advice from recently recruited ADF

[acex1138]

Hi guys.... those of you who know me already know my military background.

Long story short I was recruited into reserves years ago and not too long after that got told I then had to go to kapooka which was simple enough.

Only problem was I had to go through recruitment through the civilian end of it all over again, and i've managed to get rejected by them 7 times.

I either fail medical or psyche, and as some of you who have dealt with recruitment you know it can be a mixed bag.

I know plenty of people who shouldnt be in who have flown through and a lot of good people get turfed.

Medical wise i've been rejected before for acne on my shoulder which is light, and i've been told that you can sign a waver for this, which i've asked to before and been told we'll see how treatmeant goes and they defer you for another 6 months while you go through treatment, I went through every option avaliable getting me down to roaccutaine, as nasty concoction I was worried about going on to due to its side affects and links with causing depression leading to suicide.

Ended up going on it for 4 months where it nearly got me fired at work due to how bad it got me, cant do customer service when your nose is bleeding all the time, you look like a ghost and your vomiting blood. When it got up to the vomiting blood point contacted my doctor who gave me the go ahead to stop immediately.

This caused all sorts of annoyances with the ADF recruitment people who kept having a go at me telling me no one told me to stop the treatment, I explained to them what it was doing to me and they didnt believe me.

Now this is the kind of attitude you'd expect from a senior officer with bad people skills but this is 9/10 the general attitude you get from the adelaide recruitment center staff.

Not too long after this I had to get a blood test which the recruitment center managed to lose the results of, which I got annoyed with over the phone to one of the medical staff. Few days later I get a call from a 'staff mediator' who asks me if its a good time to talk, I tell him not really im currently outside of nhil in victoria about to head in to fight the fire (this was during the victorian bushfire crisis, i'd gone over as support crew to help).

Where he didnt believe me, and started to berate me over a claim by medical staff i'd been abusive to them and accused them of losing my blood which was a serious claim.

Long story short this was my 5th recruitment attempt and I just backed out because of all of the crap I was copping from them and no matter how nice i was, helpful, complied with their requests, it just got downright stupid. and in the 6 months following it, I kept getting phone calls, how would u like to join the army, how would u like to join the navy, have you heard about this job called gunnumber.

So i either fail the medical for that condition (first 3 times I made it in fine?... with exact same condition) so i get past there and make it into the shrinks office.

First time I was a kid who had just left school and after getting really high scores and looking good academicly understandable im told they want to block my application for a year, because they think I can do better then an entry level rifleman job, and tell me to go back and finish school.

2nd and third time I dont get in because of my family background (I have a brother who's airforce who's pretty much dead to me and havnt seen in years because he put me in hospital when i was 10) and a sister who's an officer i pretty much lived with when i left home due to a bad father.

Makes all these assumptions and I actually got all the way through on these 2 psych interviews im just told that due to my background they want me to wait another 6 months to see what I do with my life from here and tell me to come back.

Then up until the most recent attempt 2 years ago I fly through them.

Im sure a few of you have heard me mention this story, but yeah most recent attempt was 2 years ago, flew through everything, medical gave me a few dramas but I seemed to have gotten through with exact same condition...

I get to psych I fly through it, he tells me they are impressed and he'll be back in 20m to finalize things and will set me up with my final defence interview. I get sent out to the lobby where me and another guy i've made mates with are chatting to each other he's gone through for navy is gonna be a seaman we're both pretty happy.

Navy guy comes over sits down starts chatting with us starts joking with my mate telling him all of this stuff about hte navy and starts to joke about the hazing and how its all just good fun. Asks me about how im going tell him im doing pretty well starts to tell me of some of the army parties he's been to, jokes around about it all with us tells us about some bad stuff he's done so we think he's on the level... he mentions the airforce and makes a bad remark about them and I mention my brother and joke how they all just sleep around and move onto the next girl and a clearly displayed joking tone and the convo moves back to my mate with the navy.

I get back into the shrinks office. First question I get is......

'so whats your REAL opinion of air force servicemen?'

i ask for the context and yeah... the guy turned out to have reported everything we said directly to them. And not only adding to that, they had dug up on history and did not let anything go..... every drama from previous recruitments was brought up, detentions from school, and to make it more messed up, i've got a family who have looked after me since I left home, I list them as emergency contacts... the mothers ex husband is ex RAAF, who at the time was going through court for charges I cant mention here and somehow they even brought him up, I didnt even know how they dug him up and tried to get information out of me about it which I refused to talk about.

