Forces FAQ (including AFCO locator &amp; useful phone numbers)

In the midst of updating this seeing as a lot is from 2004/2005.

This is gold!!

Hi guys and girls.

As you may have gathered I had my filter on the 29th and passed - and I thought I’d do a post with some more questions and ideas for anyone going for their filter soon.

Basically, just try and relax. Everyone told me this, and I didn’t do it – and was told at the end of the interview I needed to be more confident seen as I knew “what I was talking about” so there’s no need to be nervous.

Also, don’t walk in and forget if you were offered a chair like me – it can lead to silly situations.

Anyway, best of luck to anyone going soon. Relax, be yourself, don’t cry in front of them and try to be confident.

Here are most of the questions I got. I've missed a few out - can't remember them all.

What is your date of birth?
Where were you born?
Where do you live?
How long have you lived there?
What do you think of your current family circumstances?
I see you got 5 A’s at GCSE, 2 B’s and 2C’s, how do you feel about those results?
You got a triple Distinction in your BTEC, how do you feel about those results?
What school were you at when you were 11 years of age? (this caught me off guard actually, I couldn't think what "year" this was!)
What responsibilities did you have at school?
What clubs did you join at school?
What travel opportunity did you have with school?
What connection through the military, such as ATC did you have through the school?
What sport clubs did you join at school?
What opportunity did you have for Duke of Edinburgh?
What if any, leadership roles did you have during this time?
Have we missed any gaps in your school career?
What travel have you done outside of school?
--- ok, where have you been?
What sport did you do outside of school?
What responsibility did you have with that?
What if any, leadership roles did you have during this time?
Have we missed any gaps in your life outside of school?
What is your employment history?
What responsibility did you have?
Are you starting University this year?
How do you feel about moving from your family?
Are you in a relationship?
How does she feel about your joining the RAF?
How do your parents feel about joining the RAF?
Why do you want to join the RAF?
Why do you want to be a pilot?
What is the role of a pilot?
How long have you wanted to be a pilot?
If you get accepted into the RAF, where will your training start, and what is it?
What is IOT’s aim?
What will be your greatest challenge on IOT?
If you are accepted as a pilot, where will your training start?
Where is EFT done?
How many hours is that?
Ok...you are streamed rotary. Now what?
Where is that?
How many hours?
How long does the course take?
This was repeated for Fixed Wing, and then Fast Jet, both in similar detail.
What fixed wing aircraft do we operate?
What fast jet aircraft do we operate?
What rotary aircraft do we operate?
Can you tell me where that’s based?
What other RAF bases in this country can you think of? (got about 20 before she stopped me).
What new aircraft are the RAF getting?
Where does the RAF have permanent bases overseas?
What deployments are we currently on?
Why are we there?
How do you feel about going to war?
How do you feel about going into a battle situation?
Given the fact you are potentially and probably going to drop a bomb, or be a part of someone’s death in some way, what is your attitude to warfare?
What alliances are we part of?
When was NATO formed?
How many countries are currently in NATO?
And down to the standard questions.
We realise that in this day and age many of are younger applicants may have had some experience with drugs. What if any contact have you had with drugs?
Have you ever used drugs yourself?
We operate a random drugs testing program in the RAF how do you feel about that?
Do you feel that infringes on peoples privacy?
What are your views on drug taking within the armed forces?
What are you view on drug taking in the general population?
Have you ever faced a criminal conviction/ had a/ have a outstanding court order on you etc etc.?
Do you have any questions for me?

Hope this helps.

Good luck guys, QM. :smile:

Reply 25

Stevo the Victorious

Also, BH's catalogue of RAF information is enough to fill a manual!! Fantastic stuff :biggrin:

I'm off to measure myself against the Pilot criteria -- wish me luck!! :p:

I have several binders, with about 500 pages of information about the RAF, the selection procedure, IOT, etc in each.

I should sell them on ebay or something :wink:

Reply 26

mike1984

I have seen that a few people have failed their filter interview AFCO so here is what I got if anyone wants any help.

Tips
1) Don't talk in monotone all the time try and express your personality a little bit. ( My officer said try and express a bit of light humor)
2) Don't Fidget during the interview
3) If you don't know an answer just say you don't know the answer. Don't try making something up because remember they know a lot more about the subject than you.
4) be confident.
5) Try sell yourself as much as you can, if you think its relevant then say it.

My questions:

What is your date of birth?
Where were you born?
Where do you live?
How long have you lived there?
What do you think of your current family circumstances?
What school were you at when you were 11 years of age?
What did you think of your GCSE Grades?
What responsibilities did you have at school?
What clubs did you join at school?
What travel opportunity did you have with school?
What sport clubs did you join at school?
What opportunity did you have for Duke of Edinburgh?
What if any, leadership roles did you have during this time?
Have we missed any gaps in your school career?
What travel have you done outside of school?
What sport did you do outside of school?
What responsibility did you have with that?
What if any, leadership roles did you have during this time?
Have we missed any gaps in your life outside of school?
What is your employment history?
What responsibility did you have?
How do you feel about moving from your family?
Are you in a relationship?
How does she feel about your joining the RAF?
How do your parents feel about joining the RAF?
Why do you want to join the RAF?
Why do you want to be a pilot?
What is the role of a pilot?
How long have you wanted to be a pilot?
Why do you want to be a RAF Regiment Officer?
What is the role of a RF Regiment Officer?
If you get accepted into the RAF, where will your training start, and what is it?
What is IOT’s aim?
What will be your greatest challenge on IOT?
If you are accepted as a pilot, where will your training start?
Where is EFT done?
How many hours is that?
What do you want to fly?
Where is that?
How many hours?
How long does the course take?
This was repeated for Fixed Wing, and then Rotary, both in similar detail.
What fixed wing aircraft do we operate?
What fast jet aircraft do we operate?
What rotary aircraft do we operate?
Can you tell me where that’s based?
What new aircraft are the RAF getting?
Where does the RAF have permanent bases overseas?
What deployments are we currently on?
Why are we there?
How do you feel about going to war?
How do you feel about going into a battle situation?
Given the fact you are potentially and probably going to drop a bomb, or be a part of someone’s death in some way, what is your attitude to warfare?
What alliances are we part of?
When was NATO formed?
How many countries are currently in NATO?
Why was NATO formed?

And down to the standard questions.

(don't lie in this bit)

We realise that in this day and age many of are younger applicants may have had some experience with drugs. What if any contact have you had with drugs?
Have you ever used drugs yourself?
We operate a random drugs testing program in the RAF how do you feel about that?
Do you feel that infringes on peoples privacy?
What are your views on drug taking within the armed forces?
What are you view on drug taking in the general population?
Have you ever faced a criminal conviction/ had a/ have a outstanding court order on you etc etc.?
Do you have any questions for me?

Reply 27

I am putting this up as a sticky because some people seem to be asking questions that are mentioned in here, and some people seem to be answering questions with bad information.

This was located in the big sticky, but was obviously not easy for some people to find.

Please search before asking a question!

Reply 28

CJones

When i try and click on the links in the first post, namely IOT and Pilot, i get a message stating i dont have the right privileges.

Is there anyway of making these available?

Reply 29

Scroll down, the links have been messed up but the information is just further down the thread.

Reply 30

You probably won't be automatically stopped from joining, but you will have to answer some very tough questions, and you will have to answer them truthfully and convincingly. The issue is that if you have given in to peer pressure over drugs (which however common their use is amongst your peers, are still illegal) how easily will you give in to peer pressure to steal, lie, take drugs when in the Service, shoot innocent civilians etc?

You will have to explain why you gave in then, but what you have learnt and why you won't be giving in to peer pressure like that again.

You could think of not telling them of course, but you will be asked the question 'Have you ever taken drugs' quite directly, and if they ever found out that you lied, you would be out of the job faster than you can think!

Reply 31

What has my personal opinion got to do with it? You took the drugs, and you want to join the Armed Forces - you have to decide how you square that circle.

Reply 32

carboncopy

I really wouldn't tell them, isn't it the same as not saying you have hayfever? Or bringing up the fact that you sometimes wheeze after running??

Why potentially ruin your application? It's sounds like it was a long time ago, in which case it dosn't have a bearing. If you're a habitual user, then by all means say something, and get off the stuff!

Reply 33

No, it is absolutely NOT the same as hay fever!

The point about the hay fever debate is that hay fever seems to be being used as a selection filter, in that once you are in and have had some training money spent on you, they just give you a standard, over the counter medication (Clarytin as it happens) and tell you to carry on.

Taking drugs is an activity which is a)illegal and b)incompatible with any form of military service for so many reasons it's impossible to list here.

The concern is not about making a small lie of omission in the recruitment process, but that you are unsuited to the nature of military service because you are prepared to act illegally, you succumb to peer pressure, you take unnecessary medical risks with your body, and all the other various 'bad things' that go along with drug taking, including the potential for flash backs etc.

This isn't a holier than thou, anti drugs crusade that the Armed Forces are on, its just that drug use is entirely incompatible with the high pressure, highly team reliant nature of military work. If you have even taken drugs once, the Armed Forces are going to want to know why, because that indicates you are unsuited to this type of work. It is up to you to justify why this was a one-off event and that you understand why it can't happen again.

It has no similarity at all to avoiding a recruitment filter that has no impact on your future operational effectiveness.

If you have taken drugs prior to joining the Services you should say so when asked, given that if you are found out to have lied about it at a later date you will have about 24 hours of your career left. It's not so much the lie that gets you kicked out, but the lie about drug use.

Reply 34

carboncopy

Taking drugs is an activity which is a)illegal and b)incompatible with any form of military service for so many reasons it's impossible to list here.

I totally agree with you, drugs have no place in the military, however if this is something that has happend in this individuals past, and it was a limited affair, then surely its a different story? Most people are impressionable to some extent at a young age, but they change.

Whilst at uni I have been in contact with lots of drugs, never used any, but nevertheless I have been sat in a room full of cannabis smokers, that dosn't make me a drug user.

I was just trying to clarify that a simple brush with a drug environment has no bearing on your character in any way.

Like you said before though, it is up to the individual

Reply 35