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My chances?


xwingexplorer

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Hi all. Requesting feedback on my chances at a Reserves or Guard unit, and currently considering both fighters and heavies.

AFOQT: Pilot 89 / Nav 98 / Acad Apt 95 / Verbal 94 / Quant 92

PCSM: 89 (with another 12 hours, this should bump up to 93, so I plan on getting those additional hours shortly)  

Flying: PPL, 88 hours, will start working towards instrument soon

GPA: 3.57 (BA Economics), Also have master’s

Prior Service: Previous active duty USAF officer (4 years, O3) in Contracting, deployed once (Baghdad)

Age: 33 (turned 33 in Jan)

LORs: 1 from previous squadron commander, 1 from coworker, 1 from good friend. I believe all are strong and highlight various qualities that I think units would look for.

Misc: A couple ‘extracurricular' facts. Curious if anyone recommends including them in my cover letter as unique background that units may look for. I don’t want to come across as needlessly arrogant, but also don’t want to leave any stone unturned:

-        I have my skydiving license (48 jumps).

-        I currently work at the F-35 Joint Program Office (contract specialist). Job involves negotiating various F-35 requirements and putting them on contract / awarding them. Awarded a $150M contract for durability testing on the F-35B last year, and also negotiated the F-35’s automatic ground collision avoidance system (same AGCAS as F-16, updated for F-35 implementation). It's a crazy pace, but a very interesting place to work for sure. 

-        My grandfather was a fighter pilot in the early days of aviation, and was later the commander of the Pakistan Air Force…got my love of flying through him.

-        Hobbies – photography, videography, personal finance guru, fitness.

I’m genuinely considering both fighters / heavies at this point. I'm having difficulty deciding - the more frequent flying you get to do in heavies is very attractive to me, but then I would love flying fighters too I believe. A few people have understandably mentioned my age will probably make me a no go for fighters, but I’d still be interested in additional feedback on that point.

Thanks, all!

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Odds are good, but I'd take what you can get. Lots of wisdom on here about finding the best times in the least likely of places. Also it can be all about timing so start churning out apps everywhere. Beggars can't be choosers at this point.

 

Also for a second I thought I saw your first hobby listed was pornography...

 

Image result for did we just become best friends

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On 2/11/2020 at 9:52 PM, xwingexplorer said:

Age: 33 (turned 33 in Jan)

Not to discourage you but at least for fighters alot of places are not stoked about older candidates.  Despite the new age guidance for UPT from the Air Force Personnel Center alot of the Reserve/Guard units still won't seriously consider anyone older than 28.  Just some expectation management that's all.  You would still be remiss not to try wherever there is an opening.  That being said you are prior military which may help.

Edited by tarheelaviator
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As stated above, definitely keep that in mind, however, myself and one other guy that got hired with me were both the eldest in our group. I'm 30 myself, but age wasn't really a factor... Standing out is what can and/or will make the difference. If they like you a lot, you fit in and are not weird dude/dudette, they'll go to bat for you. 

Good luck!

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  • 2 months later...

Cast a wide net and cast it fast. Rush hard, rush often.

At the hyper-desirable coastal fighter units, you'll be a hard sell. But for F-16s in Sioux Falls or something, if you check every other box, you could have a shot.

On the flip side, though, you seem to talk about fighters in a "well, sure, why not?" manner which makes me think they're not as important to you as military aviation is in general. If that resonates with you, I would recommend putting the most effort (rushing, etc...) into the heavies if you're having to decide what to spend your time on.

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6 hours ago, Kiloalpha said:

New Orleans is pretty straightforward in that they don’t like older applicants. 

It's not that we don't like them, it's that we have been bitten by them in the past. Not likely to hire another for a while.  

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