At this point I just refused to answer any more questions and just stated that the entire conversation mentioned out in the lobby, was off the record and meant in a light hearted manner, as was done in all three directions, none of it was meant serious, and that given the reactions I had regretted my poor choice of words.

I knew at this point I was more then screwed.

I then said that the adf had known about my situation for years and sitll persisted with recruiting, that I have been encouraged by all of my friends and acquaintanceship of the reserve groups in SA including 10/27th who keep trying to get me to serve with them.

He then asks me what I think should happen, to which I replied well, I know im not going to make it through today, so the best thing for me to do is to walk away and look at the possibilities later, which he said best of luck to you , see you later.

I find out about 8 weeks ago, the put a lock on my file for 2 years without informing me.

I spoke to a few other defence recruiters who are actually in the defence force who told me this situation isnt at all uncommon and they lose out on great recruits because of this, and this kind of trap isnt too uncommon, and the other big thing is they will kick a lot of guys out for tattoos, and all sorts of other things at the drop of a hat unless they are really desperate to fill some job vacancies, and the best advice they gave me was move interstate, dont get tattoos, and if I make it to another assessment day, try not to be like a robot, but shutup and give the simplest answers possible, making all answers a sentance at most.

And if they refer anything back to the past, defer answering the question.



Well its now 2 years after all that.... so about 8 weeks ago.... contacted my old defence recruiter, she sent me out all the forms got me to fill them in, sent them in got sent my medical, sent it in... 2 weeks after that I hear nothing so I call up, speak with a lovely girl in canberra, ask her advice on recruitment explain my situation ,she tells me happens all the time, im appling for artillery which REALLY needs people at hte moments so im less likely to get turfed so thats a good idea and that I should be fine for everything else and to quote her 'just remember recruitment are idiots. tell them what they want to hear'.

A week after that im still waiting for the date to be set, so I call up instead I get through to a civilian recruitment hotline center to book dates. I get an indian guy who is a thorough bastard and absuive to me, tells me I have been blocked and I know this and he will have to log my abusive behavior on my file. I tell him, wait mate, I havnt raised my voice... let me rephrase. I get him to calm down and explain to him again having to be really slowly as he cant seem to understand fluent English and explain that i've been sent out the forms by ADF recruitment who still have me on file.

I then ask if im blocked howcome it didnt show up on the file, he tells me about hte block and that I was informed in writing, I tell him i've never received it can he give the details on the department that blocked me, he tells me no, tells me to have a nice day and hangs up on me.

I figure im screwed once more.... so I put all my forms away at work in my draw and wait until I can move interstate. Two days later I get a phone call from the medical section, Hi we got your forms can we do the medical interview, i tell her what the indian guy said, she laughs and says their department sucks, give me two seconds.

Tells me psych department blocked my application and gave no reason, tells me wait 2 minutes she'll unblock it. Went through everything everything fine she tells my my last YOU session is still valid and all my referees have been called and im good, next step is to book an assessment day.

2 days later I get a call...... psych reissued the block and gave a reason this time saying that they want you to serve out a 2 year ban from recruitment, but that ends soon we'll give you a call when its sorted.

I call them 1 week ago.... to be told yeah everything in order your booked in for the 16th of august.



So yeah..... i dont know what to do this time, I dont know if im dead before I walk in with psych department.

I just want some advice from anyone recruited recently what my best options are to do, my sisters husband who was recruited 15 years ago had very similar dramas, and his way in was by challenging the psych who then let him in, and in all honesty that would seem like the worst thing to do here.

Last year..... when i started seeing my gf I ended up moving back into my fathers house so she would have somewhere to stay (she was a backpacker) when she was in adelaide... and now its changed from him being an abusive bastard like he was 15 years ago to me pretty much being his carer... he's changed a lot...... and so have I.

So im thinking this time around, try and avoid any of the questions about family from psych and answer positively to everything, defrec reckon they are gonna be very happy that im looking after him at the moment which will help me get through psych, my 2 years working fulltime in engineering while studying will also help.

So im thinking best plan, sit down, shut up, be positive.

Any other advice people can give? (apart from dont write a novel on a forum)

[GEN3RATD]

from personal experience (im in the RAN) recruiting is balls. half of them have no idea what they are talking about.

