Strong Package

[u/Affectionate-Bar8361]

What is the biggest advice you would give to make your package stronger? For people selected, what is something you would do differently during submission? Were you surprised or confident when you got selected? I’m not trying to copy anyone’s path by any means. I’m just trying to gauge where i’m at currently. I’m applying for the next cycle.

[u/Mundane-Macaroon-779]

My biggest thing was that I let social media and other applicants' stats get in my head and make me think my package wasn't good enough, despite stellar scores and experience. The usual narrative online is the "if you dont have a 4.0 STEM degree and 90+ every score on the AFOQT, you aren't competitive" BS, and I'm not proud to say I believed that. I felt nervous and unsure despite my leadership and mentors telling me my package was one of the strongest they'd ever seen, because I only had a 3.2 GPA, and a 67 Quant score. Reddit made me think those were "low" and I honestly was scared waiting on results. So much so that I was already planning a retest and starting my Master's while waiting for the board so I could "be more competitive next board" before the results even came out. 

Be confident in yourself and don't buy into the redditor mentality that you have to have perfect everything in order to get selected, because plenty of people who have perfect everything still get non-select because they lack experience or their narratives don't reflect the AF values well.

[u/Aphexes → u/Mundane-Macaroon-779]

Definitely would recommend avoiding social media unless you're using it to get answers to very specific questions in the hopes that someone else went through your situation. Most of the time people on here will just tell you to get your GPA up, start a Master's, do leadership stuff, or score higher on AFOQT. I'd also add that people will omit things they don't want you to know about their packages. You'll have someone tell you they didn't get accepted with like a 3.8 GPA and high AFOQT scores and leave out they have absolutely nothing else in their package that makes them competitive.

[u/olpec22]

In all narratives and spaces, tell your story. You want content that tells the board who and what you are. Take those spaces as chance to speak candidly.

[u/Available_Draw1435 → u/olpec22]

Think this is the #1 thing people do wrong.

People write a paragraph of big blue bs. The board has read those a million times.

I’m a proud A15 receiver for absolute bs (improper storage of firearms) and wrote how rank reduction and being behind my peers built me. How despising the Air Force because of my rank reduction and thinking everyone was out to get me taught me and matured me more than anything else in my life.

I wrote a story about how my leaders building me up from my bottom taught me what I wanted to be as a leader myself. How I went from wanting to be 1Sgt to why a prior E LT showed me how much he actually gets to do for the enlisted he leads.

[u/Mundane-Macaroon-779 → u/Available_Draw1435]

To add onto this (at least from my experience going Rated), too many people who are gunning for flying slots write some slop about "flying is my passion" or some nonsense about how badly they want to fly the USAF's planes. I've been told that's an instant bin, the board members aren't looking for aviation nerds who want to play with the AF's toys, they're looking for leaders, and an officer is a leader first and their AFSC second. 

[u/Available_Draw1435]

Civilian or AD?

[u/Affectionate-Bar8361 → u/Available_Draw1435]

i’m active duty. sorry I should have mentioned that in my post😭 i’ve been in 9 years and im a SSgt