# New online application and 1-5scale



## Sylencer (19 Jun 2013)

Hello. Recently someone i know applied for the Canadian Forces. He applied for Infantry.  After about 60 days of waiting he called his local recruiting centre. They innititally told him they didn't recieve his file yet and they looked into another database. After which he was then told that he will have to reapply for the military because he only rated a 3 out of 5 on a scale and he needed to reach a 4 for infantry.

My only question is what is this scale, and if he never even made it passed the online application, what could this scale be based on.   Quick background on him is extremely fit, and has his GED.


----------



## Cbbmtt (19 Jun 2013)

That's a question for the recruitment office that gave him a 3. We wouldn't know which part he didn't well on in his application.


----------



## kevincanada (19 Jun 2013)

I scored excellent on every part of the application,  I did take some time and think my answers through and filled up the sheets with good information to the best of my ability.   Even the reference section I tried to use people who were in a position of authority, my own included a teacher, one who works for a police force. A fellow who who sits on a board of directors for a corporation and a past employer.  For privacy I'm being intentionally vague.

Get some volunteer experience on it if you can.  Show them ambition.  Show them drive.

Good luck.


----------



## Sylencer (19 Jun 2013)

The recruiting Centre said they did not have that information.  Only his score.  His references were bosses and a retired cwo.   I wasn't asking where I think he lost points.  I under only north bay would know that.  I wS just generally wondering WhT this scale of 5 is based one.  Fitness volunteer work what else.


----------



## 421_434_226 (19 Jun 2013)

I believe it is based on the entire application: Education, Work Experience, Physical Fitness/Sports, Activities and Interests, Leadership/Supervisory Experience a small hint may be that along the top of most of the mentioned areas there is a series of boxes marked 1 to 5+ that you fill in, except for one that goes to 3+. Of course if you fib some with regards to your background it would be eventually found out.


----------



## Jarnhamar (19 Jun 2013)

Cbbmtt said:
			
		

> That's a question for the recruitment office that gave him a 3. We wouldn't know which part he didn't well on in his application.



Considering you have not even completed your medical or interview do you think you should be answering questions in the recruiting forum?


----------



## Cbbmtt (19 Jun 2013)

ObedientiaZelum said:
			
		

> Considering you have not even completed your medical or interview do you think you should be answering questions in the recruiting forum?




The question was not in regards to the interview, nor was it regarding the medical. This is my second time having my application put through without problems and I have passed the interview before, so yes I believe I do have experience with the application process prior to the medical.

In regards to answering questions in the recruiting forum, I have asked many questions to my recruiter recently and If I feel that I can relay the current information and past experiences to help another recruit, I believe I have the right to do so. At any point where I relay terrible information or a wrongful post, feel free to criticize my post.

Cheers!


----------



## Sylencer (19 Jun 2013)

Thank you gizmo.  I'm surprised if there is a scale from 1-5, Infantry is required a minimum of 4. After all you don't need to be a rocket scientist to get in there.


----------



## dvh1 (19 Jun 2013)

I was in a CFRC today and a recruiter showed me his updated list of trades. According to him each trade is ranked 1 to 5 with the more competitive trades being ranked higher.


----------



## NavComm87 (19 Jun 2013)

Sylencer said:
			
		

> you don't need to be a rocket scientist to get in there.



I'm new here, but what I learned quickly is that there is a lot of competition for positions in the CF. What's more, there are some trades that are more competitive than others - Infantry among them. 

I'll be surprised if you don't get a warning for a comment like that.


----------



## 421_434_226 (19 Jun 2013)

Keep in mind that the 1-5 is a quick reference to see how competitive an individual application is with regards to occupations selected, it is taken from the information on the application, so in other words don't skip any areas. As mentioned earlier Infantry is highly sought after thus a higher requirement, as I have spent some time as a support trade for the Infantry my observations would indicate that anyone who is not "switched on" would be a hurtin' unit.


----------



## Jarnhamar (19 Jun 2013)

Cbbmtt said:
			
		

> The question was not in regards to the interview, nor was it regarding the medical.


Right. The question was _what is this scale_ and _what could this scale be based on._

You answered _That's a question for the recruitment office that gave him a 3._ and  _We wouldn't know which part he didn't well on in his application._.

You don't think someone here can answer what the scale is and what it is based on? He wasn't asking what his friend didn't do well on..


----------



## JM2345 (19 Jun 2013)

Sylencer said:
			
		

> Thank you gizmo.  I'm surprised if there is a scale from 1-5, Infantry is required a minimum of 4. After all you don't need to be a rocket scientist to get in there.



