SunOfZ

iTrader: (3)

Hey what's up guys! So after a good while of contemplating I've finally decided that im 100% sure that this is what I want to do. Im currently living in dallas tx for work but I will be putting in my two weeks in the next couple of days and going home to southern cali where I will return to the recuriter that I originally started the early process with. Im 25yrs old, single, have a misdemeanor dui from about 7yrs ago and a few tattoos, nothing obscene and none in bad places. Now the recruiter does know of my tattoos on my calf and my other on my shin but I recently got a small one in the middle of my chest, do I have to notify him of this one also? I know if I do its another waiver but will anyone really examine me in the future for other unseen tattoos like this? Any info or advise on anything would be appreciated thx guys!!

Badazz 97 TA

iTrader: (18)

i cant say anything about the tattoo thing since i dont have any. I dont remember anyone asking or looking in bootcamp or saying anything about it while i was there. In MEPS they will do a complete physical and look over you for any defining marks, scars, that type of thing to identify you in the event something happens to where they need to identify you. So ya might want to mention it otherwise your navy career could be over before it even started. If you went through that whole MEPS process then dont bring it up.

pm me if you have any questions about bootcamp or anything in general.

Do you have a job picked out?

anarchy99

iTrader: (7)

no big deal. As long as it's not of some hate group, etc, or something that will all of the sudden show up in uniform, no one cares. Good luck on your naval career.

SunOfZ

iTrader: (3)

@badazz ya I haven't gone through meps yet. I have that set up for when I get home. All my waivers are filled out though including the ones for my other tattoos. And no I haven't picked my job yet. I definitely know that there are a ton of people trying to get in right now and probably like most of them im looking to get in asap so im not going to be to picky. Plus, I heard while at bootcamp you can actually switch your job. Is this true?!

@anarchy thx bro! So far I think im still a little torn on the decsion but probabaly leaning towards telling them.
I really don't want to jepordize anything.

Thx for the replys so far!

bene

iTrader: (16)

If you are having doubts tell them EVERYTHING.

Badazz 97 TA

iTrader: (18)

They tell you that your able to switch but reality is your not goin to be able to switch. There is just too many people joining. Heard alot of people tell me this when I went through a year ago. They picked a job they didnt really want since there recruiter or someone told them they could switch once in boot and they got screwed and couldnt. They were stuck with what they picked. So choose wisely.

If you get the opportunity choose something that intrests you, otherwise if worse comes to worse choose Undesignated Airmen. Do not go Undes seaman! With arirmen you have a small chance of being sent to a squadron and not ever being on a ship. You would be land based and just fly to wherever they need ya. fixing stuf or whatever it is you end up doing.

Also choose something that could benefit you when you get out of the Navy. Dont just look at the $$ bonus that the job might offer or something that might only be good in the military, but once you get into civilian life the skill you have or learned might be worthless, ya know. Theres alot to think about. Look at the big picture.

Also find out how fast or how "easy" you can rank up in a specific rate. Some rates are nearly impossible to rank up in now since there so over manned. Such as Seabee. You will never rank up being a seabee right now. Or if your able to get E2 out of bootcamp. Thats another thing. If you graduate basic as an E1 you have to wait 9 months to get E2. 9 months to E3. Believe me, you do not want to wait 2 years before you can even take the 3rd class exam. E1 dont make crap for money. You can also rank up one pay grade in "A"school by having the highest GPA in your class.

Theres alot to think about. stuff i didnt know and learned as i went.

SunOfZ

iTrader: (3)

Ya switching jobs in bootcamp did sound a little fishy to me after I was told this because I did get mixed reactions from some buddies in other branches. I do want to find something that's interesting but honestly I've been flipping burgers for the past 7yrs so at this point, even though im making decent money and traveling for it, its something I extremely hate doing now and I feel any type of job is going to be interesting to me you know? But I definitely don't want any **** work either. As for my post navy life, I plan on becoming a cop afterwards. Are there any routs I could take that would help out? Also, I do have close to 60 college credits because im almost done with my AA, which im trying to finish before I leave, will these credits help me to advance?

99FormulaM6

iTrader: (21)

With your college, you will come in as E3 vice E1. Tell your recruiter about all your tattoos. It is not another waiver, we fill out one tattoo screening sheet that we list all your tattoos on. Having one more takes 2 seconds to add to the screening sheet.

Picking a job isn't easy. You may get lucky when you go to process and they have a lot of jobs available, but there could only be one and that could be your chance to get in. Your recruiter can't hold a job or promise that you can switch later. We don't know what jobs will be there when you go to MEPS to join, that system is controlled by people way above our level.

OCCASIONALLY they will offer a different job for you at RTC, and there is a greater chance of that I'd you are in a PACT program, but that last 6-7 kids I have sent to bootcamp came back and said they were not offered a chance to switch. Don't bank on being able to switch, but it may be a possibility, either in RTC or you can request to convert 3 times in your career.

