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If it helps, I am working full time between the end of college (a month ago) and whenever I get in, if I get in.
My Sift interview is on Wednesday...

That is the only real area I think I could fall down on significantly. Unfortunately, I don't have a decent answer for why my attendance fell. I just had a really bad year, and found it difficult to sort it out.

My work attendance and performance has been pretty good though. I have been working part time at the same place for three years, and am now full time there. (it's an office job).

Originally Posted by Cfish3r

Figured I would dig up this old thread rather than start a new one...

I am applying for Warfare officer. I have my sift interview on Wednesday.
I had a bit of a rough time at college, I did well enough in the first year, but my attendance really became quite poor in the second year.
I am not really sure. I never really skipped lessons as such, but there is no excuse.

I am really worried that this is going to bite me in my interview some how; It's my fault I know. How can i minimise the damage this one foolish year of my life will cause?
I really tried very hard at school, and I really regret my second year of college, and I know that I would give my career 150%.

Will the interviewer be looking at any reports from my college?
Has anyone been in a similar situation? What have you said?

Are you well prepared in other respects for your Sift Interview? Is your knowledge of the Service good and do you have examples you can give demonstrating your leadership potential?

My service knowledge is pretty good. I am aware of the current deployments, along with which ships more or less are at each.
I know my ship types, most weapon systems, + aircraft. I know a small amount about the rifles etc.
I am aware of at least some of the future plans, a bit about the strategic review. Things like that.

I can think of at least one strong example of leadership, and another where I worked closely in a team, some of which involved leadership.

During school, for which I was virtually a model student due to being in Boarding School, I took part in what is called a Business Enterprise scheme, which involves setting up companies. I was a director in the leading company for my school, which turned around £3k a year in profit which isn't bad considering it is run solely by students, on essentially your lunch breaks.

Also I completed my Duke of Edinburgh silver, and am working towards my Gold which involves some leadership and a lot of team work.

My 'attendance' for both my work places, (I had two part time jobs during college) along with the volunteer position I do on a Saturday morning has been pretty good, so perhaps they would look at that?

Also, now that I have been working full time for a few months, would they not take that in to consideration more so than college as it is more recent? And I have been with the employer for three years which is longer than I spent at college?

I would like to think that things like that outweigh that final year of college.

Sorry, I'm not really sure what I am expecting you lot to reply with.
I suppose I am just trying to reassure myself more than anything.

Nobody can give me a magic answer that will make them ignore it. I will just have to see how it goes, and be as honest as I can, which is, I am not really sure what happened, but I know I made a mistake, but it is something that will not happen again.

Are your A Levels going to be OK in terms of grades?

I suppose that depends on your definition of okay.
I really hope so.

My AS grade were:
Physics - B
Computing - A
Photography - A.
(which gives me 150 UCAS points).
General Studies - A (Is General Studies even accepted???)

Which gives me a good start.
I would like to think, that I would realistically at least get:
Physics - D
Photography - B
Computing - C
General - B.

That's a pretty drastic drop. A single grade drop from AS GCE to A GCE could be expected due to the ramp up in difficulty (often just be a couple of marks).

I did some mock interview preparation with college students who were applying to University at my old college. I'm not sure what the ACLO's are expecting in SIFT interviews, but I imagine you'd at least have to explain what happened and what the weakness was - this was what I expected them to explain if there were significant changes in grade patterns between GCSE and AS-GCE. Officer training is, in parts at least, academic.

Got my selection interview next monday for Steward Catering Submariner. This is really helpful Thanks