[minux]

lol, no idea what has changed, but I'd quit trying to get in if I was you. Chances are you are flagged with SCMA as a do not accept (not sure if the system still works the same way). I know years ago you turned up to Melbourne with your bags packed and if you passed everything you were on a bus to kapooka. Never heard anyone have so much trouble.

Perhaps French foreign legion might accept you? LOL.

Seriously though, why bother wasting your time any longer? Put it to a more productive use

[acex1138]

well foreign recruitment has been a backup option but yeah. It's really expensive to join British forces.

And yeah im starting to think im flagged as well, in my attempts at recruitment i've had them :
loose bloodtest results twice, deny it ten times, try and flag me as abusive for it once, find them and deny they were ever lost, lose my medical paperwork, misspell my name 30 times (ITS DAVID), fail to send out paperwork numerous itmes, fail me once after passing everything to tell me I never passed year 9 maths...... only to have me go to SABSA and get them a print out of my year 11 maths results, which they accepted then two weeks later dismissed, and then a week after accepted.

Had them lose my drivers license (they ask you to surrender it when you enter the premesis on application days) and then claim I never handed it to them, then they found it by a coffee machine in the staff room, which I saw them find, and then get told It got stuck in the photo copier?.

ive had over 100 phone calls while on blocking from actual defense force personell trying to recruit me to join their squad's which on being told im blocked they call the recruitment people incompetent and ruining the adf. i've had them send me forms with the wrong dates, and the best one of them all, hold on to your lunches.

While performing the full medical where they ask you to turn your head and cough (they dont but you know what i mean), had the woman perform the genital exam who forgot to put gloves on. who after a feel quickly pulls her hands away and im thinking thats a bit cold i look up and she's at the desk hurriedly putting gloves on.

I know it seems crazy... but we've all had that one job we always wanted, and that realistic job we know we're built for. I've been shoved into tech roles all my life..... I have had some service with the adf.... and I know I was meant to be a soldier.... and im probably going to be a cop later on, but yeah. I've spent 2 years in engineering, and most of my work life before that in tech roles, I can tell you right now it's the only thing i've wanted to do, and to anyone who says pfft just go play cod, your an idiot.

And anyone who says there are other ways to serve your country, well im now in my fifth year of volunteering at youthgroup...... i love doing that too, but at the end of the day, we go to war, i dont want to be anywhere else but doing my part.

[Banicks]

Sounds like you're flagged mate. Mate of mine walked through with self harm scars up to wazoo.

But they denied you entry as a rifleman, to ask you to apply later for something better?!

That is seriously the first time I have ever heard of recruitment knocking back a grunt!

RE: British Army. That's what I'm aiming for once I make the move over there, you may walk through, who knows your luck.

[acex1138]

well next year im planning to go backpacking europe so you never know.

when i was 17 and got booted I was seriously looking into it I got up to the stage where they send you out the prep pack.

It's in that you find out you need to have some friends in the UK, as you need to get over there with enough money to support yourself for 6 months, plus somewhere to live for 6 months, during that initial application / pretraining time you're completely on your own financially, cant work, and must ALREADY have a UK citizen with no criminal history to vouch for you.

[Banicks]

well next year im planning to go backpacking europe so you never know.

when i was 17 and got booted I was seriously looking into it I got up to the stage where they send you out the prep pack.

It's in that you find out you need to have some friends in the UK, as you need to get over there with enough money to support yourself for 6 months, plus somewhere to live for 6 months, during that initial application / pretraining time you're completely on your own financially, cant work, and must ALREADY have a UK citizen with no criminal history to vouch for you.

or, you could have duel citizenship and join immediately

BTW, when I read about commonwealth recruitment for them, there was absolutely no mention of the above regarding working there for 6 months prior to application. Have you sent an email to UK recruit to confirm?

