Air Force Developmental Engineer?

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Andrew_ASC

UTC SEDS 2017 3rd/ SEDS 2018 1st
Joined
Sep 22, 2017
Messages
3,883
Reaction score
542
Has anyone got experience with this position? I’m curious about it as a career. Right now the civy side isn’t looking great for mechanicals where I live. It looks like a $20k pay cut on paper compared to an entry level position in engineering. Been trying to talk with a recruiter about it.
 


Best insight I’ve seen so far into it. Even the AF website itself seemed sparse.
 
Has anyone got experience with this position? I’m curious about it as a career. Right now the civy side isn’t looking great for mechanicals where I live. It looks like a $20k pay cut on paper compared to an entry level position in engineering. Been trying to talk with a recruiter about it.

Andrew,

I can't speak to the Engineering aspect but as an Air Force veteran with two sons within 4 years of retiring from the Air Force, I can say that a career in the AF isn't a bad idea. I did not retire from the AF but my experience with them helped greatly in obtaining my employment with the government that I will retire from soon after more than 35 years. My sons won't have any difficulty finding jobs after they retire as civilian contractors are already seeking them out. Retiring from the AF after 20 years will give you a nice little paycheck as you transfer over to a civilian agency while still young enough to start another career path from which you can retire.
 
There are several things to keep in mind concerning the military. Firstly, most recruiters are like used car salesmen in that they are less than honest. They may not lie to your face, but they will not tell you everything you want to know. Some will outright lie to you. Get any promises in writing! And have an expert review the contract before you sign it.

When I as in the Air Force it was more like we were civilians in uniform. I fired a pistol during officer training and never touched a weapon again during my six years as an officer. If you enlist today you should expect to be deployed despite what your specialty is and anything your recruiter tells you. The simple fact is that the military needs people to go do these deployments and they send whoever is available and even people who aren't available.

That said the military is a good career choice even if you only stay for 4 or 6 years. My military service helped me get a job after I left. The vast majority of people I encountered in the military were very good people. Serving will give you a sense of really serving your country. But make sure you understand what you are getting into if you go. One of my nephews went AWOL after joining the Marines as it wasn't what he expected. They threw him out after they found him and gave him a general discharge for "failure to adjust".
 
Andrew, despite our differences, I'll offer you this:

A friend from high school joined the RCAF while in University. Hi did it because it was a chance for him to work on planes & helicopters. And, because of his short RCAF career, and his graduation from Concordia Mech eng, he managed to get a job at Pratt & Whitney. (Destructive test engineer, how cool is that!!). While that was short lived, he soon managed to snag a testing job at Allison. He's now at NASA.

What I'm trying to get at, is that you might need to move to where the jobs are. And you might need to move far. (The friend described above move to a different country!) With AF, you will definitely be moving around!

Can I ask you this:
  • Do you have your resume with various head hunters / placement agencies? Some are local, some are national / international (Aerotek for example - https://www.aerotek.com/en-ca )
  • Are you one Link'd In?
  • Do you have versions of your resume? Some (I) have various versions of their resume, each detailed for a particular industry / market / job type, to highlight a particular skill, tailored to a particular company. (I wont send my 'CAD / Designer' version to a potential tech writer or Illustrator job, etc..)
  • Have you had your resume reviewed by a professional? I've seen some resumes where they've gone on for pages & pages. and have listed jobs from 1964..
  • And, have a few cover letters. Again, detailed for a specific job . industry / skill type..
Getting your first job in your chosen career path can be difficult. I started as a drafter, then onto mechanical assemblies. That helped open the door to design and further advancement. Take what you can to gain experience, the money will soon follow.
 
Already tried three staffing firms, had a university then multiple professionals review a Resume’. Had an interview with EPB for a drafter Job 2/25/2019. Haven’t heard squat from EPB if I’m even hired. Had another interview where it took them like eight weeks to finally decline me at a place where Aerotek initially employed me as an engineer intern at a car factory for yet another internship even after the interviewer said impressive. Just kinda sick of it all. Too broke to move dude I simply can’t tell a company that I could pay for moving because I can’t. I’m single 26 and no girlfriend so I don’t care where I move to. Stepdad is annoyed I haven’t found a job in about three months. -$36k in the hole. Add a flood car. Not a 3.0 er. Only a 2.8 GPA.

Interested in becoming a DOD engineer contractor eventually. Got no responses from initial applications to defense companies entry level mech positions and one rejection from Lockheed Martin in the regional area after two months. Already tried all regional employers that I can think of and find on google. Already on monster, linked in, lensa, zip recruiter. Etc. Honestly I’m looking at the Air Force as a faint dim light in a very dark and long tunnel.

