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Hydrography Speciliast

IainMcD

Midshipman
Anyone here gone down this route?

On my application form I put down Hydro. as first choice and Met/Ocean. as second choice.

As I also have a degree that I've just completed I thought I might as well apply as an officer.

What I would alos like to know is, how long are the wait times and what are my chances of getting a commission as a hydrographer? How popular is this branch?

I really want to get in as soon as possible as months on end of hanging around in a 9-5 while I wait doesn't sound appealing to me.

Oh, and hi :)
 
Hello, and good luck first of all.
First off entry as an officer is sideways from warfare (X) and isn't guaranteed (but may be a route to later PWO jobs and so on). However, from what I've seen on here there was a thread on here about METOC and H last week... lots of info there as well. Entry as a rate is much quicker and probably better if you want to get on faster.

If you can try and get on an acquaint to HMS Drake to visit the HMO School which'll tell you all about it. Personally I found the H side of the branch (as it was a while ago) much more interesting than the MET side - where you could be computing away for hours to generate a 10 minute brief - essential for WAFUs and the like but not very interesting whereas with surveying you could be travelling on Scott, Gleaner, Echo or Enterprise doing surveys outside of regular Fleet work and so on. Met the CO of Gleaner when she (the ship) was in the area last year - seemed quite nice work if you're into it and get it.

Don't be worried about popularity - they're fairly small branches as they go but, depending upon which side you go for, you'll encounter derision any which way (not to put you off, it's just a fact of life) especially if you end up on the METOC side of things!

You could, if you go in for the rating entry, always go for officer as an Upper Yardman once you reach PO (you'll have to check one of the BRs (BR8373?) for details about that or ask the AFCO).
Otherwise I'd highly recommend doing a search of the Newbies and Fleet sections of the website before the usual lot come on and complain about new enquirers or PM Ninja_Stoker if you've any pressing queries.

Welcome to the site, etc.
As an aside, what's your degree in?

PNG
 
So there are opportunties to progress through the ratings quickly (a few years)?

Its the survey ships I want to get on, Geography and the physical sciences were my favourites all the way through school, being able to follow onto them in the Navy is awesome.

My degree is in Multimedia Technology (Aninmation, Image Engineering and Special Effects). Completely irrelevant I know, however it was what I wanted to do at the time, I even applied for Rockstar North and the BBC a few months ago but after visiting my uncle on Skye I decided on the Navy. He was in the Navy for 25 years, got alot of insight from him.
 
Hi Iain,

I couldn't tell you about going down the officer route, but the wait for ratings entry is about 15 months roughly.

I'm sure Ninja will be able to fill you in tomorrow. He must have had better things to do this weekend :dwarf:

KF
 
15 MONTHS!?

Crikey, 15 months wait for what? Application to Training, Training to deployment? Can you clarify? I'll go crazy I tells ya!
 
Probably 15 months from application to walking into Raleigh. Yes it's a long time but if you really want to do the job I'm sure you'll wait. Plus, you've got your specialist training to add to that as well upon completion of Raleigh also.
Your degree may come in handy (possibly) with the computer side of things for the imagery processing and map production and what have you.

Couldn't say anything about the timelines for an officer but (timings are estimated as I'm doing this bit from memory):
To AIB = 3 months max (?)
AIB to BRNC = 2 to ? months.
Full BRNC syllabus = 9 months-ish.
To Fleet board = Up to 2 years from starting at BRNC
First job = 18months to 24months
Second job = as above
Option to apply to join H/METOC after this job

Therefore I'd not bank on actually doing the job you set out to do for at least 28 months as a rating or about 4-5 years as a YO...

I'm sure someone on here will correct me if these figures are wildly out...
 

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