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Building my packet, need some advice


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How's it going everyone,

I've been doing more and more research as I've been looking into getting my LORs from command and my flight physical scheduled. Though all of that is going good and I think I am able to get selected just based on those being good-ish (only been with the unit 3 years and they haven't put me on orders for state active duty (guard)) I'm honestly having a little bit of a panic because of my college GPA. its. its not good my guys. I was in mechanical engineering for 2 years and got 60 credits but with a overall 2.0 GPA. I haven't taken any classes since before I enlisted 3 years ago because I realized that I never liked the stress of school along with financial stress and work so I've just been working different jobs while going to drill. But I do have a 134 GT and a 71 SIFT score. I want to make damned sure I get selected for the my first go-round as I already am technically separated from my unit with the dd368. 

So for the resume portion, I dont have much to put in, as none of my jobs on the civilian side have been technical enough to warrant even putting them in, besides acting as the supervisor at the walmart auto care center after our manager left and my supervisor took on the responsibilities of our manager (store manager never promoted either of us during the 3 months we were waiting so because of rising living costs I had to leave the area I was living) our department was in the top 5 % of stores in the nation though with only 6 technicians including myself and my manager) and I also dont have much to put into my military resume as I only have my current unit where I havent deployed with them yet. 

Now I've got a lackluster resume, a GPA that is so garbage I cant even look at it without feeling sick to my stomach anymore and just overall disappointed with myself not seeking help and hanging with the general population that thought that because it was engineering it was okay. And since those credits are on my ERB, I cant omit them unless I want to risk them just tossing my packet into the dumpster. Literally I feel the only thing going for me is excelling in military academics, and my test scores. Maybe my acft as I can get a 510 easy but from what I've seen its lackluster as well.

Anybody have suggestions on what I should do? 

Take a couple courses at a community college during the winter semester and ace them and put that transcript in with what I have from my previous college? (thinking physics 181 and calc 1 as they'd be so easy to ace but then again I already have those credits) 

For some reason omit them? recruiter said I could but I have doubts.

Openly address it but follow up with my passion for army aviation and aspirations to excel further than I already have to support the mission that at this point I've just dedicated most of my energy into. Which my essay would be more so about the mission we do have as medevac, and how that mission is why I love my job in the military as I originally joined so I could have some impact on other service members being able to come home, long before I was told about becoming a 15T at meps.

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  • 1 month later...

Honestly I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. I'm a software engineer civilian-side and I had about 60 credits with a 3.0 at a community college. I hated school because I hate going through the motions learning other stuff unrelated to what I want to learn. That's an easy explanation for the board, and pretty common among the Aviators I've been around -- the military test scores show you have the aptitude for the job -- and a lot of aviators don't have a degree at all. 

I'd save the money going to school and try to get 10-15 hours of instruction at a local flight school. I went all the way and got my PPL before the board and I think it went a long way in selection (I was one of 4 of 21 candidates selected that cycle). I think that plays much better than trying to cram a few classes to get your GPA up to 2.5. Certainly if it helps your civilian job prospects in the future, fixing that situation doesn't hurt. But for board-specific purposes, I think there are better uses of time/money.

Other than that, just include whatever you can. The auto center job certainly is a beneficial thing to include. The great thing about the Guard is you can get to the board and interview without having your resume scrutinized and filtered out beforehand. As long as you can get to the board, I like your chances.

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On 9/14/2022 at 8:44 PM, SBuzzkill said:

I had a 1.8 GPA and a failed private pilot checkride when I was accepted street to seat.  

Don't self eliminate.  Submit your packet when it's complete.

 

 

This.  Make the board tell you no, especially with scores like that.  There are other ways to word your resume to make it sound better as well.  “Managed a top 5% producing location at a nationwide retailer” sound better than just putting “worked at walmart”.  Know what i mean?  Dont forget that the people on the board can also see mechanical engineering and know its a tough major.  Personally id put more weight on that than if you came at it with a 3.7 in political science.  Just sayin.

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  • 1 month later...
On 8/7/2022 at 3:47 AM, Prince6482 said:

How's it going everyone,

I've been doing more and more research as I've been looking into getting my LORs from command and my flight physical scheduled. Though all of that is going good and I think I am able to get selected just based on those being good-ish (only been with the unit 3 years and they haven't put me on orders for state active duty (guard)) I'm honestly having a little bit of a panic because of my college GPA. its. its not good my guys. I was in mechanical engineering for 2 years and got 60 credits but with a overall 2.0 GPA. I haven't taken any classes since before I enlisted 3 years ago because I realized that I never liked the stress of school along with financial stress and work so I've just been working different jobs while going to drill. But I do have a 134 GT and a 71 SIFT score. I want to make damned sure I get selected for the my first go-round as I already am technically separated from my unit with the dd368. 

So for the resume portion, I dont have much to put in, as none of my jobs on the civilian side have been technical enough to warrant even putting them in, besides acting as the supervisor at the walmart auto care center after our manager left and my supervisor took on the responsibilities of our manager (store manager never promoted either of us during the 3 months we were waiting so because of rising living costs I had to leave the area I was living) our department was in the top 5 % of stores in the nation though with only 6 technicians including myself and my manager) and I also dont have much to put into my military resume as I only have my current unit where I havent deployed with them yet. 

Now I've got a lackluster resume, a GPA that is so garbage I cant even look at it without feeling sick to my stomach anymore and just overall disappointed with myself not seeking help and hanging with the general population that thought that because it was engineering it was okay. And since those credits are on my ERB, I cant omit them unless I want to risk them just tossing my packet into the dumpster. Literally I feel the only thing going for me is excelling in military academics, and my test scores. Maybe my acft as I can get a 510 easy but from what I've seen its lackluster as well.

Anybody have suggestions on what I should do? 

Take a couple courses at a community college during the winter semester and ace them and put that transcript in with what I have from my previous college? (thinking physics 181 and calc 1 as they'd be so easy to ace but then again I already have those credits) 

For some reason omit them? recruiter said I could but I have doubts.

Openly address it but follow up with my passion for army aviation and aspirations to excel further than I already have to support the mission that at this point I've just dedicated most of my energy into. Which my essay would be more so about the mission we do have as medevac, and how that mission is why I love my job in the military as I originally joined so I could have some impact on other service members being able to come home, long before I was told about becoming a 15T at meps.

Your GT and SIFT numbers are high and that's a great thing. Your work experience is solid and that's a good thing. Your consistent service is there and that's a good thing. You went to college and got passing grades and that's a good thing. You have a lot of positives and you can paint a positive picture out of them. I got selected. I had a 63 on the SIFT, my GT was 1 point over the base requirement, my GPA was like 2.3 although I did graduate. I'm just saying you've got positives. Keep pushing and go for it. Deliver your story with absolute confidence and resolve in yourself. Head up and chest out my dude.

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