[Julie]

I have zero military experience but from an outsider view it is clear they don't want you. I would rethink career paths. You mentioned being a cop in later life. Maybe you could retrain and become a police officer. If you still feel the call for military is doing reserves an option? You also mentioned you were unavailable to talk to one of the officers as you were heading out to fight fires, what about following that path, firefighting if it is someting you enjoy and you would certainly be serving your country. If the shit went down and we went to ww3 the defence force would probably lower their requirements and take anyone who can stand on 2 legs so you could still do your part

[acex1138]

I have zero military experience but from an outsider view it is clear they don't want you. I would rethink career paths. You mentioned being a cop in later life. Maybe you could retrain and become a police officer. If you still feel the call for military is doing reserves an option? You also mentioned you were unavailable to talk to one of the officers as you were heading out to fight fires, what about following that path, firefighting if it is someting you enjoy and you would certainly be serving your country. If the shit went down and we went to ww3 the defence force would probably lower their requirements and take anyone who can stand on 2 legs so you could still do your part

cant help wanting what you want. And its not the civilian recruiters, every military brigade i've had any dealing with want me. Its just trouble getting past civilian recruitment, i've been toying with the idea of moving to the east coast and applying there. I've spoken to a few in qld recruitment and they seem to have their head on straight, to make things more fun i've found out i've been drawn the exact same shrink and medical staff for next week...

And yeah firefighting... its not for me.. i've helped out during the fires and during bushfire season, but not my thing.

And sapol..... my sisters husband is right, he says becoming a cop is like getting married. im not ready for that yet. when you do that your life changes. Im 22 and have a wrx. im not ready for that life change yet lol

[Garth]

mate, sounds to me like they simply dont want you for some reason.
to have your file locked for 2 years, simply means you pose either a security or a mental risk, perhaps they have done all the testes and found your not mentaly suited for defence force service? and the fact you keep going back for recruitment, and ask questions, not alowing the action to run it's course at their speed, probably says your not suited.

if your having so much drama now getting in, it will only get harder, depending on which of the services you choose to join, and with a family history of members serving, it wont be easy for you.

if you have been blocked by phyc i wouldnt expect a different result, they will have that old file, and will read it, review it, and if you show so much as any of the reasons they blocked you for in the first place, you will get stamped not fit.
sorry dude, sucks balls, but might be time to look at other options.

[CV60VE]

Hey dude
Sorry to hear about this I just got accepted to go in as a Combat Engineer in the army and have been waiting since October of last yer that's when I sat my YOU Session.

I think it's absolute balls how they won't let you serve for you country because of a couple of pimples.
Just be honest to the physc and all that maby if you lived near another recruiting center and you really wanted to join the ADF try that but you'd think the amount of times that your local recruiting centre has seen you they think that you'd be keen as.

Anyways dude
Hope all goes well for you dude let me know how things turn out.

[itsagixa]

shit mate, i walked in there about 10 years ago and got accepted straight off the bat...as a marine engineer electrical, got my letters and flew to melbourne 3 weeks later....seems like they pick and choose which they obviously cant afford to be doing seeing as there is a massive shortage at the moment

might also mention that the recruiters are completly out of touch with how the real service works.....the most common line i heard during my time was "the recruiters lied" or "the recruiters have no idea"

[acex1138]

this time around im walking in with engineering qualifications, (not engineer, but tafe cert 4 and they've been very interested with 2 years of exp).

Also coming in with a nice strong recommendation from my ex boss who's a reserve officer who served in several conflicts, called him earlier he's writing me a good letter of recommendation.

And yeah i know the general feeling of not being wanted.... kind of sends a mixed message when they still keep trying to recruit you.

The main thing psych keep picking up on is just where I come from... and their idea that I cant ever get away from it. And their files dont even really back any of it up. A few times they couldnt even find a file on me, as they lost it.

What I really need to know is from someone who's recently made it through, what kind of questions where you asked this time around in the psych and how did you answer it.

I've had the psych try and provoke me, had the psych try and trap me, and inbetween that, just yes and no questions, made it through 3/7 times, and the 2nd to last time same guy and got through fine.

It's a bit of a mixed bag you get everytime.... im not betting all on it.... at the moment this is one of hte backup plans I have going on for things, its just something I really want to do if I can get in its what I want, but im concentrating on mining at the moment. I'm just trying to prepare myself as best I can and trying to suss out what i'm dealing with.

[hi_ryder]

Hi guys.... those of you who know me already know my military background.

Long story short I was recruited into reserves years ago and not too long after that got told I then had to go to kapooka which was simple enough.

Only problem was I had to go through recruitment through the civilian end of it all over again, and i've managed to get rejected by them 7 times.

I either fail medical or psyche, and as some of you who have dealt with recruitment you know it can be a mixed bag.

I know plenty of people who shouldnt be in who have flown through and a lot of good people get turfed.

