Last week my AF recruiter mentioned to me that the AF was 300% over it's recruiting goal for the year. He mentioned that due to the economy a ton of people were trying to enlist and that the AF had to raise It's ASVAB qualifying score from a 35 to a 50 in order to weed out some of the potential recruits.

Now this week my recruiter tells me that the AF has raised the ASVAB qualifying score from a 50 to a 60 and has put a ban on ALL waivers. He also mentioned that the AF would stop recruiting for "at least" a year (According to him the AF has a goal of 30,000 recruits in a year and in one month the AF signed up 16,000 recruits)

Now I've searched these boards for any information regarding these new updates that my recruiter claims the AF in now enforcing and haven't come across any information

So my question is..is this correct information? Did the AF raise the ASVAB qualifying score to a 50, then a week later bump it up to a 60? Also did the AF ban all waivers and will stop recruiting for "at least" a year? I have a feeling that my recruiter is trying to blow me off by making these claims?

there may be some truth in all of that, yes.

I too have heard the ASVAB score being raised to 60, as well as the meeting or exceeding goals by large margins. Waivers have been hard to get for a while now..

that doesn't necessarily mean they have stopped recruiting, but what probably will happen is that they will ONLY take peopel who are willing to go into certain specific fields that they need bodies in. These are typically the jobs that are hardest to fill becuas eof Line scores needed or the job itself isn't very glamorous.

Your recruiter must not know the situation, communicated it wrong to you, or you misunderstood. This is the situation:

The AF had met its contract goal last July. This year, the AF ahs a goal of 32,500 and the goal is spread out over 12 months. This means the AF will ship their annual goal in Sep 2010 to be 100% for the year. 14,000 so far this year? LIE!!!!

ASVAB. It still takes a 36 to join. However, for a period of time (and that period is over), if you needed a waiver, you had to have a 65 on the ASVAB to join. If you are a Junior, you can join in April with a 50. Otherwise, wait until you are a senior and join with a 36.

So, the waiver score was raised, the AF has not put in 14,000 this year (which started 1 Oct 2009), and waivers are still being submitted.

Stop recruiting in a year? There is a major disconnect in the communication channel somewhere and you are caught on the crap end of that stick.

Is there a question? Do you want to join? Do you need a waiver? Do you have a low ASVAB score? And I am a recruiter, but someone who seems to know what is going on or how to communicate.

Or maybe, you are Dq and he wanted to tell you this way instead of telling you why. Who knows.... good luck.

Hey Mrsjvb and djmweb,

Thank you both for your replies!

Here are just the facts laid out then I’ll explain my situation:
24yrs old
College Graduate (BA)
62 asvab score
Never been arrested or in trouble, no medical conditions (I do require glasses) however I need a credit waiver.


Ok here has been my situation. I first walked into a AF recruiting office in early May 2009, I had always been interested in the AF since my high school days. Entering my senior year of HS I was split between entering the AF or going to college. Well half way into my senior year I received a scholarship to an art school to study animation. So I decided to go ahead and attend college. I graduated college in 06’ with a BA in animation. From 06’-09’ I worked in the animation field. I worked on some high profile projects and soon began to grow tired of “the industry” so I wanted out. So I walked into the recruiters office in early May 2009 and explained to them my situation. Everything was looking great, we picked out a date for me to go to MEPS but all that changed when my credit was pulled. Now the problem was that I took an unpaid internship at an animation studio. It was obviously a huge risk but I saw great potential (at the time). Well during my internship I fell behind on my student loan and one credit card payment. Now the internship only lasted a couple months (4 months) but I failed to pay my student loans and credit card during that time so my credit score dropped. Now on a side note I have a car payment that I’ve paid since 06’ and have never missed a payment. I also had rent and other bills that I never missed as well. So if you look at my credit you can see that in a span of a couple months is when I missed some payments (I’ve been living on my own and paying my own bills since I graduated HS in 03’) but anyways my credit score is currently around 580. So my initial recruiter tells me that I need a credit waiver and asks me to write up a statement explaining why I got into debt and what I’m currently doing to resolve the situation, so I write it up. He reads it and says everything looks great but he informs me that because of this credit issue I can no longer go up to meps to take the asvab I have to take it locally (pencil and paper version) and I have to score higher then a 65. So I take the asvab and score a 59, I wait the required 30 days to re-test and on my second attempt I scored a 62. Obviously I needed a 65 so I was in the process of taking the asvab for a third and final time. Now during this period of time my initial recruiter mentioned that he would be leaving recruiting and was being relocated out of state so he mentioned that the other recruiter in the office would be taking over my recruiting process. So in early October 2009 my initial recruiter left. Well a week before I’m scheduled to re-take the asvab my initial recruiter emails me and states that the 65 asvab score required for a credit waiver was no longer in effect, so he told me to get in contact with my new recruiter asap to get the ball rolling. So after several weeks I was unable to get a hold of my new recruiter, he wasn’t responding to my emails, calls, and he was never in the office. When I finally did get a hold of him several weeks later he didn’t seem too excited to be taking over my recruiting process. He said he would push up my packet and send out my waiver request a couple weeks ago. So I waited and waited and never heard a response, once again I called, emailed, and showed up to the office but he was nowhere to be found. When I finally did get a hold of him he goes into this conversation that I stated in my initial posting about how the AF was overmanned, he was flooded with recruits (which I don’t doubt) he tells me how the AF was going to stop recruiting for “at least” a year, asvab score raised to a 60, etc.

