I GOT A CALL FOR the NOAB" Threads

[alejo]

Maybe part of the reason that they did phone interviews was because of those issues you mention with the budget. To be honest I was also surprised they were doing it this way, and to be honest I would have preferred going to an actual NOAB in Victoria or Halifax. But who knows, maybe they have more positions than their current budget for NOAB permits, and that's why they might be taking this route in the future.

This week has been the longest in my life, I really want to know whether I made it into the Navy or not. I am a little worried because I felt that my interview did not go as I would have wanted. But it was probably the fact that it was too short that is really scaring me. At least I was honest in all my answers, so here I am hoping to get offered one of those available positions.

By the way guysletsdoit, this NOAB was held because there were openings for both MSE and NCSE. There were no MARS applicants that were called from what I could tell, but I could be wrong.
Anyway, thanks for the info, hope I can make it for the January BMOQ as well.

 

[SK]

I was in at the CFRC last week and was told that there has not been a date set for the next NOAB, all they knew was it will be sometime in the new year. 

 

[Chang]

so any of you phone NOAB candidates got good news to share?  :nod:

 

[Mattl86]

No, no call yet.  They said a week or two, and the way things seem to be this year that might mean three.  I am usually a pretty patient person but this wait is absolutely murdering me.  Still got my fingers crossed.

 

[kartik]

As mentioned earlier, BMOQ starts at St Jean on January 17th 2011, Flying out on Jan 15th 2011 from Edmonton. Just about 5 weeks now and its so overwhelming to close the house, snow removal contracts, shutting utilities, power of attorney and all those stuff.

BTW does anyone know how the living quarters are at St Jean

-K

 

[alejo]

No new for me either. I am not that patient to be honest, so I have called my file manager twice already. She told me that there are no results from the phone NOAB yet.

I hope to get some good news this coming week. I was really hoping to make it for the January BMOQ, but if not, then I guess that will give me some more time to prepare.

Let's keep our fingers crossed! I'll post as soon as I get some news!

Alejo

 

[alejo]

Today I received great news!!!

I have been accepted for NCSE, and I start my basic training on January 17th at St-Jean-sur-Richelieu.

I can't express how happy I am!!!

I hope that everyone that had the phone NOAB has the same great news as I do, and look forward to meeting many of you in January.

I have my swearing in ceremony on January 6th, here in Ottawa at the RC.

Good luck to the rest of the applicants!!

Alejandro

 

[MMSS]

Congratulations, soon-to-be Naval Cadet.

 

[alejo]

Thank you very much sir!

I'm wondering how many of us passed this short version of NOAB.

 

[MMSS]

Thank you very much sir!

Thanks but don't 'sir' me yet. You're well ahead of me on this journey although I hope to be there soon.

 

[Mattl86]

Got my call today.  After almost nine months I'm finally in.  Swearing in the 7th and starting BMOQ the 17th of January.  I am extremely happy of course, and a little freaked out at having only a month to get ready.  But hey, sitting around waiting was getting pretty boring, so at lest I've got something to focus on now.

Not sure what they really got out of the phone NOAB interview to be honest.  I think they had already made up their minds beforehand that I was in based on my CFAT score.  Probably just wanted to make sure I sounded coherent and sane, haha.

Looking forward to seeing Alejo and any others from this board there!

 

[kartik]

Congratulations to "phoney" cadets!!!!

Actually, I was thinking that if they made the phone interviews a trend instead of actual NOAB, they "may" not be getting right matches. I understand they weigh against cost and justification but I heard my a few people that I am in contact with after Oct NOAB that they were selected but eventually turned the offer down. In fact when they are conducting NOAB they need to be more diligent in selecting candidates for NOAB. This is what happens. I dont know why but it seems CF is in love with Engineers. The moment they find an engineer application, they just jump in. I really dont understand this attitude. I know engineers earn better in civilian world but even those who apply may not have proper attitude to continue. I guess some time down the line with CF I want to opt for training and then conducting these types of research so we have proper candidates go to NOAB and not have phone interviews. In fact Matt and Alejo missed the excitement even after staying focussed thats sad
In my opinion
-K

 

[alejo]

Great news Matt. Whereabouts are you coming from?
I also think that they made the selections before hand, and just wanted to make sure we had some idea of what we were getting ourselves into

And I agree with guysletsdoit. I wish I had the opportunity to go to a proper NOAB, even though I have have visited Naval bases in the past, which gave me the security to know that it was what I wanted.
But also, I think no other trade has anything like an NOAB, and I'm pretty sure they can only accommodate a certain number of people. That doesn't help with the fact that the trade is in high demand, so they probably have more positions than what they get for their budget on NOABs.

And what you are saying about people turning offer downs makes sense with the last minutes spots that opened. In any case I do not think you will get a real experience until you are doing the Naval training itself, so it won't be until that time that many will realize they made the right choice. That's why it's important to research the trades, and make sure you know what you are getting yourself into.

In any case, I'm sure there were some more job offers besides Matt's and mine, but most people probably won't post the results.  I'm glad that some of us got the chance to make it before the new fiscal year, even though some of us probably missed the last NOAB, due to a lack of spots, or because our applications did not get in on time.