Medical wise i've been rejected before for acne on my shoulder which is light, and i've been told that you can sign a waver for this, which i've asked to before and been told we'll see how treatmeant goes and they defer you for another 6 months while you go through treatment, I went through every option avaliable getting me down to roaccutaine, as nasty concoction I was worried about going on to due to its side affects and links with causing depression leading to suicide.

Ended up going on it for 4 months where it nearly got me fired at work due to how bad it got me, cant do customer service when your nose is bleeding all the time, you look like a ghost and your vomiting blood. When it got up to the vomiting blood point contacted my doctor who gave me the go ahead to stop immediately.

This caused all sorts of annoyances with the ADF recruitment people who kept having a go at me telling me no one told me to stop the treatment, I explained to them what it was doing to me and they didnt believe me.

Now this is the kind of attitude you'd expect from a senior officer with bad people skills but this is 9/10 the general attitude you get from the adelaide recruitment center staff.

Not too long after this I had to get a blood test which the recruitment center managed to lose the results of, which I got annoyed with over the phone to one of the medical staff. Few days later I get a call from a 'staff mediator' who asks me if its a good time to talk, I tell him not really im currently outside of nhil in victoria about to head in to fight the fire (this was during the victorian bushfire crisis, i'd gone over as support crew to help).

Where he didnt believe me, and started to berate me over a claim by medical staff i'd been abusive to them and accused them of losing my blood which was a serious claim.

Long story short this was my 5th recruitment attempt and I just backed out because of all of the crap I was copping from them and no matter how nice i was, helpful, complied with their requests, it just got downright stupid. and in the 6 months following it, I kept getting phone calls, how would u like to join the army, how would u like to join the navy, have you heard about this job called gunnumber.

So i either fail the medical for that condition (first 3 times I made it in fine?... with exact same condition) so i get past there and make it into the shrinks office.

First time I was a kid who had just left school and after getting really high scores and looking good academicly understandable im told they want to block my application for a year, because they think I can do better then an entry level rifleman job, and tell me to go back and finish school.

2nd and third time I dont get in because of my family background (I have a brother who's airforce who's pretty much dead to me and havnt seen in years because he put me in hospital when i was 10) and a sister who's an officer i pretty much lived with when i left home due to a bad father.

Makes all these assumptions and I actually got all the way through on these 2 psych interviews im just told that due to my background they want me to wait another 6 months to see what I do with my life from here and tell me to come back.

Then up until the most recent attempt 2 years ago I fly through them.

Im sure a few of you have heard me mention this story, but yeah most recent attempt was 2 years ago, flew through everything, medical gave me a few dramas but I seemed to have gotten through with exact same condition...

I get to psych I fly through it, he tells me they are impressed and he'll be back in 20m to finalize things and will set me up with my final defence interview. I get sent out to the lobby where me and another guy i've made mates with are chatting to each other he's gone through for navy is gonna be a seaman we're both pretty happy.

Navy guy comes over sits down starts chatting with us starts joking with my mate telling him all of this stuff about hte navy and starts to joke about the hazing and how its all just good fun. Asks me about how im going tell him im doing pretty well starts to tell me of some of the army parties he's been to, jokes around about it all with us tells us about some bad stuff he's done so we think he's on the level... he mentions the airforce and makes a bad remark about them and I mention my brother and joke how they all just sleep around and move onto the next girl and a clearly displayed joking tone and the convo moves back to my mate with the navy.

I get back into the shrinks office. First question I get is......

'so whats your REAL opinion of air force servicemen?'

i ask for the context and yeah... the guy turned out to have reported everything we said directly to them. And not only adding to that, they had dug up on history and did not let anything go..... every drama from previous recruitments was brought up, detentions from school, and to make it more messed up, i've got a family who have looked after me since I left home, I list them as emergency contacts... the mothers ex husband is ex RAAF, who at the time was going through court for charges I cant mention here and somehow they even brought him up, I didnt even know how they dug him up and tried to get information out of me about it which I refused to talk about.

At this point I just refused to answer any more questions and just stated that the entire conversation mentioned out in the lobby, was off the record and meant in a light hearted manner, as was done in all three directions, none of it was meant serious, and that given the reactions I had regretted my poor choice of words.

I knew at this point I was more then screwed.

