Recent content by VanIslander

Any and everything helps. Get to know the people at the units you want to get posted to. Officers, MWOs, Sgts, whoever.

Networking. There's a cliché that gets repeated a lot, and it's that You Are Your Own Career Manager™. A strong file will only take you so far.

Very few AERE people do design and modelling. Perhaps if you get posted to ATESS, or a specific subsection within DTAES, you might. Lab work, not so much.  We do test and evaluation, but we aren't testing material properties. The test and eval conducted in the air force is to assess technical...

"The file" is your application file and as per the AETE intranet site, consists of: A letter substantiating your interest in applying to be an evaluator; A letter of recommendation from your Commanding Officer; A copy of your university transcripts. Candidates must hold a baccalaureate degree...

I've seen several COTs caused by Second Lieutenants failing their (air force) trade courses, so unless the army has its own no fail policy, this is hyperbole.

It's mostly on-job training. You'll shadow technicians at the Cpl or MCpl level, and then at the more senior level.  You should do a rotation through first line facilities as well as second line facilities if they're available at your wing. We did a tour of aerospace industry and DND offices in...

The interview is rather generic, or was when I went through.  It's not technical. Depends on your definition of "hard core engineering".  Technical jobs exist at ATESS, AETE, and DAEPM but are a minority. The vast majority.

Looks like I misinterpreted. My mistake.

I believe that any suitable degree qualifies the applicant, not specifically a degree from RMC. If my reply seems harsh, it is because you appear to be making a common mistake, which is believing that RMC and/or its graduates are special or better than others. RMC is just another university...

What makes you think PSE312 or any other RMC course is relevant, at all, to being an officer?

You're welcome. Best of luck with the selection process.

You write your name and service number on a little piece of fabric tape and stitch that on, so that you can find your stuff if you do laundry in bulk, etc.  You're not going to be stitching individual letters. No, it doesn't look good.

Well, that all depends on which courses we're talking about. DLN[1] online courses (CAFJOD[2], AFOD[3], many intro-level courses) are a cinch as all you need to do, typically, is to either sign up yourself or ask your unit's ETO[4] to have you loaded onto the course with your boss's blessing if...

My pleasure. Quick caveat:  If you are interested in Space, please do yourself a favour and talk to a CELE about the space side of their trade, because those folks are heavily involved as well, but in different areas.  SATCOM, for example, is a core CELE competency whereas, say, orbit selection...

I can only speak to what it's like in AERE, but your training will look like this: -BMOQ (16 weeks IIRC) -AERE Prep Phases 1 and 2 (aka APP1 and APP2, basically On-Job Training, length depends on a lot of factors) -AOBC, the AERE Officer Basic Course, completion of which means you are now a...