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Cos he's Flag Officer All Things Important.

Originally Posted by alfred_the_great

For the love of god, don't work your way up - it wastes our time. If you want to be an Officer, be an Officer. Good Officers are respected, shit ones aren't, regardless of their previous service history - simply having done some time on 2 Deck won't make you a good Officer.

Well, above all else, I want to join the RN. Actually being able to work for the organisation, and enjoying my role within it, is way more important than what rank I go in as, whether that's rating or officer. My poor performance at AIB highlighted that I'm clearly not officer material just yet. And so if I want to pursue my aim of joining the RN, I have no choice but to go in as a rating, which I'm more than happy to do. The experience at AIB has now left me with a preference from starting off at the bottom. But I'm interested to know why it wastes your time?

The only assured way of becoming an Officer is by joining as an Officer. All other routes are relatively higher risk & by no means assured as the selection pool is far deeper & the eligibility parameters far wider for those already serving.

There are those that may fall into the trap of thinking that because their qualifications mean they are eligible to apply, that it's their destiny to become an Officer - it most certainly isn't.

By way of example, 85% of RM Officers are graduates but many more graduates join the Corps each year as Other Ranks. So far as I'm aware one troop of 55 had 17 grads join with a further 10 academically eligible for Officer.

Originally Posted by JennytheSparrow

Well, above all else, I want to join the RN. Actually being able to work for the organisation, and enjoying my role within it, is way more important than what rank I go in as, whether that's rating or officer. My poor performance at AIB highlighted that I'm clearly not officer material just yet. And so if I want to pursue my aim of joining the RN, I have no choice but to go in as a rating, which I'm more than happy to do. The experience at AIB has now left me with a preference from starting off at the bottom. But I'm interested to know why it wastes your time?

Yep me too

Guess he is not playing?????

He's obviously saving time.

What was the recommendation after your AIB? If it was try again in a while then I would suggest you pause, learn and do just that. If it was 'thanks but no thanks' and you still wish to join then go ahead. The only thing that is important is that you have a career that suits you, and with which you are happy. I would caution against the view that joining as a rating will make you a better AIB candidate - I have seen too many SUY failures at AIB to know that not to be always true.

Bottom line: If you are Officer material then you are Officer material. It is far harder to achieve that ambition as a rating, rather than as a direct entrant. As to whether that is right or not is an entirely different subject and if you have a pair of hours and a few pints I would be happy to bore you stupid as to how I think the system is unfair and should be changed.......