I then said that the adf had known about my situation for years and sitll persisted with recruiting, that I have been encouraged by all of my friends and acquaintanceship of the reserve groups in SA including 10/27th who keep trying to get me to serve with them.

He then asks me what I think should happen, to which I replied well, I know im not going to make it through today, so the best thing for me to do is to walk away and look at the possibilities later, which he said best of luck to you , see you later.

I find out about 8 weeks ago, the put a lock on my file for 2 years without informing me.

I spoke to a few other defence recruiters who are actually in the defence force who told me this situation isnt at all uncommon and they lose out on great recruits because of this, and this kind of trap isnt too uncommon, and the other big thing is they will kick a lot of guys out for tattoos, and all sorts of other things at the drop of a hat unless they are really desperate to fill some job vacancies, and the best advice they gave me was move interstate, dont get tattoos, and if I make it to another assessment day, try not to be like a robot, but shutup and give the simplest answers possible, making all answers a sentance at most.

And if they refer anything back to the past, defer answering the question.



Well its now 2 years after all that.... so about 8 weeks ago.... contacted my old defence recruiter, she sent me out all the forms got me to fill them in, sent them in got sent my medical, sent it in... 2 weeks after that I hear nothing so I call up, speak with a lovely girl in canberra, ask her advice on recruitment explain my situation ,she tells me happens all the time, im appling for artillery which REALLY needs people at hte moments so im less likely to get turfed so thats a good idea and that I should be fine for everything else and to quote her 'just remember recruitment are idiots. tell them what they want to hear'.

A week after that im still waiting for the date to be set, so I call up instead I get through to a civilian recruitment hotline center to book dates. I get an indian guy who is a thorough bastard and absuive to me, tells me I have been blocked and I know this and he will have to log my abusive behavior on my file. I tell him, wait mate, I havnt raised my voice... let me rephrase. I get him to calm down and explain to him again having to be really slowly as he cant seem to understand fluent English and explain that i've been sent out the forms by ADF recruitment who still have me on file.

I then ask if im blocked howcome it didnt show up on the file, he tells me about hte block and that I was informed in writing, I tell him i've never received it can he give the details on the department that blocked me, he tells me no, tells me to have a nice day and hangs up on me.

I figure im screwed once more.... so I put all my forms away at work in my draw and wait until I can move interstate. Two days later I get a phone call from the medical section, Hi we got your forms can we do the medical interview, i tell her what the indian guy said, she laughs and says their department sucks, give me two seconds.

Tells me psych department blocked my application and gave no reason, tells me wait 2 minutes she'll unblock it. Went through everything everything fine she tells my my last YOU session is still valid and all my referees have been called and im good, next step is to book an assessment day.

2 days later I get a call...... psych reissued the block and gave a reason this time saying that they want you to serve out a 2 year ban from recruitment, but that ends soon we'll give you a call when its sorted.

I call them 1 week ago.... to be told yeah everything in order your booked in for the 16th of august.



So yeah..... i dont know what to do this time, I dont know if im dead before I walk in with psych department.

I just want some advice from anyone recruited recently what my best options are to do, my sisters husband who was recruited 15 years ago had very similar dramas, and his way in was by challenging the psych who then let him in, and in all honesty that would seem like the worst thing to do here.

Last year..... when i started seeing my gf I ended up moving back into my fathers house so she would have somewhere to stay (she was a backpacker) when she was in adelaide... and now its changed from him being an abusive bastard like he was 15 years ago to me pretty much being his carer... he's changed a lot...... and so have I.

So im thinking this time around, try and avoid any of the questions about family from psych and answer positively to everything, defrec reckon they are gonna be very happy that im looking after him at the moment which will help me get through psych, my 2 years working fulltime in engineering while studying will also help.

So im thinking best plan, sit down, shut up, be positive.

Any other advice people can give? (apart from dont write a novel on a forum)

lol........

[jacko2]

SCMA would have flagged you by now, doesn't matter where you try and get in, they have your file. if you didn't get let in now you wont EVER. if you failed psych thats it. look at it from this point of view. if they let you in after you fail psych and then you commit suicide while in the ADF (im not saying you would this is an example) it looks really bad to the media, why would they allow a person that failed psych to enter? this has happened in the past and the repercussions from it were massive, and this is an understatement, i cant go into the exact situation on here but this is the reason why once you fail psych that's it.

Chin up mate and look elsewhere, good luck

[GEN3RATD]

I can tell you the questions I was asked, just over a year ago, if you want.