Dad served in the Army as a helicopter pilot. Sorry to rant. With $83 bucks on me: I don’t feel like I lose a lot by joining the military. I don’t have any expenses staying with parents right now. But I couldn’t even land a temp moving job, lawn care, or min wage job already tried.

Might have been stupid for wasting money on rockets but it kept my sanity. For every ten or twenty Engineer jobs there’s like one entry level. And even then they sometimes want experiences or skills I don’t even have. Sorry to rant haven’t slept most of last night.
 
I had a job at a bike shop, assembling & repairing bikes for a few summers. (Even learned how to string a racket, and sharpen ice skates) I liked that. I did a stint as a busboy at a local eatery. Lasted a week! A friend took a job as a burger flipper. She's since moved up to a management level.. My step-brother moved to Myrtle beach and was a beach bum working in the local 'wings' & T-shirt place. He loved it until he developed Krohn's disease.

What I'm saying, is that at this point any job is a good job, despite it not being in your chosen field. And that work experience will be a benefit regardless if you're spinning a wrench or flipping burgers..

Have you applied to any of the distilleries? Working in maintenance might be an interesting 1st step..
 
Another option, try specialized construction companies. HVAC, specialty plumbing (lab and food service), and electrical. The industry hires college engineering grads as project engineers. They work for project managers as assistants (sometimes they're called assistant project managers). The good ones work their way up quickly.

Larger companies might have a small engineering department with a PE on staff that could mentor you.

You can also try equipment and material vendors and construction engineering firms.

Construction industry is a good place for square pegs.
 
Raytheon is well known here in Fort Wayne. They hire all types of engineers, advertise entry level positions for recent grads, and offer relocation assistance. Cost of living is low, so it wouldn't take long to get adjusted once an income was coming in.

We also have this company nearby. https://www.ultra-ussi.com/Careers.php

They make sonar buoys deployed all over the world. Down the street from their plant, you will find 80/20. 80/20 has expanded over the years as well, but not sure if they are hiring someone with your education.
 
Not sure where you're located, but Ball Aerospace is hiring like gangbusters here (Colorado) at all levels.
 
Many companies will provide some kind of assistance with relocation, particularly for professional jobs (like engineers) or jobs that they are having trouble filling. My former company also paid for people to come out and interview if they passed the initial phone screen. Don't let lack of moving money stop you from applying to a place you would want to work. Virtually anything is negotiable once you have an offer in hand. By that point, they have invested enough effort in you that they will want to make it work out. At the very least, you should be able to get an advance on pay.
 
What I'm saying, is that at this point any job is a good job, despite it not being in your chosen field. And that work experience will be a benefit regardless if you're spinning a wrench or flipping burgers.

Well said Sir, that's great advice.

.. I’m single 26 and no girlfriend so I don’t care where I move to. Stepdad is annoyed I haven’t found a job in about three months. -$36k in the hole. Add a flood car. Not a 3.0 er. Only a 2.8 GPA.

Re-read what you wrote, thank your Stepdad for keeping it real, then get serious. You need to take anything you can get. Find "A Job", then while you are employed find a "great job".

"Don't be that guy" https://www.itinthed.com/6109/dont-be-that-guy-cousin-eddie/

Clark: “In seven years, he couldn’t find a job?”

Ellen: “Catherine says he’s been holding out for a management position.”
 
To get the good jobs you have two pathways....get an education and work your way up or work your way up learning as you go, the second route is usually far longer and has lower income for longer and worse hours to get the same pay as someone who has gotten their education first then progressed upward upgrading positions as they go.

I have some college education but no degree and its taken me 20 years of looking for every opportunity to better my position, if I had gotten a degree then started working my way up it would have taken me probably half as long to get to a similar pay rate as what I make now.
 
Hi Andrew,

As you have no doubt figured out, competition for AF engineering jobs is pretty stiff. I spent 32 years active duty, and my last job was running the ROTC program at the University of Oklahoma, along with supervising the enlisted members the AF sent to college and helping identify and screen candidates for direct accession (OTS). I have also sat on a number of selection boards, so I have a reasonably good idea of what it takes to get into the AF, either as a civilian or officer.

It is much tougher to get into the AF than it used to be. Engineering candidates need either a very strong record or a specialty the AF really needs, such as electrical, aero/mech, or aero/astro double-major types. The oft-heard refrain from other senior officers on selection boards was “dang, I’m glad I’m not trying to get into the AF these days.”

To be blunt, the days when the AF (or any service) was always available as a “last resort” are long gone. It is quite competitive.

