NCRCrow said:
SJ:
Give the trade you are in a chance, they will not even look at you until you are a QL-5 qual. Also to be considered to be a good candidate for a VOT. You will have to prove competency and maturity in the trade you are in.
My recommendation is to do your best at the trade you are in. Be proactive, seek out additional coursing (OPME's,upgrade Math) and then make your application to the Airforce.
A brand new QL3 making his VOT wishes prior to be a LS(QL-5) is career suicide.
:skull:
NCRCrow
You actually only have to be QL4 qualified, if you complete your QL5 course you will then have to do 24 more months before you will be eligible or else you will need a naval waiver (which are rarely given out, you have to have extenuating (sp) circumstances). So it is a pretty small window in there from finishing your 4's package and then starting your 5's course but you can still try.
Here is a bit of advice for you coming from someone who has applied every year:
as NCRCrow has said do as good a job as you can in your current trade! do not slack off and burn bridges because you are bitter or know that you are not going to stay in your current trade. There have been cases where guys have been complete idiots and nobody wanted to keep them in trade so they somehow swung an OT, but those cases are far and few between. The only reason I was offered my OT to Aesop on my first (completely eligable) try was because I have always worked hard and demonstrated a good work ethic which in turn provided me with a very good PER and reccommendation. One of the things the BPSO said when I had my interview was that he could definitely tell that I wanted out of my current trade, but that he had to commend me because I didnt let the fact that I wanted out of it affect my performance.
If you are anything like me you will change your mind a half dozen times about what you want to OT to. Every year my application was for a different trade and every year I was shot down because of different things.
1) Needed 48 months continuous service (my bad, I was new lol)
2) Application got as far as an email to my MOC advisor who said he could not afford to let me go, went no further than my department.
3) Just finished my QL5 course and the new policy that year was that if you had your 5's you had to give them 24 more months.
4) Decided to go for COTP to Aesop, the COTP program just seemed better because you do not start from square one with a QL3 course, you remain within your peer group and it is more like taking a step forward than a step backward, plus I met a couple of Aesops on deployment and was really interested in what they did. To my surprise was accepted and cannot wait to finish coursing and maybe sail again as part of an Air det just to rub it in a little to a couple of buddies of mine.
But again, I cant stress enough how important it is to do a good job, your PER is one of the major factors in if you will be picked.
Expressing your interest in VOT at an early stage in your career will not necessarily be career suicide as NCRCrow has stated, but it all depends on how you go about it. Saying things like "I hate this trade, I want out" definitely will not help you but If you conitinue to do a good job and are a strong performer then making your intentions known to your supervisors may prove to help your cause. If they see a young guy who works hard and is easy to get along with who has enjoyed his time so far in his trade but knows that he wants to move to a new direction they may help you out and find tasks and courses to mould you to reflect qualities that may be desired by the trade you are interested in. It could be anything, like the trade you want looks for people with good communication/presentation skills, if your department knows that you want to OT it may be easier to get extra courses on base or at the Learning Centre to help you in those areas or they could task you with briefing/training the new OS's onboard of all the equipment you use which in turn will lead to some good divnote entries which will lead to a PDR/PER that reflects your superiority in those skill sets. Try to get a feel of how your department would react to you mentioning it, different regimes have different attitudes to stuff like this. One PO1 might be very proud and get offended that you would want out of his trade while another might have gone through the same situation as you and will have a "I've been there" type attitude and want to do what he can for you. In the end it is all up to you how you want to go about it.
Anyways, with that said, good luck, dont get discouraged and dont let your desire for a new trade blacken your attitude toward your current one, try to have fun where you are because life does get easier as you get more time in and you may change your mind. Dont burn any bridges!