[acex1138]

i've kind of figured something like this.

Anyway im not going in expecting much, it's a bit sad they still push you in after you've been flagged. Well im gonna hate myself if I dont go in for it, so I guess im sticking with the stay quiet, roll the dice approach.

Was thinking of heading to the east coast in 2 weeks, i've now booked stuff in, i've actually now booked it in. So it's not like my career is resting on it atm

[VLC86]

I have an interview in 2 weeks exactly about getting an undergraduate scholarship as an Environmental Health Officer in the ADF :|
Just read through the guide and I am freaking out now, sounds really stressful and difficult.

Can anyone give me some tips as to what I should do to prepare for it?

[Banicks]

I have an interview in 2 weeks exactly about getting an undergraduate scholarship as an Environmental Health Officer in the ADF :|
Just read through the guide and I am freaking out now, sounds really stressful and difficult.

Can anyone give me some tips as to what I should do to prepare for it?

Recruitment Centre | Defence Jobs

Treat it like a job interview. Research your chosen force and job role in depth, don't rock up with your pockets empty and no clue in your havanas. The qualities they look for in any application (like an employer) is pro-activeness, knowledge and/or at least an attempt to gain knowledge - but not a know it all.

It's all on the website.

[OllieTwo]

Mate you are raising a lot of flags especially when you mention you were 'booted' from, I assume, the reserves when you were 17 - what was this for? SCMA would still have your files and they reference them if you try and re-enlist.

As for having to go through the recruitment process again, your unit would've been able to nominate you for a Recruit course rather than having to go through all the recruitment process again.

VLC86 PM Inbound.

Not being a rude prick, either, I'm a bit of a blunt tool

[acex1138]

all of the deferments (or bootings as ive referred to them all) have all been through civilian recruitment.

You should have seen the hell my CO went through when i was with 10/27 to push me through, he even got in shit for losing his temper at someone in recruitment over this happening to a few people he wanted, unfortunately he's retired now (which also means I now pay full price for tyres as well anyways).

You'd think if I was dead to rights flagged everywhere they wouldnt allow me for recruitment full stop, but psych have cleared me for further application.

And enviro kid dont freak out, from what i've seen its like 1/10 who get this kind of treatment, everytime you go there its cool you make a whole bunch of new mates in recruitment, of all of the ones i've made mates with half get through half dont.

out of the half that dont, its usually stuff like this, i've got a mate who's got a similar run around from me except he passed medical and psych instead they are jacking him around on his birth certificate (he was born in a Latvia) which is no drama, he has his citizenship papers has been a resident since he was 1..... they just keep changing their mind all the time whether the translation of his birth certificate is legal..... its a long messed up story.

A soon to be ex mate of mine is an ex reservist, he got discharged in 2006 for drug use, i met him after he finished rehab, and he was a good mate, and has fallen back into drugs again, mainly DMT and other acid stuff, and he's reapplied and up to recruitment day already. So you'd be surprised who gets scrutinized. Im praying he gets caught out and sent to rehab.

And yeah guys wouldnt get so worried about the flags, its just due to having acne on my shoulders and having a dead mother / going to a real bad school and leaving home at 15 for a better chance at life. You'd think they applaud things like that but, yeah it depends which shrink you get.

Mate of mine got the same shrink, absolute mommies boy, was still asking his mom for permission to go out until he was 20 and in the army. Another mate who had similar background to me, add drug use and a stint in rehab, got another shrink and flew through, he's now in east timor.

Anywho...... im still thinking just go in, be quiet as much as possible, say as little as possible, my lifes doing pretty well atm im upgrading my life atm about to hit mining and travelling, if they dont want me to let the adf be a part of my life upgrade, its unfortunate, but cant let not trying one last time haunt me with what could have been.

Found out today in a few weeks anyway ill be qualified for PMC as well with my finished tactical security courses, could provide some interesting career pathways, a lot of money doing that work in the mid-east.

[acex1138]

well todays the day. guess we'll see what happens, I am pretty sure im DOA on this one

[acex1138]

Well guys heres how it all went down :

arrived 15m early like requested, found another recruit waiting by elevator, as usual you chat and make mates.... he asks me what to expect from the tests, im helpful calm him down. they open go upstairs. Usual questionaires.