 

[kartik]

Hey,

The only intention of my post on NOAB was to make sure they really have people who can make a successdul career in Navy be given the chance of NOAB as compared to people who are mostly likely to reject the offer. I guess this can be easily determined when one goes for an interview with an officer at the Recruitment Office, the initial interview. If that officer is given proper psychological training and give proper questions, he can screen out candidates from NOAB in the initial phase there by letting eligible people go to NOAB. Eventually these people reject the offer. Secondly, not all have chance to see the base. So its overall an experience to remember and cherish.

Anyways now that I am joining the Navy, I wil lmake the "difference". Its just a joke guys!!! Cheers

-K

 

[Mattl86]

I dont know why but it seems CF is in love with Engineers. The moment they find an engineer application, they just jump in. I really dont understand this attitude.

It's pretty simple.  To succeed in the forces you need to be able to handle a lot of stress and deal with demanding deadlines and workloads.  An engineering degree is one of the more stressful and demanding degrees a person can obtain.  There is no guarentees with any degree, but engineering has to be as good a starting platform as any.  Also, from what I've heard, we engineers tend to rock the CFAT.  That's 15/90 points toward our meritt scores right there, combined with the higher score for eduucation gives a pretty big score advantage.  And really, the name of the job is NCS Engineer after all.  Seems logical preference would be given to B. Eng's.

I agree it's nice to go on the full NOAB though.  But then, my whole reason for wanting to be on one was to get an offer.  Now that that's happened the whole NOAB thing is sort of trivial.

Hope to see you in January. 

 

[alejo]

Couldn't have said it better Matt. Even though I don't have an Eng. degree  >, but a Bachelor of Science in Math, which is equally or harder than most Engineering degrees I would say!  ;D

 

[gcclarke]

I dont know why but it seems CF is in love with Engineers. The moment they find an engineer application, they just jump in. I really dont understand this attitude. I know engineers earn better in civilian world but even those who apply may not have proper attitude to continue. I guess some time down the line with CF I want to opt for training and then conducting these types of research so we have proper candidates go to NOAB and not have phone interviews.

For NCSEOs, our current manning level of trained personnel is at 80.5% of the number of positions that we are trying to fill. Of all the officer trades, this is the 4th lowest, with only Health Services Officer, Pharmacist, and Social Worker doing worse. And of course, those are relatively small trades; The total number of people we're "missing" is 50% more than the total those three trades are "missing".

MSE is doing a bit better; better than MARS actually (88% and 85% respectively), but of course, traditionally it has just been harder to recruit qualified candidates for both the engineering trades. MARS generally doesn't have too much of a problem getting people in the door, their issues are the high number of people who wash out in training, or release soon after they are trained up.

So yeah, that's why the Navy seem to have such an obsession with engineers. As for engineers having "the proper attitude", well, to be frank, our job is not to convince a section to follow us when we storm a hill. There are many different leadership styles. Some styles that wouldn't work for, for example, our MARS brethren will be perfectly suitable for a Naval Technical Officer. Many styles that would work for our MARS brethren wouldn't work as well for us. And yes, to an extent, with being as short as we are, we have to take what'll do the job. I'm not saying that we're in the pratice of hiring incompetents, but we cannot really afford to set the bar quite as high as we might otherwise were we at full manning levels.

 

[theSeaDog]

It's pretty simple.  To succeed in the forces you need to be able to handle a lot of stress and deal with demanding deadlines and workloads.  An engineering degree is one of the more stressful and demanding degrees a person can obtain.

I thought I'd chime in here. It's pretty arrogant to believe it's pretty simple. The NOAB is not just to assess if you will make a good candidate for the Navy but to find if the Navy will be good for you. It sounds flaky but this is one of the most important aspects of the NOAB. Sure you might be able to handle the stresses of deadlines and workloads, but what about the stresses on your family life, time away, etc. It's easy, from the outside, to say that it'd be no problem with you but if you're on an extended ship deployment you get something like 24 minutes a WEEK of phone time to talk to your family, kids, significant other. There is internet access but it's via a shared sat uplink so bandwidth is extremely limited. There's all kinds of information that you only get at the NOAB.
It's a free for all to ask any of the serving members questions about the lifestyle. The guys serving in the sandbox can have better contact with family than the guys in the tub.

I agree it's nice to go on the full NOAB though.  But then, my whole reason for wanting to be on one was to get an offer.  Now that that's happened the whole NOAB thing is sort of trivial.

Hope to see you in January. 

It was a week of unfettered access to information. The NOAB is there to give you an honest assessment of the Navy life. The navy suffers pretty high attrition rates because of the uniqueness of the job.

 

[aesop081]

To succeed in the forces you need ............

Are you basing that on your extensive CF experience ?

An engineering degree is one of the more stressful and demanding degrees a person can obtain. 

Be that as it may, you have no idea the stress you will face in the CF and having obtained a engineering degree is no indication of how successful you will be. I have seen enough people with high-tech degrees who couldnt tie their own shoes.......

 

[Chang]

Be that as it may, you have no idea the stress you will face in the CF and having obtained a engineering degree is no indication of how successful you will be. I have seen enough people with high-tech degrees who couldnt tie their own shoes.......

Agreed. My BMQ/SQ felt more stressful mentally then my engineering degree IMO. It's a completely different type of stress.

Congrats on the offer and good luck on your courses guys!