With the way the gov't is running with the budget and the way the economy is, staying in the Navy is tough for people who are already in the Navy. The Navy is cutting back and sending people home. Sometimes the people need to go home, and sometimes they are good people, just doing a job in an overmanned rating. You have the keep that in mind when you are trying to come in and join the Navy - You may want a specific job, but if isn't available, it is because they Navy doesnt need/want you to do it for a good reason.

bamalt1

iTrader: (7)

Work with the Fire Scout if at all possible. UAVs are huge money in the civilian world right now and aren't going anywhere soon so you should get a good job when you get out.

usnfenix

iTrader: (11)

ive been in for quite some time and 1, your tattoos wont be a problem as long as there not indecent and visible or gang related. i had none prior to coming in but ive gotten three since then and didnt tell the navy about a single one after joining. boot camp and a school life is not at all the real fleet. all that marching and bull they teach you you will never again use. just pay attention to your rate. im an AT, i hate the stereotype on at's cuz i dont fit it(thank god) but people automatically assume as an at we all are the same. you can change your rate(job) after your in but you may not want to. if you do (its called cross rating) cross rate to a rating with a high advancement percentage. a lot of junior sailors are not even making third class for several years due to overmanned ratings. also ERB and PTS are both a real bitch, but you will learn all this in time. for now, go to boot camp stay low and do what your told no matter how dumb. oh and in boot camp when you get offered to choose your bank (armed forces or navyfederal) do yourself your first good navy career decsion and choose navy fed. armed force will have like 3 hot chicks blabbing on about how there bank is awesome but ive been to 4 countries since ive been in so far and all around the US and never seen a single armed forces bank, glad i chose navy fed i cant walk three miles without seeing 15 of the dam things.

9WhiteCamaro9

Congrats on deciding to serve the great U.S. I will say right now though, if there is anything that you are hiding or haven't told your recruiter, tell them now. If you tell them and they seem fishy to there answer, come back here and ask someone. I messed up and now I'm sitting here on my *** working at some no where factory building stuff for the multi-million dollar companies and I'm only making $8.16 a damn hour. Now because of my mistake, I regret it everyday I wake up.

For the whole job thing, yeah you won't be changing it once you get to Great Lakes. When I went, I had CM (Construction Mechanic, SeaBee) on my contract since I liked working on engines and such and thought that field would be up my ally and thought I would be able to get a job as that in the civilian world.

For the advancement, when I went in, they had me down as a E-2 since I had two years of JROTC from High School under my belt but if I had went for the 4 years, I would have had E-3 down. Like said before, pick something that you like and that isn't gonna hold you back from advancement since it would be forever for me to get somewhere as a SeaBee as far a rank. My brother has been in for 13 years as a ET (Electronics Technician) and he took his first test for E-7 (Chief Petty Officer) but missed it by a couple of points or however they do the rank tests. But I will say though for the ones that are getting closer to the retirement years, they are trying to **** a lot of them off to not re-enlist when there time comes so the Navy that I know of doesn't have to pay them the retirement they would get if they would make to there number of years to retire. If you have any questions, PM me or whoever else and I know I'll be more than happy to help you in any way I can.

SunOfZ

iTrader: (3)

Hey everyone thx for all the input so far! Well for a little update, I just got back to california this past thursday and I met back up with my recruiter yesterday which was tuesday. It had been a few months since I seen him and he told me he is now a supervisor. So, I brought all my documents down, birth certifictate, college transcripts and etc. so they could be copied and verified. Now I took the practice test with him in the past and scored 57 I believe. But to see where I was at now I took it again and felt a lot more comfortable and scored a 73. Now this time instead of the computer version I took a print out type. Do you guys know how the current verson of the asvab is? and how long it takes to get your scores back? I have my test date set up for next tuesday morning in palmdale ca.


One of the things I brought up to him was when would I get a contract and a job? Obviously, with the amount of people entering I heard of people leaving meps without anything and having to play a waiting game. From what he told me, currently the military does not want a recruiter sending multiple people to meps. Rather, they let him know when a spot or job opens up and what race they need to fill it, be it black, hispanic or white. So, basically he said that he would not send me to meps without knowing for sure that I would be offered a contract. Now the kicker was that they would not tell him what job or contract had become available and be offered to me when I get there. So, he said at this point it would be crucial for me to take the offer even if it was something I didnt necassarily want. Now if I didnt take the job he also said he would get into trouble for waisting meps time with a recruit who leaves meps without anything and that also it would lower my own future chances of getting into the navy. From here he moved onto talking about cross rating, which is something I heard from someone on here before. Now, he said it could take up to a year to change but that it was possible.

How does any of this sound to you guys?!

bamalt1

iTrader: (7)

I took mine on paper and they graded all of them when we finished and gave us our scores within a few minutes.

99FormulaM6

iTrader: (21)

Well every MEPS is going to be different so if he says that they call first and say what they need then that is how they do it there. We just did not do it that way where I was recruiting at.

You can take that test on the computer or on paper. Generally it is on the computer but you can ask to take a paper test if you think you will do better on the paper test compared to the computer test.

What he told you about getting into trouble if someone does not join is true, he was also telling the truth about it hurting your chances if you go to join and do not sign a contract. The reason is is because it is so hard to join right now we don't need that many people and they just will not spend any more time with you if you waste their time right now.

So your best bet is to want to be in the Navy. Picking a job is important because it is what you will be doing but honestly right now you can not afford to be very picky or you just will not join the Navy. So my advice would be to not go and try and get a job and bank on that you will be able to get another one later. Have an open mind and get a job now and learn about it and try to like it. If you join and think you are going to get something different later, then chances are you will be disappointed

Scoobie

iTrader: (8)

Did 8 years in the Navy. Switched rates too. Pm with any questions, would be glad to help. I was an ST and an AG. Both great jobs.

Bruser's LS1

iTrader: (20)

If you need help or have questions about anything regarding Surface Warfare hit me up.

Tan327

iTrader: (15)

Absolutely horrible. Seriously man your job is what you'll be doing every single day, do not settle for anything less than what you want to do or you will hate the military, guaranteed.

When I was at MEPS there was a guy there joining the Navy, well a retired Navy guy was one of the people that processed everyone through MEPS. He asked if anyone was joining the Navy and the guy raised his hand, the retired Navy guy asked him what job he would be choosing, he replied "I don't know, just signing an open contract" ..the retired guy said "Why in the world would you do that? You're going to be hanging off of the side of a boat scraping paint off". True story and something to think about!