Get called in for medical. fly through it they didnt even give me a full check like last time. passed.

wait for psych goes over 2 hours..... as suspected they deliberately make you wait and survey your reactions, had a raffie and an army guy walk past us for no reason asking random questions and seeming like trying to make innocent conversation said nothing.

Go into psych, to be told my file is thick as hell, and that im not expected to progress, he then asks me to go through questions with him, went through it tried to mind trap me like I was expecting.

Goes on the attack, calls me an idiot for leaving my job... tells me he would have felt better if i was still there asks me my rationale for leaving. I tell him it was really leaving it was following the more prudent option, doing 50 hour weeks, having little time for study and my other activities such as football, church involvements etc. I could maintain the level I was doing, but in 5 years time i'd still be at the same level, same pay, and if my job security went i'd have nothing, I then point out that it wasnt possible to do that anyway as my company shuffled positions around as we were taking toll from kings taking a lot our business and a lot of other jobs being unprofitable, so in the shuffle they were going to send me to a factory position for which I was not suited for.

Im then expecting him to go oh so you refused to do what they asked and thought you were too good for it, like most people have said to me. Instead asks why I gave up job security, I tell him that i was sales and infrastructure, put down on pay grade as a storeman under the clerical act, if I moved to the factory that contract would be nulled and I would go down under the class I sheet metal workers act, removing most of my job security, and if that department took a hit, only the leading hand and foreman stay on and everyone else has their hours toned down, and as sales were down this was very likely, as well as a massive paycut that would make it harder to maintain my standard of living.

He wasnt prepared for that answer.....then went into other personal stuff etc, things that in my opinion a defense force employee let alone a psych should be able to ask which had nothing to do with it, twisting around events in the past and he didnt manage to trap me on anything.

Just pretty much kept calling me an idiot for going back to study as opposed to taking on a job from one of my businesses competitors I was offered. I tell him about my planned trip next week where im going interstate, trying to get into mining, he's impressed thinks is a good plan.

Then goes on to tell me, that I was flagged and was already decided I was dead before I hit the ground (which we kind of predicted, but yeah massive waste of time for everyone involved if they were just going to fail me?)
then goes on to say.... no one else in the assessment group today was going to pass either.... many reasons they deliberately ran them hard on the medicals, some they wanted them to come back later, others they wanted to end their dreams. And then the big one.

Asks me how many jobs I think they have going, I dont know, he tells me, we have 4 jobs going at the moment, for those for 4 jobs we have 20 applicants for either, these arent even in your field. we always have a surpluss of applicants.

Tells me i see your getting a security license. Dont. we never allow anyone from the security industry to join the defence force.- fair enough, I was just getting it for backup work options, already done the cert II anyway

Tells me join the ses or the cfs - fair enough

Tells me to finish off my tafe diploma - fair enough..... tho why would he want a rifleman to have a diploma?


Then the most interesting part relating to the experience I had last time, tells me that it wasnt appreciated and worked against my favour to coach the guy from the elevator. and to tell him what to expect when we were talking in the lobby. And I ran into the guy later on kingwilliam street so I know he didnt say anything. And no one else was around..... so yeah guys watch yourself when you go in..... only way i could imagine them picking up on this is if they had a security camera in front of the elevator with a mic on it. Which seems pretty freaking far to go.

And you'd think if someones freaking out a bit its just human nature to calm them down, its not like I told him how to answer stuff.

Then goes on to tell me he knows my sister. Now like i've said I come from a messed up family, my sister is an officer, and one of the biggest bitches you will ever meet. not saying I dont love her, but she is the kind of person who will not give to charity, will dob in her neighbour for mowing their lawn before 8am on a saturday, takes photos of people in disabled parks without disabled stickers and gives it to the cops. Every week at dinner at hers she will berate me and tell me where my life should be, she's incapable of reasoning with others.

The psych goes on to tell me that he knows her from his time at her brigade... and that she is a great officer.

if she's the kind of person the ADF wants and shines as an example...

him telling me that he thinks im coming along nicely and in 2 years ill be ready to join... well....


Im done with the Australian defence force, rather go work with the Foreign legion or volunteer for Doctors without borders support crew.

[hi_ryder]

i just watched a movie called "conviction". where theres a will theres a way dude. even if its not in the ADF... do what you gotta do...

[minux]

Sounds like you simply are not suited to any defence role and they are bullshitting their way out of it rather than giving you a reality fix.