Contemplating the RAF but worried!

Hi there,

I must firstly apologise for the long winded post. It got a little paniced. I suppose I am slightly behind most people asking questions on this forum. I'm currently finishing my last year of a degree and I have been attending career fairs and other talks in recent months.

The RAF is a family tradition, one I never thought I would go into. I am academically minded, always have been & running around in mud and camping out never really appealed to me. Imagine my surprise when a recent half hour chat with an Officer at the RAF booth at my University led me to a revelation and a new passion.

I'm a researcher at heart and gathering large amounts of data and analysing it has always been something I wanted to turn into a career. When he described the Intelligence roles, more so the Officer position, it sounded like the perfect career choice for me.

My fitness level is average (it wouldn't be hard to gain the standard to pass the initial tests) and I have a lot of experience in extra-circular clubs but they are all academic (debate, history society). I have also held part time jobs in the past gaining an array of experience.

This rather long winded background is to express my worries that while this job seems perfect, my hopes for obtaining it are doomed because of my age (I'll be 26 when I graduate) and my more academic personality. I have no doubt that my nature will allow me to complete all tasks to 110% of my ability and I will no doubt enjoy the studying aspect of all the courses but through my rather thorough research the interviews seem to focus on leadership skills and sport related activity - none of which I can show.

I was wondering if anyone else comes from a similar background or has a similar mindset that could put my mind at rest. Weirdly enough the one thing I worry about most is sticking out like a sore thumb when I go through the training process. I am always the dork who loves the homework and that doesn't always work well in crowds.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 1

teasin_tina

8

Original post by LouiseLesley

Hi there,

I must firstly apologise for the long winded post. It got a little paniced. I suppose I am slightly behind most people asking questions on this forum. I'm currently finishing my last year of a degree and I have been attending career fairs and other talks in recent months.

The RAF is a family tradition, one I never thought I would go into. I am academically minded, always have been & running around in mud and camping out never really appealed to me. Imagine my surprise when a recent half hour chat with an Officer at the RAF booth at my University led me to a revelation and a new passion.

I'm a researcher at heart and gathering large amounts of data and analysing it has always been something I wanted to turn into a career. When he described the Intelligence roles, more so the Officer position, it sounded like the perfect career choice for me.

My fitness level is average (it wouldn't be hard to gain the standard to pass the initial tests) and I have a lot of experience in extra-circular clubs but they are all academic (debate, history society). I have also held part time jobs in the past gaining an array of experience.

This rather long winded background is to express my worries that while this job seems perfect, my hopes for obtaining it are doomed because of my age (I'll be 26 when I graduate) and my more academic personality. I have no doubt that my nature will allow me to complete all tasks to 110% of my ability and I will no doubt enjoy the studying aspect of all the courses but through my rather thorough research the interviews seem to focus on leadership skills and sport related activity - none of which I can show.

I was wondering if anyone else comes from a similar background or has a similar mindset that could put my mind at rest. Weirdly enough the one thing I worry about most is sticking out like a sore thumb when I go through the training process. I am always the dork who loves the homework and that doesn't always work well in crowds.

IOT is heavily academic at points, you would not stand out like a sore thumb, trust me. If you want to do it, go for it. I'm a graduate on IOT and got 100% in some of the exams, but at the beginning I wasn't very military and it's taken time to get more military. We have graduates, academics, those who love admin so much they lock themselves in their rooms, those who spend most nights socialising instead etc. You would be one of what is a very diverse training process.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2

Drewski

19

Original post by LouiseLesley

Hi there,

I must firstly apologise for the long winded post. It got a little paniced. I suppose I am slightly behind most people asking questions on this forum. I'm currently finishing my last year of a degree and I have been attending career fairs and other talks in recent months.

The RAF is a family tradition, one I never thought I would go into. I am academically minded, always have been & running around in mud and camping out never really appealed to me. Imagine my surprise when a recent half hour chat with an Officer at the RAF booth at my University led me to a revelation and a new passion.

I'm a researcher at heart and gathering large amounts of data and analysing it has always been something I wanted to turn into a career. When he described the Intelligence roles, more so the Officer position, it sounded like the perfect career choice for me.

My fitness level is average (it wouldn't be hard to gain the standard to pass the initial tests) and I have a lot of experience in extra-circular clubs but they are all academic (debate, history society). I have also held part time jobs in the past gaining an array of experience.

This rather long winded background is to express my worries that while this job seems perfect, my hopes for obtaining it are doomed because of my age (I'll be 26 when I graduate) and my more academic personality. I have no doubt that my nature will allow me to complete all tasks to 110% of my ability and I will no doubt enjoy the studying aspect of all the courses but through my rather thorough research the interviews seem to focus on leadership skills and sport related activity - none of which I can show.

I was wondering if anyone else comes from a similar background or has a similar mindset that could put my mind at rest. Weirdly enough the one thing I worry about most is sticking out like a sore thumb when I go through the training process. I am always the dork who loves the homework and that doesn't always work well in crowds.

Being academically minded is not remotely a problem, what will be a problem is proving your leadership potential. But remember that key word: potential. They're not looking for the finished article.

Prove that you've got that in the interviews and work on your fitness, then you'll be fine.

Age isn't remotely an issue.

Reply 3

rdeano23

To put you at ease about your age, I'm 27 and just got through OASC... If anything, my age and life experience was a benefit throughout the process. I'm hoping the same for IOT!

Reply 4

Schleigg

18

The further I progress through my career, the more I realise that the RAF is full of geeks and nerds. Even the guys who seem pretty 'Alpha' are geeks underneath, they just look macho when placed amongst all the other geeks. Most of my peers are exceptionally intelligent and qualified, many have masters degrees in STEM subjects and even those without a degree aren't exactly short-witted. When you get into the more technical aspects of certain jobs such as comms, weapons and space, some guys are so incredibly smart that I wonder what prompted them to join the military in the first place and not become professional eggheads.

Bottom line - and I may be shooting myself in the foot here when comparing the RAF to the other services: Of the three services, the RAF is the place to go if you want to flourish as an intelligent, independent person with superb technical skills. The focus on military skills is not as strong as in the Army or maybe the Navy. But that's why the Army are the ones out defending your while you unpick the latest GPS jamming technology, or develop the latest tactic to defeat J band radar guided missiles; or as an IntO you would be analysing the trends of movement or comms patterns to determine the enemy's most likely course of action against friendly forces.

Regarding your perceived suitability for selection: Nobody is born with exactly the right set of skills to be a general. Selection is there to spot the potential inside you. Don't let preconceptions stop you from having a darn good crack at it.

Reply 5

Ikaruss

9

L-L, some good advice here about your current self assessment and your future potential. There are few candidates (or serving officers) who are the finished article, and the whole point of a career is that you learn and develop. However, it may be that the military environment is not for you, so you shouldn't feel pressured to go down that route.

Have you given any consideration to an Intelligence Analyst role with one of the UK Intelligence 'triumvirate' agencies. One of those could well provide the right working environment for you and they trawl for new talent on a fairly regular basis. I know they also attend at many universities to openly scout for potential recruits. Definitely another option to consider.

As well as those large agencies, there are many other organisations (eg Law Enforcement, Border Agency, SEPA etc etc) who also employ Analysts and Researchers to make sense of quantitative and qualitative information and turn it into meaningful intelligence. Pay is hardly stellar, but the roles have high job satisfaction and responsibility.