RAF

[okgo]

Evening chaps,

My brother is looking for some opinions about life in the RAF( I would be interested to hear them too), he is just finishing his A-levels now. And is not sure what he wants to do and has been looking at the RAF over the army and the navy as the pay tends to be better and he has more of an interest in the plane side of things.

He was thinking about doing something communications of IT related, was just wondering what peopels views were on it as an organisation ect?

Do you come out the other end employable?

Anything would be good, I found a short thread on it, but really was looking to get a full set of views

Cheers

[okgo]

BUMP for people that are awake

[anonymous-user]

Try the UKAR forums or PPrune forums.

They might have some opinions & advice there.

[Munter]

Has he thought about Air Traffic Control? http://natscareers.co.uk/

Pays well. Good retirement age. Work with planes and computers and coms. Bit of stress. But less likely to be sent to a war zone as a stationary target.

Edited by Munter on Friday 28th November 10:10

[speed_monkey]

Ex sumpy (propulsions technician) in the RAF.

It wasn't for me, more of a job than a career/ lifestyle, but may have been the where I was posted (RAF Lyneham).

Got to see some great places and make some awesome mates, but just wasn't for me, hence me joining the Royal Marines soon

The fitness test is pitiful, but I believe they are clamping down on it, introducing the BFT (battle fitness test) and things.

The accomodation is good, if you manage to get a "super block" but anything other than that can be a bit dire.

The food is great by the way, especially now they are using MOD chefs instead of civvy chefs.

Feel free to fire any questions my way bud

[JJCW]

is he thinking officer? ive been through the application process recently, so if he has any questions on that feel free to email them over.

JJCW

[okgo]

Munter said:

Has he thought about Air Traffic Control? http://natscareers.co.uk/

Pays well. Good retirement age. Work with planes and computers and coms. Bit of stress. But less likely to be sent to a war zone as a stationary target.

Edited by Munter on Friday 28th November 10:10

Hmmm, friends dad is HR director at NATS, how convenient..

Keep em coming guys, I will chat to him and see if there is any specific info he wants

[okgo]

JJCW said:

is he thinking officer? ive been through the application process recently, so if he has any questions on that feel free to email them over.

JJCW

No, he will be looking at ICT specialist, linguist or one of the chaps that sits in the back of the nimrod. WSO I think.
I'll be honest it is of interest to me too, job is unsecured at the mo, I could not get into the marines due to having past hernia. My mate is a plane mechanic, and he loves it..

[speed_monkey]

okgo said:

JJCW said:

is he thinking officer? ive been through the application process recently, so if he has any questions on that feel free to email them over.

JJCW

No, he will be looking at ICT specialist, linguist or one of the chaps that sits in the back of the nimrod. WSO I think.
I'll be honest it is of interest to me too, job is unsecured at the mo, I could not get into the marines due to having past hernia. My mate is a plane mechanic, and he loves it..

Marines and RAF are a completely different kettle of fish..... long and short of my story is.......

Father was RAF through and through and didnt want to see me join the RMC ("no son of mine is going to be cannon fodder" etc etc) fking wker prick tt.......... hate him he kinda coerced me down the RAF route but now I am taking the bull by its horns and doing whta I want to do.

I wouldn't worry too much about the hernia, I had a hernia as a baby and hasn't given me any drama (touch wood)

[Cara Van Man]

speed_monkey said:

I wouldn't worry too much about the hernia, hasn't given me any drama (touch wood)

Be careful. Touching wood may aggravate it.

[wadgebeast]

Pay across all 3 services is exactly the bloody same! An artificer in the Navy is the same job as a technician in the RAF or their equivalent in the Army Air Corps and are therefore paid the same.

Navy has an IT specialisation, but he'd need a degree in ICT and would join the IS branch (information support), predominantly landbased, but with 5 seagoing jobs. There is a CIS branch (comms and information support) for ratings, but it's predominantly the comms side.

[okgo]

They won't let me in as I have had two and I am 21.

[speed_monkey]

Cara Van Man said:

speed_monkey said:

I wouldn't worry too much about the hernia, hasn't given me any drama (touch wood)

Be careful. Touching wood may aggravate it.

Too late its been aggravated, should I rub it better???

