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The Diary of a RAF Candidate

27TH JANUARY 2009

“Introductions to begin with. Limited introductions though, I think I’d best not advertise exactly who I am.. I’m 24, female and in the process of applying to join the RAF as an officer”.

“Andrea Clements is my pen name, per-sec and all that”.

“I have been since April 08 – currently between the initial filter interview and the ”http://www.hmforces.co.uk/education/articles/2791-royal-air-force-college-cranwell “>Officers and Aircrew Selection Centre at Cranwell. It’s been a few months since my filter, and I don’t know when the selection will be. You’re told after the interview that you could be called for OASC within a month, or it could be as long as six months. So right now I’m doing all my prep – revision, fitness, station visits – and trying not to lose the momentum.

I did try to resist the forces, but I don’t think I stood a chance (!). My dad and my uncles were/are marines, my mum was RAF and my brother (marines) is married to a navy officer. When I left school I went and worked my way around the world for a few years. Or six. This is, I think, only my third winter in the UK since 03. So I came back from the sun in Feb this year, and started seriously looking at my options. It’s all on t’internet now, and after some looking around I decided on RAF. And this is where I became part of the application process.

Step 1: Call the ‘Careers Advice Line’, where somebody will tell you that all of the telephone operators are busy at present, but that if you leave your details somebody will call you back next week. Seriously, next week. I asked if they had the AFCO number, they said they could maybe call back on Monday. I said maybe I’d just check the yellow pages. The idea is that they will send you the information relevant to the jobs you’re interested in and book an appointment at your local AFCO.

Step 2. This is flawless. Honestly, this bit makes sense. Come in, chat to a corporal, tell them what you’re keen on jobs wise, they check if you’ve got all the requirements (GCSE’s, two legs etc) and brief you on tattoos, drugs, medical standards etc. You then go away with some basic info and the yellow form to fill in. On my yellow form, the list of previous addresses took up two pages and presumably caused much consternation and head scratching. Ha…

Step 3. It’s called a P2 presentation, folks. It’s a slide show all about the RAF-OASC, IOT, and videos of the sexier jobs. Nobody wants to watch a video about the chaplain’s role, or (sorry guys) admin officers.. and presumably nobody’s made one.. Instead it’s HARRIER PILOT VIDEO!!! TRIPLE CHEESE!! BONUS EXPLODING STUFF! There will always be a smartarse at one of these mornings who sits through the token aircraft recognition slides with their arm in the air like there’s a metal rod jammed up his armpit. Best idea here..sit quietly, let him get them all, then identify the Tornado F3 from the GR4 before he does, to appear smart AND not weird.

Finish by going through your ‘paperwork’, booking your filter interview and taking away the next form to fill in.

At this point, my boss had a thought. I’d been straight with him and explained early on that I wouldn’t be available for the winter abroad, because this is the plan… and he was very pleased for me, and impressed. However seems that as time wore on, he noticed I was less keen on overtime. My spare time was more about going for a run/reading the paper/various research sort of stuff and less about hanging out at work. So, as I say, he had a great idea and – promoted me! With extra pay! And much, much more responsibility. Um. Can’t complain, obviously, but I was hoping to do my filter by June/August and the P2 had led me to expect a pretty major interrogation. With this new workload, I was struggling to get out for a run and read the paper in my spare time. So I thought best not to make a fool of myself by going unprepared, and delayed the filter till later in the year when my contract ended.

Step four. Filter Interview. I learnt SO MUCH for this. I really knew my onions. Totally prepared. Was totally thrown when the first question was “Did you have a happy childhood?”, or words to that effect. There was a lot of time spent on ‘me’ questions and some fairly token RAF and NATO questions. Finally, “Have you ever taken drugs?” Hint, I believe there’s a right and a wrong answer to this. The moral here is, although I’ll say it’s worth being prepared, is that had I not played safe and delayed, I would be a good five months further on in the process now. I expected a much more rigorous filter here…it was more of a leaky colander…

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