I can’t give you a firm judgment without seeing your resume, but with your GPA and field, you probably need something that separates you from the pack, such as experience or work on specific projects. Normally, DOD tries to identify very promising candidates while still in school. They hook them up with internships and temp jobs at the labs and cover their last year or two of school in exchange for a two year commitment.

An additional consideration is that you need to be able to qualify for a security clearance — SECRET as an absolute minimum, and likely TOP SECRET (true also in the defense contracting world). That requirement eliminates a lot of potential candidates.

You might consider broadening your cross-check into other military services, as their needs are somewhat different. You might also want to consider the energy sector if you haven’t already.

A recruiter may try to talk you into enlisting. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but realize that you will spend 4 years doing something else than engineering before you get the chance to compete for something better. Depending on your career field, that may give you some relevant experience, but then again it, may not.

Best of luck in your search!
- Bill
 
Last edited:
Hi Andrew,

As you have no doubt figured out, competition for AF engineering jobs is pretty stiff. I spent 32 years active duty, and my last job was running the ROTC program at the University of Oklahoma, along with supervising the enlisted members the AF sent to college and helping identify and screen candidates for direct accession (OTS). I have also sat on a number of selection boards, so I have a reasonably good idea of what it takes to get into the AF, either as a civilian or officer.

It is much tougher to get into the AF than it used to be. Engineering candidates need either a very strong record or a specialty the AF really needs, such as electrical, aero/mech, or aero/astro double-major types. The oft-heard refrain from other senior officers on selection boards was “dang, I’m glad I’m not trying to get into the AF these days.”

To be blunt, the days when the AF (or any service) was always available as a “last resort” are long gone. It is quite competitive.

I can’t give you a firm judgment without seeing your resume, but with your GPA and field, you probably need something that separates you from the pack, such as experience or work on specific projects. Normally, DOD tries to identify very promising candidates while still in school. They hook them up with internships and temp jobs at the labs and cover their last year or two of school in exchange for a two year commitment.

An additional consideration is that you need to be able to qualify for a security clearance — SECRET as an absolute minimum, and likely TOP SECRET (true also in the defense contracting world). That requirement eliminates a lot of potential candidates.

You might consider broadening your cross-check into other military services, as their needs are somewhat different. You might also want to consider the energy sector if you haven’t already.

A recruiter may try to talk you into enlisting. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but realize that you will spend 4 years doing something else than engineering before you get the chance to compete for something better. Depending on your career field, that may give you some relevant experience, but then again it, may not.

Best of luck in your search!
- Bill
Alright Mr. Hanson I've pm'd you my resume'. ALOT of places are harder to get into based on my very limited experience so far.
 
My experience with the AF is 40 years out of date, probably too far out of date to be of use, but perhaps a cautionary tale. I was enlisted for four years, earned two associates degrees in that time, and was selected for a 2 year direct scholarship and commission. But the Vietnam War ended and suddenly there were too many officers - the scholarship program was canceled three months before I would have left. But I was offered a consolation prize - a discharge and a 2 year ROTC scholarship. With a family, that was tight, but with the GI Bill it worked out. As a new 2LT EE, the station I was offered was as an engineering contract management officer in an AFPRO (plant rep office) at Hughes Aircraft. In some respects it was neet - I got to attend briefings on amazing classified projects, observe qualification testing and such. But mostly it was reading contracts (found a $50k error once) and checking the box that the company employees had taken their safety training for the quarter. Contracts were actually managed by the project offices - the plant rep offices just did the mundane monitoring. It got dull pretty quick. But a possible bright spot! - near the end of my tour, there was a career briefing at SAMSO for all the LA area junior contract officers - ~50 lieutenants, mostly engineers, in a room waiting to hear what's next for them. A briefer got up and rambled for 30 minutes about how you could go become a contracting officer here, or a contracting officer there... finally someone stood up and asked: "Where can we go to do engineering?" The briefer looked a little sheepish and finally said that to get to an Air Force Research Lab usually required a 'by name request', otherwise it was contracting officer for you. 'Name request' meant you had to know somebody, and was generally code that you had to be an academy graduate.

A short time later, I literally walked down the hall and got a job working as a design engineer for Hughes Aircraft. Since I hadn't been doing design work, they counted my four years of contracting experience as 'new grad + 18 months' on their starting pay scale. 90 days later they realized their mistake and gave me a 30% pay bump, and I've been a design engineer for the past 40 years.

Overall, I enjoyed the AF, and gave it eight years. But staying longer just wasn't in the 'contract'.
 
