

My experience with the enlisting recruiting center was walk in, a Marine comes out and asks me what he can do for me. I say I'm looking for the Navy recruiting center. He shoots me an obvious disgusted look, then takes me over there. I tell them I'm interested in becoming an officer, they ask me a few questions about my gpa and stuff. Since my GPA is actually pretty high, they didn't really try to throw any of the "you don't qualify" bs my way. They gave me a bunch of enlisted brochures, sent a form to the officer station in Manhattan and I got a call from them a few days later. I actually had a worse first experience with the officer recruiting station -- I spoke to a Chief who told me to come in that same weekend to take the ASTB. I asked him point blank if I need to study for it and he said "nope, you'll be ok. It's just some basic math and english questions." You can imagine how pissed I was when they started asking aviation questions. Got a 60 on the OAR which ain't too bad, but 5's on the other areas. To be fair, at the time I was still trying to get into med school and was looking into mainly restricted line positions at the time, but that's no excuse to let someone tank their first ASTB, especially when it can only be taken 3 times in your entire life.

But OP did say that he went to an enlisted recruiter who didn't try to throw any sideways bs at him, and offered to go hiking with him. That's pretty refreshing to see.

 

[Spekkio]

Yea but the problem here is that I won't be able to go regardless because A) I haven't done a mock-interview yet because I didn't know I was going, and I'm not going to go there without doing this and B) I have a full-time job, which I do not want to sacrifice on the off-chance I don't pass the interviews. I can't just go to them on Monday and tell them I'm taking the rest of the week off with no repercussions and C) Even if I could do that, it wouldn't be right to my job considering that they rely on me.

Speaking of which, I'm late for work. Damnit.

 

[Bugsmasher]

Spekkio, you didn't get a mock interview practice session thing on your VIP trip? Or do you mean a one-on-one actual simulation of what you'll get in DC? Because all I got before the interviews was an hour in the classroom with the NTOs and other applicants out in Seattle, and I had to wait several months afterwards before I was even eligible to interview.

Not that practice would have helped any; nobody knows what crazy problem the interviewer has up his sleeve. No amount of studying would have saved me from that first guy.

 

[Spekkio]

Spekkio, you didn't get a mock interview practice session thing on your VIP trip?

Sort of, but I wasn't the one answering the questions.

Or do you mean a one-on-one actual simulation of what you'll get in DC?

Yup.

Because all I got before the interviews was an hour in the classroom with the NTOs and other applicants out in Seattle,

The LT offered a 1 on 1 mock interview, so I'm going to utilize it. Couldn't hurt.

Not that practice would have helped any; nobody knows what crazy problem the interviewer has up his sleeve. No amount of studying would have saved me from that first guy.

What'd he ask you?

Not all recruiters are scum bags. Again, they're all great Marines in the fleet. They need the recruiting gig to punch their ticket to continue with their career, and it's very easy to be unsuccessful in the recruiting world. The recruiting world has a nasty habit of destroying your career if you're unsuccessful, and most of these guys are trying to avoid that.

I don't think that all recruiters are scumbags, and I'm sure that they do a fine job when on duty. When the Navy does stuff like lose my prints, I just chalk it up to the fact that the Navy's primary job isn't to process paperwork, but to keep our seas safe -- and they do a damn fine job at that.

I'm not a recruiter, so I have no idea the type of pressure these guys are under to make quota. I can certainly understand that they don't want to kill their careers, but I still don't think it's right that the end result is a new recruit getting duped by recruiters who promise them the world. Looking four years down the line, who's more likely to re-enlist: the recruit who had accurate information about what he was getting into when he signed on the dotted line, or the recruit who's pissed off because his recruiter promised him things that were flat-out false, ie: "you should enlist; it'll increase your chances of becoming an officer"?

Ideally, potential recruits and officer candidates should be able to find out all the necessary and accurate information they need from their recruiters. While this is not the case, fortunately we live in an age where some initiative and independent research can allow you to obtain the information you need. Perhaps the military needs to change the way it pressures recruiters if so many are inclined to resort to such tactics to meet quota.

As for the recruiter that says he lives, breathes, eats, and sleeps Marine Corps and would choose it over his wife - he may not be lying. There are Marines that feel that strongly about the Marine Corps. I can tell you that the Marine Corps saved me from a life of worthlessness.

I probably came across a little too ambiguous here. In that case, the applicant didn't think that the recruiter was lying. However, he was turned off by the Sergeant's zeal for the Corps -- he said that the recruiter was literally yelling about how great the Corps is. He also said that the recruiter gave him virtually no time to ask any questions.

 

[HeyJoe]

Hey Spekkio and Red Ryder (and Bugsmasher), you guys need to get your own thread (maybe under NUPOC topic)!

 

[Spekkio]

Probably should've PMed him. At least the 2nd half of my post is on topic.

 

[HeyJoe]

Probably should've PMed him. At least the 2nd half of my post is on topic.

Which one of your 4 posts are you talking about? I'm half kidding though. Think about your own thread on your NUPOC experience. Others coming behind you look for thread titles related to what they are seeking (at least those who search!). We can always split the thread for you!

 

[Spekkio]

I thought about the prospect of doing that, but I figured I'd wait until actually getting commissioned and getting some experience with it first.

Right now there's no advice I can offer a prospective NUPOC candidate that a recruiter can't, other than to be very, very patient yet persistent with the process.