It could be that everyone else who is currently applying, and being selected for processing, for infantry has a 4 or 5 *right now*. If they have 5,000 people applying with 5's and only 500 openings this year, they dont have any reason to process the people with lower than that. 

I had a similar issue where they told me I wasn't competitive enough for the trades I chose, so I was told either increase my competitiveness and reapply/update my application, or pick other trades. I gave them a list of a bunch of other trades and got pushed to the next stage of processing.

Like NavComm87 said, there is a LOT of competition for these positions. Recruiting can afford to be very picky for most positions. I'm sure we have a lot of guys fresh out of high school with good grades, volunteer experience, worked a steady part-time job for the last 2 years , and played on sports teams for throughout school who are applying for infantry.

If your friend doesn't have any volunteering/community involvement type thing on his application and he really wants infantry, that's where I would start! You can usually find local volunteer opportunities in the newspaper, on college/university campus information boards, and Craigslist.


----------



## Tralax (19 Jun 2013)

There's also local cadet corps that you could volunteer for.  In my area we are always looking for adults that want to help out the cadets.  All you really need is to have your local police service do a background check and a vulnerable sector check on you.  This will cost you a nominal fee which will be reimbursed by the cadet corps.  Just touch base with some of them and see if they need volunteers right now.

As a volunteer to a cadet corps you can help with fundraising for the cadets, participate on the support committee, help on FTX's, trips etc.  Plus while doing so you will learn something from the reservists and CIC officers involved with cadets.


----------



## Cbbmtt (20 Jun 2013)

ObedientiaZelum said:
			
		

> Right. The question was _what is this scale_ and _what could this scale be based on._
> 
> You answered _That's a question for the recruitment office that gave him a 3._ and  _We wouldn't know which part he didn't well on in his application._.
> 
> You don't think someone here can answer what the scale is and what it is based on? He wasn't asking what his friend didn't do well on..



The scale is based on the application and the components of the application and how he filled them out, is what I'm getting from these posts. What else would the scale be on seriously? I stated that the recruiter is the one that would be able to tell him the weak parts of the application as to why they received a 3, which would be more helpful for that recruit so that they could work on the weakness' to be more competitive. 

Anything else you would like to add to the post ObedientiaZelum that would assist the poster other than flaming a suggestion?


----------



## Sylencer (20 Jun 2013)

One of the issues with finding out that information is.  The only contact he can get a hold of is his local Recruiting Centre. Which they don't have the information. He has been calling North Bay for days now with no answer.

On another note. He was told to reapply. I'm assuming to do this he needs to cancel his current application and resubmit. Unfortunately he can't get a hold of anyone to cancel it and he can not do it online. He was curious as if he could reapply and then cancel his previous application once he does get in touch. Any thoughts on starting the reapplying now before he officially cancels


----------



## JM2345 (20 Jun 2013)

Sylencer said:
			
		

> One of the issues with finding out that information is.  The only contact he can get a hold of is his local Recruiting Centre. Which they don't have the information. He has been calling North Bay for days now with no answer.
> 
> On another note. He was told to reapply. I'm assuming to do this he needs to cancel his current application and resubmit. Unfortunately he can't get a hold of anyone to cancel it and he can not do it online. He was curious as if he could reapply and then cancel his previous application once he does get in touch. Any thoughts on starting the reapplying now before he officially cancels



Tell him to email Jobs@forces.ca and ask for more information. They should have been the ones to email him about the status of his application. They seem to usually respond within 3 business days so if he emails today he should have an answer monday or tuesday hopefully. 

Just a simple email like "Hello, my name is XXX and I applied for an infantry job and I got some confusing information from my local recruiting center and need some help to understand if I should re-apply or what is the status of my application. Could you please let me know if I currently don't qualify to be processed for infantry, and also give me some advice on what sections of my application I should work on improving to be more competitive? Thank you for your time."

They will need to include: Full name; Date of birth; Full address; Postal code in their email to confirm their identity. 

At the recruiting stages, email seems to be the best way to get a hold of anyone, and this forces.ca email is great for getting information like you are seeking.
Postal code; and


----------



## Jarnhamar (20 Jun 2013)

Cbbmtt said:
			
		

> Anything else you would like to add to the post ObedientiaZelum that would assist the poster other than flaming a suggestion?