One more suggestion. If you have a specialty (HVAC, piping, etc.) in ME, look for a job as an installer in that specialty. If you keep your ears open, you will learn a lot about good and bad design practice from the old-timers that you will take years to learn in a design office. You will also take a lot of ribbing about being an engineer, so practice your humility.

You would want to work for a company working larger or more complex projects. One way to find them is to go to a large construction site and see whose logo is up on the banner for HVAC or mechanical. Worst case, you could ask at the project trailer.

A good engineering company will recognize and appreciate the experience on the ground building the stuff they design.
 
You need to realize that most engineers don't do engineering. They do little hands on stuff, especially after a few years on the job. If you want to do hands on stuff you need to be a technician. Generally, engineers do project management and oversee work done by technicians. Where I worked if you were doing hands on stuff as an engineer it was either because there was a crisis and you needed to solve a problem quickly (very bad), you were really, really good at solving problems with hardware (again, very bad as the design work should have caught the problem before it made it to production), or your career was going nowhere and they stuck you in what management considered a crap job to keep you busy.

When I was in the Air Force I actually worked in a lab doing hands on stuff, at least occasionally. I enjoyed it, but it was a bad career move as R&D was a dead end field as far as promotions went back when I was in. At least the stuff I was doing was a dead end. But I did get to do three rocket sled tests (I think they were 250, 350 and 450 knots) and I also worked for a Nazi. And I don't mean he was a jerk; I mean he was a Nazi. That's always a great conversation item.
 
Where I work in an R&D environment there are very few technicians so we get to be very hands on. It depends on the individual company. I am in the electronics area. Mech is a bit less so, because engineers are not allowed on the lathes and mills (most don't have a trade certificate). We have a small machine shop for prototype parts, or they are contracted out.
 
Let me be blunt. In many of your previous posts here you have come across as an arrogant jerk. I assume that is part of the problem. Then your less than stellar GPA. About the same as mine to be honest.

Its time to get off your butt and do something. Go to grad school if you can't find a job. I did that. I worked as a graduate assistant after I got out of the Air Force and took my courses for free and got a stipend too. Get your foot in the door somewhere and work your way up. That's how its done.

There is only so much help a resume service can do for a college grad; you just don't have a lot of relevant experience. And a resume is just a thing to get you an interview; it does not get you a job. You have to sell yourself in the interview. What can YOU do for the company that is hiring? Everything you can do for a company can be a learning experience, so don't balk at a job you feel is beneath you. Do it and excel at it and then ask for more responsibility. Everyone who is successful has been in that position and leveraged it to help themselves.

Be nice to everyone! You never know who may help you find a good job. Some companies ask the receptionist or even the custodian if they interacted with you and did you treat them nicely. Being nice might get you a job; being a jerk will definitely cost you an opportunity.
 
Let me be blunt. In many of your previous posts here you have come across as an arrogant jerk. I assume that is part of the problem. Then your less than stellar GPA. About the same as mine to be honest.

Its time to get off your butt and do something. Go to grad school if you can't find a job. I did that. I worked as a graduate assistant after I got out of the Air Force and took my courses for free and got a stipend too. Get your foot in the door somewhere and work your way up. That's how its done.

There is only so much help a resume service can do for a college grad; you just don't have a lot of relevant experience. And a resume is just a thing to get you an interview; it does not get you a job. You have to sell yourself in the interview. What can YOU do for the company that is hiring? Everything you can do for a company can be a learning experience, so don't balk at a job you feel is beneath you. Do it and excel at it and then ask for more responsibility. Everyone who is successful has been in that position and leveraged it to help themselves.

Be nice to everyone! You never know who may help you find a good job. Some companies ask the receptionist or even the custodian if they interacted with you and did you treat them nicely. Being nice might get you a job; being a jerk will definitely cost you an opportunity.

This is great advice for living and not just getting a job.
 
You should consider working for a smaller company. They will probably be less picky on experience and GPA than a huge company. That is how I started and it was the most enjoyable job that I had. My company eventually got acquired by a Fortune 500 company and things changed for the worse. We then got bought by a Fortune 100 company and things changed for the worse again. Pay increased each time we got bought, but working conditions got worse and the job get more impersonal. When I started I wore so many hats I don't even remember how many different jobs I had. But at the end of the day I felt like I had really made a difference. Parts got shipped or customers got answers to important questions because of things that I did. That may not be true in big companies; you are just a small cog in a huge machine.
 
... Be nice to everyone! You never know who may help you find a good job. Some companies ask the receptionist or even the custodian if they interacted with you and did you treat them nicely. Being nice might get you a job; being a jerk will definitely cost you an opportunity.