So I started becoming a little skeptical about the information that this new recruiter has been telling me. The claims that the AF had recruited 16,000 recruits in ONE month and how the asvab score was lifted from a 50 to a 60 in less than a week seemed farfetched. I honestly felt like he was giving me this information to set me up for what eventually happened. What happened? Well a couple days ago he calls me and states that he was in the process of sending up my packet and credit waiver request when he spoke with a colonel (a colonel? Come on) who told him that ALL waivers were being banned. He told me that there was pretty much nothing he could do for me because the colonel has the last word.

Now I honestly don’t believe any of this happened and I have a feeling that this new recruiter is trying to blow me off. I mean he never answered or returned my calls, emails, etc. and before he became my recruiter I heard him flat out LIE to another recruit. How did he lie? Well this recruit was in the process of signing his contract (the recruit looked like an 18yrs old kid fresh out of high school) he was going over the contract and wanted to read what he was signing (your entitled to that) well the recruiter gave him crap about reading over the contract and stated how no one ever read the contract before. Then the recruit started asking him questions about some of the things that were listed in his contract and the recruiter said “Look if you don’t sign this contract RIGHT NOW you will NEVER be able to join the AF” so now the kid was flustered and visibly nervous so he was like o.k, o.k I’ll sign it. But I knew that was a total LIE, If you don’t sign the contract the recruiter will obviously be upset and will never work with you again BUT you can re-apply and join later on if you choose.

So that’s basically where I’m at right now. I feel like this recruiter is being dishonest and doesn't want to put in the time to help me. I mean I could be wrong maybe I'am screwed like he states and there is nothing I can do but thats why I posted on this board to see if maybe I should look for another recruiter who might be able to help me.

any information would be helpful guys!

thank you!

quote:

Originally posted by 21915804:
sending up my packet and credit waiver request when he spoke with a colonel (a colonel? Come on) who told him that ALL waivers were being banned. He told me that there was pretty much nothing he could do for me because the colonel has the last word.
thank you!

Okay, now here's where your lack of understanding is starting to show. A COL, or LTC, is not so far out of the realm of reality as you may think. A LTC (Lieutenant Colonel) is an O-5, and is generally a Battalion Commander position, a COL is an O-6, and is typically a Brigade level position, but sometimes also commands a Battalion for short periods of time. I'm not precisely familiar with what this position level translates into the AF, but I want to say "Squadron".

Anyways, point is that this commander who your recruiter spoke to may have indeed told your recruiter that he/she is NOT approving any Battalion level waivers, which is very likely the type of waiver you need.

So yes, it makes perfect sense as to why your recruiter spoke to a LTC or COL, because that person is the approving authority for whatever hurdle it is you need to cross.

Now what you also need to understand is with the current job market in the civilian world, the number of unemployed HIGHLY-employable people wanting to join the military has gone way up. That means recruiters have far less time to deal with "difficult", or even "minor problems" to get people in the military, because they have plenty who don't require any extra legwork at all.

You will, in fact, be at the bottom of a long list.

Thanks for the reply Nangasaur,

Like I mentioned in my previous post, maybe this recruiter isn’t lying and I’m pretty much screwed but with all the lies that he's feed me when I heard him say that he spoke with a colonel I was like come on, but your right I really don’t have a thorough understanding of who he reports to.

