Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Is it easy for an officer to change his MOS in the Army?

I am torn between being and officer or an enlisted in the Army and I am pretty sure that everyone I have talked to have persuaded me to go officer. But I was curious how easy is it for an officer to change his/her MOS. I have the scores now to do intelligence and go in as a specialist. From talking with people I have seen it is very easy to change jobs as an enlisted. But it can be almost impossible to go from enlisted to officer. I was curious to see if it was just as easy for officers to change jobs or are you stuck in your role due to the fact your more a manager then a worker?Is it easy for an officer to change his MOS in the Army?
Officers do not choose their branch. You are put on an order of merit list from your commisioning source (West Point, ROTC or Officers Canidate School). Then you fill out a wish list of your top 10 branch choices. Then a board looks at the lists, your record and your schooling and compares that to the needs of the Army. The packets are looked in the order of the order of merit list, so if you are number 1 on the list, you will probably get what you want, if you are last, expect to get needs of the Army. The order of merit list is based on how you did in school, OCS, ROTC or West Point.



Once you get your branch assignment, you can try to appeal it if you dont like it. I never saw a cadet/canidate appeal approved though.



There is also what is called ';branch detailed.'; This means the board puts you in Military Intel for example, but you go to Infantry until you make the rank of captain. Then at captain you go to Intel. The reason for this is some branches like Intel need more captains and majors then lieutenants. Finance and quartermaster also often branch detail. When you fill out your wish list, you can option to branch detail.



Then there are regular branch transfers. You can request these and the two branch managers will fisrt see if they can work it out themselves. If Infantry branch has a guy who wants to go artillery and artillery has a guy who wants infantry, it can be open and shut. If the two manangers cant work it out, then a board at Human Resources Command looks at the reccomendations, the packet, and the end strengths of the two branches. It usually comes down to the end strength for the decesion. For example, if Infantry is at 80% and Artillery is at 75% of that year group (year you got commissioned) then Artillery would win since they need more.



The last thing is Functional Area. After you command a company as a captain, you can either choose or sometimes ordered to go to a functional area. A functional area is kind of like a secondary MOS. Things like Simulations, Public Affairs, Foreign Area Officers embassies, human resource managers and such are functional areas. Functional Area is done much the same way as being assessed as a cadet/canidate where you put in a wish list of your top 3 choices and a board decided first of all if you go to a funtional area or stay your basic branch, and secondly what you FA is.



Again you can appeal both decesions but it goes to a board again and they look at end strengths again like any branch transfer.



So bottom line, its not easy... its really a pain in the butt actually.Is it easy for an officer to change his MOS in the Army?
It is not easy to change your mos as either an officer or as enlisted.



It is easier to change your mos as enlisted than it is as an officer though.



Officers get one chance to change Branch's



But they have no right to change Branch's, its usually when the Branch they are in, gets over manned.



It is not hard to go from enlisted to officer, all you need is a degree and an appropiate GT score.
No it is not as easy, but you still can change for what officers say ';branches'; It also depends how you get your commission if you are going through what you call OCS (officer candidate school) you have less of a chance on selecting your branch, as a ROTC depending on how high you are ranked you have more of chance on selection of branches. Once slotted, it takes a long process to change branches, but it can be done.
It's not ';easy'; to change MOSs either enlisted or officer. And if you go MI enlisted it will be dang near impossible as those MOSs are generally always undermanned and it tales a long time to train most of them so they're not going to just let you change whenever you want.
Don't know about now, but when I was in the Army (1976-1982) it was NOT easy to change your MOS. It could be done but there was a lot of hoops that had to be jumped through, and the bottom line for any MOS change request was and is going to be what's best for ';the good of the service';.



You must also understand that getting you trained up in any MOS costs the service a lot of money, so they are naturally reluctant to have THAT money ';wasted'; by allowing you to retrain on something else, thereby costing them even MORE money. And there may not be a need for soldiers in the MOS you want to swap to, so their answer will be no to that request. Choose your MOS carefully.



As for choosing to be an officer or enlisted, don't enlist in the first place unless you are ready to accept the responsibilities that choice entails. Lives will be in your hands. Millions of dollars worth of equipment may be under your control. If you are not ready for that...and much more...don't join. Military service is not something you do on a whim or without serious consideration. It's not something you do because jobs are scarce in your locale. It shoud never be a last resort.

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