[Cara Van Man]

speed_monkey said:

Cara Van Man said:

speed_monkey said:

I wouldn't worry too much about the hernia, hasn't given me any drama (touch wood)

Be careful. Touching wood may aggravate it.

Too late its been aggravated, should I rub it better???

[speed_monkey]

okgo said:

They won't let me in as I have had two and I am 21.

strange, is that due to heavy lifting or some kind of condition???

[JJCW]

okgo said:

JJCW said:

is he thinking officer? ive been through the application process recently, so if he has any questions on that feel free to email them over.

JJCW

No, he will be looking at ICT specialist, linguist or one of the chaps that sits in the back of the nimrod. WSO I think.
I'll be honest it is of interest to me too, job is unsecured at the mo, I could not get into the marines due to having past hernia. My mate is a plane mechanic, and he loves it..

I believe linguist and WSO do the same application tests etc as the officers, as they are aircrew.

[Extra 300 Driver]

JJCW said:

okgo said:

JJCW said:

is he thinking officer? ive been through the application process recently, so if he has any questions on that feel free to email them over.

JJCW

No, he will be looking at ICT specialist, linguist or one of the chaps that sits in the back of the nimrod. WSO I think.
I'll be honest it is of interest to me too, job is unsecured at the mo, I could not get into the marines due to having past hernia. My mate is a plane mechanic, and he loves it..

I believe linguist and WSO do the same application tests etc as the officers, as they are aircrew.

Corret, they are NCO Aircrew. Almost the same IOT course at Cranwell.

[okgo]

JJCW said:

okgo said:

JJCW said:

is he thinking officer? ive been through the application process recently, so if he has any questions on that feel free to email them over.

JJCW

No, he will be looking at ICT specialist, linguist or one of the chaps that sits in the back of the nimrod. WSO I think.
I'll be honest it is of interest to me too, job is unsecured at the mo, I could not get into the marines due to having past hernia. My mate is a plane mechanic, and he loves it..

I believe linguist and WSO do the same application tests etc as the officers, as they are aircrew.

Yes they are the same pay class as officer roles £33k odd.
And for what I have seen the RAF has far better rates of pay available to GSCE joiners than the other two forces..

What are the selection processes like?

What is the minimum time you can serve?

Would I benefit from having some life exp? (brother is only young so not applicable for him)

[JJCW]

okgo said:

JJCW said:

okgo said:

JJCW said:

is he thinking officer? ive been through the application process recently, so if he has any questions on that feel free to email them over.

JJCW

No, he will be looking at ICT specialist, linguist or one of the chaps that sits in the back of the nimrod. WSO I think.
I'll be honest it is of interest to me too, job is unsecured at the mo, I could not get into the marines due to having past hernia. My mate is a plane mechanic, and he loves it..

I believe linguist and WSO do the same application tests etc as the officers, as they are aircrew.

Yes they are the same pay class as officer roles £33k odd.
And for what I have seen the RAF has far better rates of pay available to GSCE joiners than the other two forces..

What are the selection processes like?

What is the minimum time you can serve?

Would I benefit from having some life exp? (brother is only young so not applicable for him)

Full process up until OASC took me a while, if you want a proper run down of what i all was i'll be happy to email ya it, can't be bothered to write it all out on a public forum!

edit: my OASC was July this year, so im fairly up to date.

Edited by JJCW on Friday 28th November 10:42

[speed_monkey]

okgo said:

JJCW said:

okgo said:

JJCW said:

is he thinking officer? ive been through the application process recently, so if he has any questions on that feel free to email them over.

JJCW

No, he will be looking at ICT specialist, linguist or one of the chaps that sits in the back of the nimrod. WSO I think.
I'll be honest it is of interest to me too, job is unsecured at the mo, I could not get into the marines due to having past hernia. My mate is a plane mechanic, and he loves it..

I believe linguist and WSO do the same application tests etc as the officers, as they are aircrew.

Yes they are the same pay class as officer roles £33k odd.
And for what I have seen the RAF has far better rates of pay available to GSCE joiners than the other two forces..

What are the selection processes like?

What is the minimum time you can serve?

Would I benefit from having some life exp? (brother is only young so not applicable for him)

I would say joining at an older age is HIGHLY recommended mate. I joined at 16 and when you see all your mates out on civvy street doing what 16 year olds do while your being forced to run up a fking steep hill at Halton can be a bit disheartening.