Please have mercy on my post, it may not be unique, but my journey in Reserve UPT has been frought with a comedy of errors. I have been working diligently for the last three and half years to get an Air Force Reserve pilot slot. However, my problems seem to have been with my officer accession recruiters. I知 currently on my third. It may have to do with my location, Pacific Northwest. First two recruiters were located at Travis AFB, and within the last two weeks I was informed to work with a third at McChord, AFB.
First recruiter initially was fairly proactive, I finished MEPS physical, AFOQT, TBAS/PCSM. But after that, my calls went to voicemail, so called the Air Force Reserve recruiting line, to see if an alternate was available, they indicated no, and that I continue to keep in contact with the recruiter. I was finally able to reach the recruiter, who then stated that no pilot positions were available for the next year to year and a half, thus I was to wait, and then reapply. I keep in contact with this recruiter for the next couple months.
I then receive notification that a new recruiter (after a year of waiting) has taken place of my old recruiter. Recruiter meets me indicates there are tons of positions available for pilots around McChord; I知 ecstatic. We continue on with paper work, resumes, cover letters, background, etc. Recruiter says in the next couple weeks, he値l line up interviews with the local units. I don稚 hear word after a couple weeks, and so I call, leave voice messages and emails with no response back. Stuck, the recruiting site advisors say this recruiter is still active in this role; and provide no futher help.
After nine months, finally a couple weeks ago, I receive notification that a new recruiter has taken place of the recruiter I worked with before. The new person indicates, the former recruiter stated that I joined the Air National Guard; which I never did nor did I plan on. I am devastated, a total year wasted, and now I知 age critical.
My question is:
What do I do now? The newest recruiter has many applicants, and I知 age critical. I spoke with a former Active Air Force pilot, and he said go to the higher ups in charge of Reserve UPT hiring, but I have no idea who those folks are. Any information is greatly appreciated. I'm up for any response general or private.
Have:
B.S. in Aviation / engineering from a good university.
Working on CFI ticket
TBAS/PCSM
AFOQT
MEPS physical
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It's been a while since I've been a reservist, so take this for what it's worth.
Stop screwing around and wasting your time with a recruiter. They don't care about you. They need to fill a quota, and have no idea about your unique situation and age requirement. If you continue down this path, your window will close and you'll be SOL.
Go find a reserve unit, or more than one that fits your geographical desires. Find someone in charge (O-5 or above). Let them know your background and accomplishments, goals, intentions, etc. That person will know who to go to to get the ball rolling.
I'm no expert on this, but you've wasted too much time already - a year? Get moving.
__________________
The man who lives on hope will die fasting.
Not sure where you are, but have you spoken directly with a squadron ops officer? He (or she) is a full-timer, should know the local recruiters and get things moving. I've gotten people from the street to UPT in less than a year, in one case a lot less. But you need to find a squadron commander or ops officer to push your case. You have a lot of the bureaucratic stuff done, make a phone call to the Travis or McChord flying squadrons, explain what you have done so far and try to get an appointment to see them.
Recruiters have little incentive to push thru UPT candidates, unless it is a personal goal, it is difficult, takes time and is only one person when they have quotas to fill.
There have been issues in the past year with the officer accession process and the one and only reserve officer recruiter for the west coast. McChord just got a reserve officer recruiter in the last couple of weeks. If you are near McChord you should give her a call. In addition, call the three reserve flying squadrons at McChord individually. Ask for the chief pilot, they handle UPT hiring. (This applies to the Reserve at McChord--other bases/squadrons may handle things differently.) See if they are willing to talk to you in person (they like seeing that kind of initiative.) As for your age, the sooner you get going on this, the better. Bottom line--act quickly and involve BOTH the recruiter and squadron.
It's on you to do the legwork and get out and find a unit to hire you. You can't rely on an E-7 that wears assless leather chaps on his Harley to take care of your paperwork. It's your career. It's on you to get in touch with units and rush, and get hired!
My unit has UPT wannabes calling in all the time, hanging out, trying to get their foot in the door. You won't get far when the hiring chief gets a call from a recruiter saying he has someone who is interested in getting a slot. If you were really interested, you'd have done the work and gotten a hold of the hiring chief yourself. Technique only.
Once you get hired, it's a different story. You can have an O-5 from your squadron call your recruiter to put a boot in his ass to get the paperwork train rolling. My recruiter may have enjoyed that, considering the number of calls it took.
It's worth the effort. It's worth the hard work. Good luck.
It's on you to do the legwork and get out and find a unit to hire you. You can't rely on an E-7 that wears assless leather chaps on his Harley to take care of your paperwork. It's your career. It's on you to get in touch with units and rush, and get hired!
My unit has UPT wannabes calling in all the time, hanging out, trying to get their foot in the door. You won't get far when the hiring chief gets a call from a recruiter saying he has someone who is interested in getting a slot. If you were really interested, you'd have done the work and gotten a hold of the hiring chief yourself. Technique only.
Once you get hired, it's a different story. You can have an O-5 from your squadron call your recruiter to put a boot in his ass to get the paperwork train rolling. My recruiter may have enjoyed that, considering the number of calls it took.
It's worth the effort. It's worth the hard work. Good luck.
This. Go to the UNITS first. Find out when they are having hiring boards.
baseops.com and its forum is a good place to start. You need to take more control of this. Especially if your're age critical.
How old are you btw?
It's obviously been said before, but I've (very recently) been dealing with the same situation as you. Played phone tag with every recruiter within a 100-mile radius trying to find units, take tests, and on and on. I had recruiters tell me I was too old, I had to enlist first, and that they could only give me the AFOQT if I was applying to their unit.
I'm 27 so I started sweating and decided to change strategies. Picked a platform, then a unit, called and asked to speak to the chief pilot and found out about their board dates. I applied and got accepted.
Get on the internet (baseops' guard reserve jobs page is pretty good but by no means exhaustive), the phone, or pound pavement. Forget the recruiter! You WILL waste more precious time doing that. Just find 10 of 15 units you could do 20 with, narrow it down to future boards and start applying. Go meet people in charge of the boards! Now that I've been accepted, the recruiter for the unit calls me and tells me what paperwork he needs me to fill out.
__________________
The bulk of mankind is as well equipped for flying as thinking. - Jonathon Swift
I never dealt w a recruiter until I actually got selected by my squadron. THEN a recruiter was assigned to process my paperwork, schedule me for MEPS and flying class 1 - the stuff a candidate can't do on his own. (and yes they kind of suck and screwed me around a bit.) Before that, I made all my own test appts, cold called units directly, (call the general squadron number and ask for the chief pilot, get shuffled thru 5 different people but when you do finally get to the chief pilot they were always really nice and willing to talk to me), etc. Takes a lot more work on your part to be proactive as opposed to active duty slots but honestly there is zero need for a recruiter. I'm guessing you somehow didn't know that's how it works in the guard/reserve world??
I will echo what those before me have already said. I wasted some time with a recruiter, which I actually needed since he got me into MEPS for the AFOQT, however I was able to walk into a local ROTC det. and take the TBAS on my own. Other than that I sought squadrons out on my own. It was basically just months and months of playing phone tag leading up to 7 or so interviews in one summer. I got hired, and only then did they send me down to see the recruiter at the unit where I got picked up.
If you're in OH, IN or MI you can try calling the reserve officer accessions recruiter, he actually did know a lot about getting pilots and navs in, but due to his workload and travel requirements will not be able to move you anywhere near as fast as you can yourself, but again he was very useful in getting the AFOQT done, and giving me list of phone numbers to every reserve flying squadron in the country, good stuff even though I decided to fly with the guard.
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