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How Many Years of Experience?

Hax24

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I am currently applying to the reserves, and i am wondering what is acceptible to count as "experience" when I tell people how long I have been in the reserves. Does "experience" count the time spent in BMQ? For example, if I began BMQ tomorrow, could I say in a year from now that I have a year of experience in the army?
 
You aren't in the Reserves yet;  and you are already wondering when you can start saying you have experience and how much?  Putting the horse before the cart don't you think?
 
The way I see it, I'm going to be asking the question eventually. Also, other people on the site have their years of experience in their profile, so it's nice to know what that means exactly.
 
Years are sometimes a better measurement of length of experience than they are a good indicator of experience quality; I'd be more concerned with accumulating quality experience than I would be with how cool I can make it sound.

One reservist may be in for a few years, volunteer for nothing, perform poorly when tasked/training, and do no credit to his unit.  S/He can have 'a few years experience' in the reserves.

Another may be in for a few years, deploy somewhere, jump at every opportunity that comes his way, and do his unit great credit.  S/He can have 'a few years experience' in the reserves.

One person may enroll in the Reg Force and, within four years, complete their trades training, deploy somewhere, earn their corporals.  They have 4 years in.

Another person may enroll in the Reg Force and spend four years completing a degree (either in a quasi-military environment like RMC or an entirely civilian environment at Civ U), get some (maybe all, if their lucky) of their phase training done, and then get commissioned as an officer and outrank that corporal.  They have 4 years in.

Hopefully, by comparing the scenarios I provided, you can see the difference between quantity and quality of experience.

Before people jump down my throat about hating on ROTP, I'm not saying anything negative about the program (hell, I'm in it), nor am I insinuating that all ROTP grads are bad.  I'm just saying that they're not as qualified or experienced as people who enrolled on the same day but went the NCM/DEO route.
 
From the day you are sworn in is how much time you've had in. As far as "experience" if you've only done bmq, than you don't really have much.
 
To add my  :2c:, the way I look at it, experience is gained when you are actually on the job.  I'd be hard-pressed to say that BMQ, etc counts as "experience"; a civilian doesn't put down their education in the experience section of a CV, so why would a military member?
 
Alright, thanks everyone. My question has been answered.
 
If someone asks about your time in, and you look at your watch, it's probably not worth mentioning.
 
jwtg said:
I'm just saying that they're not as qualified or experienced as people who enrolled on the same day but went the NCM/DEO route.

I wouldn't say that a newly commissioned officer is less qualified than a corporal who has been in for the same length of time. They are just qualified in two different areas of the military. Like apples and oranges. You just can't compare these things.
 
SeR said:
I wouldn't say that a newly commissioned officer is less qualified than a corporal who has been in for the same length of time. They are just qualified in two different areas of the military. Like apples and oranges. You just can't compare these things.
It's entirely possible (and in fact likely, in the case of some MOSIDs) that a newly commissioned 2Lt will have no courses beyond BMOQ completed.  Many Air Force officer courses are too long to do in a summer, so those people will do BMOQ during their first summer after subsidized education, followed by summers of either second language training or OJT. 

At the risk of opening a can of worms, I actually believe that most Reg Force NCMs at 4 years are more experienced than most 2Lts out of ROTP.  I don't know a whole lot about NCM career progressions, but I would imagine that most NCMs are trade-qualified by the time they have 4 years in, while most ROTP grads are not.  In my opinion, that makes them more qualified.
 
For what it's worth, any time anyone says "I have X years in", the sole thing proved by that statement alone, is that they spent X number of years not releasing, either voluntarily or forcibly, regardless if it's 1 year in or 44 years in.

That's not to discount the wisdom and experience that should come with time and age, but time alone isn't really an accomplishment, rather what you do with that time.
 
jwtg said:
It's entirely possible (and in fact likely, in the case of some MOSIDs) that a newly commissioned 2Lt will have no courses beyond BMOQ completed.  Many Air Force officer courses are too long to do in a summer, so those people will do BMOQ during their first summer after subsidized education, followed by summers of either second language training or OJT. 

At the risk of opening a can of worms, I actually believe that most Reg Force NCMs at 4 years are more experienced than most 2Lts out of ROTP.  I don't know a whole lot about NCM career progressions, but I would imagine that most NCMs are trade-qualified by the time they have 4 years in, while most ROTP grads are not.  In my opinion, that makes them more qualified.

I just meant that they would be qualified in two different things, so it might be hard to compare. However, I completely agree with you at the same time.  :p
 
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