I understand that with the current economic situation people are flocking to join the military. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I’ve been in the office speaking with my recruiter and either his phone is blowing up or people are constantly walking in asking about joining. See that’s the thing, my recruiter told me that in one year he has a goal to recruit 30 people, he told me in one month he’s already signed up 16. So he’s more than half way done with his yearly goal in one month. He can pretty much kick back and not do anything for the next couple of months and he’s fine. He also mentioned how he loved his job so much because “he didn’t have a boss breathing over his shoulder” and “if I don’t feel like coming to work today, guess what? I don’t come” which might explain why I would call, email, and show up to the office and he was never around. And if that isn’t bad enough, on one occasion I called him to his cell phone while I was standing outside the AF recruiting office. I was looking right into the window at him while he sat and drank his coffee and as his phone began to ring he simply looked at it, saw that it was me calling then just put it back on the desk. Guess how surprised he was when I walked into the office moments later. I told him “Hey Sir, I’ve been trying to get a hold off you” Then he hits me with the “I’ve been super busy” line while in the back of my head im thinking “man I just saw you completely blow my phone call while you sat there and drank coffee”

Now according to djmweb they are still submitting waivers and according to you I’d be at the bottom of a long list. Which essentially means that I CAN join but maybe not at this moment. Which is fine with me, I can wait a couple months if that’s what it takes but if we’re talking about a two to three year wait, then my chances of joining become very slim. You see my recruiter told me that I COULDN’T join, period. He didn’t explain anything, basically I couldn't join, nothing he could do for me, end of story. That’s why I had to post my story because I feel that there is more that can be done and I’m not going to quit and give up on the AF that easily.

quote:

Originally posted by 21915804:

Now according to djmweb they are still submitting waivers and according to you I’d be at the bottom of a long list. Which essentially means that I CAN join but maybe not at this moment. Which is fine with me, I can wait a couple months if that’s what it takes but if we’re talking about a two to three year wait, then my chances of joining become very slim. You see my recruiter told me that I COULDN’T join, period. He didn’t explain anything, basically I couldn't join, nothing he could do for me, end of story. That’s why I had to post my story because I feel that there is more that can be done and I’m not going to quit and give up on the AF that easily.

Another unfortunate misunderstanding.

There's a huge difference between an "across-the-board rejection of all waivers, directed by USAREC (for Army recruiting), or the equivalent of the AF...and a unit-level (Battalion, or even lowest level recruiting station) directive to NOT send any waivers up because they will deny them.

What I'm getting from this story is that the Battalion-level commander (The COL or LTC) made a command decision and ordered all recruiters under him/her to NOT send any waivers because there are more than enough potential recruits that do not require any waivers at all. This type of command decision is perfectly legal and an acceptable recruiting practice. After all, if someone in the chain of command decides not to sign off on a waiver, it is essentially denied at their desk.

That's what the commander is doing. It's their job and well within their authority to do so. That's not to say another Battalion-level commander elsewhere made the same command decision, and is in fact accepting waivers at their desk. It's just saying that this particular commander is stopping all waivers at their desk and essentially reducing unnecessary work.

I know this may be somewhat difficult to understand without seeing the inner workings of a recruiting environment, or even living under a command structure such as the military and knowing just exactly what we go through when a piece of paperwork requires multiple signatures, each one level of authority above the prior signature. Just know that commanders have the authority to restrict recruiting practices even further than the "standard", especially when their signature is involved.

Hey Nangasaur,

Once again thanks for your reply!
From your great explanation I gained a bit more insight as to how things are structured. You see I was under the assumption that the AF had done an “across-the-board rejection of all waivers” because my recruiter stated that the AF had put a ban on all waiver, he never stated that only his unit was given orders not to give out waivers. If that's the case I wish he would have told me that I could try my luck with another recruiter not under his battalion-level commander who might be able to process a waiver. He told me that there was nothing he could do, when in fact he could have told me to try another recruiter, correct?


So far from my understanding:

1. The claim that the AF has recruited 16,000 Airman in one month is a LIE
2. The claim that the AF has put a ban on all waivers is a LIE
3. The claim that the AF will stop recruiting for “at least a year” is a LIE

quote:

Originally posted by 21915804:
Hey Nangasaur,
If that's the case I wish he would have told me that I could try my luck with another recruiter not under his battalion-level commander who might be able to process a waiver. He told me that there was nothing he could do, when in fact he could have told me to try another recruiter, correct?

Well, I'm not going to try and figure out or comment on a particular recruiter's motivation behind telling you one thing or not telling you another. I can really only help you understand the complicated and sometimes confusing processes involved in recruiting when recruiters sometimes have a difficult time finding the right words to explain something to the civilian world.

You could try a different recruiting area, by all means, but just so you know, a "Battalion" covers a pretty wide area in the world of recruiting, for the Army at least. You could very well be looking at calling several states away from you. I would think the AF probably covers similar-sized or possibly even larger areas, if it is indeed command-structured in recruiting the same as the Army is.

But even then, it's not to say those commanders haven't made the same command decision. They aren't dumb people, and got their jobs by making good decisions

Hey Nangasaur,

Thanks for all your input!