Sorry for singling you out and coming down on you for your post.  I probably took it out of context, to me it looked like you weren't answering his question but it's probably semantics.
The point I inelegantly was trying to make is that the recruiting forum has a considerable amount of examples of recruits trying to help applicants and recruits.
Good natured as they may be you'll see there is a penchant towards incorrect information as much as there is accurate- which may ultimately set someone back even more.



I'm not sure how effective this whole 1-5 scale thing is.

Fitness wise, we're clearly accepting recruits who are not only unfit but *so* unfit they require special platoons to try and help them meet what's probably the lowest fitness standard in NATO.
I hear volunteer work a lot but what does that really mean? How many people actually do volunteer work to help others for the sake of helping opposed to doing X hours of volunteer work in order to make their resume look good.
If recruiting isn't really accepting applicants with just grade 10 anymore then we should consider raising the standard to highschool graduated, if anything then to just set applicants up for success and reflect the new norm.

I'm probably getting off topic though  :nod:


----------



## Sylencer (21 Jun 2013)

Thank  you everyone.   I have passed the information and he has emailed them today  as well as looking into volunteering.
As for my assumption about the scale. It seems more likely that it is based on a competitive level like suggested instead of an intelligence level.  

And to NavComm87.   When doing your aptitude test and the different standards you need to be accepted for certain trades, Infantry is not up there with AVN or AVS etc etc.   With regards to my comment about them not being rocket scientists. This comes from personal experience. Anyone that is in infantry can tell you they probably know one or two guys that don't quite seem like they could solve a rubik cube.  Isn't that right ObedientiaZelum.


----------



## Jarnhamar (21 Jun 2013)

You should leave_ solving_ a rubik's cube up to officers.

You'll be better served by concerning  yourself with _how many_ you can carry and how hard you can hit evil doers with one in your hand


----------



## The_Falcon (21 Jun 2013)

What the score is and its use has actually been discussed on this forum, if anyone had actually taken the time to search instead of just presuming knowledge they don't have.  I know for a fact this information is on this forum, because I made the posts myself, when I was working in recruiting.


----------



## Sylencer (21 Jun 2013)

Thank you. Don't suppose you coulda attatched a link to that eh


----------



## DAA (24 Jun 2013)

Sylencer said:
			
		

> Hello. Recently someone i know applied for the Canadian Forces. He applied for Infantry.  After about 60 days of waiting he called his local recruiting centre. They innititally told him they didn't recieve his file yet and they looked into another database. After which he was then told that he will have to reapply for the military because he only rated a 3 out of 5 on a scale and he needed to reach a 4 for infantry.
> 
> My only question is what is this scale, and if he never even made it passed the online application, what could this scale be based on.   Quick background on him is extremely fit, and has his GED.



Applying to the Forces is no different than applying for any other job, I can't say it any differently!  It is incumbent upon yourself to submit the "best" possible application that you can.  The "scale" is based on the application which is submitted.  So if this person you know took 10 minutes of their time to complete the application, then they probably never put forth their best submission.  Hence, the end result.

So to answer your question of "What is this scale?"  The scale is based on each and every part of the employment application.  Example, Part F - "During the past 5 years, select in years your total amount of work experience, include full and part-time, seasonal, temporary and volunteer work?"  So if an applicant chose "None" on the application, then they would get "ZERO", exactly the same type of scoring that would/is used by the private sector and or other government agencies when screening applicants.

If you are serious about applying to the CF, then you should be downloading a paper application, filling it out "off line", reviewing it and once you are satisfied that you are ready to present your "best" self, then go online and do the application.

What is generally missing in all of this, is that people fail to understand that they are appying for a "job" and that "job" just so happens to be with the CF.  The CF is no different than any other employer.

Would you walk into any local company looking to hire and take 10 minutes to throw down your name and phone number?  And then expect to get hired?


----------



## NavComm87 (25 Jun 2013)

DAA said:
			
		

> Applying to the Forces is no different than applying for any other job, I can't say it any differently!  It is incumbent upon yourself to submit the "best" possible application that you can.  The "scale" is based on the application which is submitted.  So if this person you know took 10 minutes of their time to complete the application, then they probably never put forth their best submission.  Hence, the end result.
> 
> So to answer your question of "What is this scale?"  The scale is based on each and every part of the employment application.  Example, Part F - "During the past 5 years, select in years your total amount of work experience, include full and part-time, seasonal, temporary and volunteer work?"  So if an applicant chose "None" on the application, then they would get "ZERO", exactly the same type of scoring that would/is used by the private sector and or other government agencies when screening applicants.
> 
> ...



 :goodpost:


----------