Agreed. I work in a relatively small department of a health system that employs over 11,000 people. For 2018, less than 1% of the applicants were hired for the whole network. We even had several rounds of interviews where we did not offer any positions. Like Zuess said, management asks us if we know people who submitted resumes, what people are like when we call them to set up interviews , and how they act when the arrive and when we escort them to our office. Interviews also include a peer interview committee. This is all on top of an already small industry where ones reputation almost always precedes them. Even then, we usually offer PRN positions first. Most full time spots are then filled from our PRN roster.

I have noticed the same when I interviewed for a fire department position. Someone was taking notes on each candidate, during every step, including "chance" encounters with brass and more tenured firefighters while waiting for your interview time. When these positions narrow the field from 1000 to 10, everything matters.
 
Plus there is no good reason to be a jerk or anything less than as nice as you can be. What possible gain is there in being rude in that situation. Hopefully you act the way your mother or grandmother taught you, say "please" and "thank you" and all the other niceties.
 
Plus there is no good reason to be a jerk or anything less than as nice as you can be. What possible gain is there in being rude in that situation. Hopefully you act the way your mother or grandmother taught you, say "please" and "thank you" and all the other niceties.
Plus my Grandparents from Lookout Mtn, GA (overlooks Chattanooga,TN) would have turned me over their knee and paddled my butt for being a jerk/rude. We recently had 400 people test for 40 positions, resume got them to the test, scoring hot them an interview (average score was a 54%), and the rest background checks (including social media), and performance at the interview, and these were Technican positions, Engineering positions are just as hard to get though a slightly different vetting process is used.
 
Be nice to everyone! You never know who may help you find a good job. Some companies ask the receptionist or even the custodian if they interacted with you and did you treat them nicely. Being nice might get you a job; being a jerk will definitely cost you an opportunity.

Great advice! When we were interviewing candidates for Air Force ROTC scholarships, we made sure they interacted with our NCO’s (enlisted for those not familiar) before the interview, and that interaction was part of our decision.

If some over-entitled HS senior was being a butthead with the enlisted troops (who were both more educated and had much more demonstrated talent), that pretty much ended the discussion.

While the plural of anecdote is not data, the civilian firms I interviewed with post-military had similar arrangements with their receptionists and secretaries.

As an additional point, the interview goes both ways — while they are deciding if they want you to work for them, you should also be deciding if YOU want to work for them.
 
To get the good jobs you have two pathways....get an education and work your way up or work your way up learning as you go, the second route is usually far longer and has lower income for longer and worse hours to get the same pay as someone who has gotten their education first then progressed upward upgrading positions as they go.

I have some college education but no degree and its taken me 20 years of looking for every opportunity to better my position, if I had gotten a degree then started working my way up it would have taken me probably half as long to get to a similar pay rate as what I make now.
Taking the "scenic route" is how I've always described the latter path. I've also got some college, but offered myself cheap with the understanding I was there to learn when finding work. I've jumped around and got my hands on everything I could, which helped build up my resume. I just started a new job that I absolutely love due, I think, to having a bunch of varied experience. I'm making a bit more than I would have fresh out of college with a degree, with the added benefit of being lucky enough to play with some really cool things and build hands on experience.

Honestly, Andrew, I believe that getting out there and getting your hands dirty (even in a technician role) would benefit you greatly. My time spent as an avionics tech in the AF has proven to be extremely valuable. I don't think enlisting would be a poor choice, as it'd give you some time to think about where you're going (plus GI Bill benefits to use towards an advanced degree), provide some economic security and give you some hands on experience that will be applicable to a lot of areas later in life.
 
Be nice to everyone! You never know who may help you find a good job. Some companies ask the receptionist or even the custodian if they interacted with you and did you treat them nicely. Being nice might get you a job; being a jerk will definitely cost you an opportunity.

This reminds me of an engineer who came here for an interview. The first thing he wanted to do was argue about whether the non disclosure agreement we have all applicants sign was enforceable. His know-it-all attitude cost him the opportunity to get a job here before the first interview. The same attitude repeated itself through the morning. Nobody wants to work with a jerk.
 
its' one thing to work with a jerk, a know-it-all, a condescending individual
It's another to work with one who know a lot, but has little applicable knowledge (one who can regurgitate textbooks & formulas, but can't apply what they 'preach')
and another who has little interest in their chosen field (they are in the field because mum & dad wanted them to be a ..)

I've worked with all 3..

We, currently have a robust RnD department, with 8 technologist. One has his master's degree..

Working at a store, or as most start: a fast food joint (McD's, Burger king, etc..) they teach a very important skill: Teamwork & personal interaction. Don't pass that up!
 
Back
Top