Rated vs Non-rated Academy Commissioning

asixbn

asixbn
5-Year Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2013
Messages
6
My son is in the early stages of investigating the academies. I am familiar with and have a lot of contacts to help with questions regarding USNA, and know that almost all grads are commissioned as unrestricted line officers. However I don't have the same familiarity or contacts for questions regarding USAFA. My son's main question is can a cadet be commissioned directly into the Non-Rated Developomental Engineering Field (62EX)? Follow on question #1 would be if they can what are the chances, i.e. how many in each class are commissioned as Developmental Engineers? Follow on question #2 would be if they can't what is the career path that leads to that field? Thanks in advance!
 
I definitely have some friends in the class of 2013 who got Development Engineer as their AFSCs (jobs) right out of the academy, so the answer to your first question is yes. Unfortunately I can't answer your follow up, but hopefully someone with more knowledge in that get back to you quickly.
 
I have a lot of friends that are 62EXs (2012). I think everyone I know who wanted that job and did well in their engineering discipline (i.e. around a 3.0+) got it. As far as a career path to get there, I really don't think there is a good one. There are plenty of paths out of 62 and into 63, but I highly doubt there are any ways to get to be a 62 from some other AFSC because the numbers DECREASE as rank increases.

PS for some background, I am a 61D (scientist, physicist to be specific) who graduated in 2012 and am currently working in a LADAR laboratory. While my career path is slightly different than a 62, I work with a lot of them and am pretty familiar with the whole acquisitions career field (61/62/63) so if you have any more questions, let me know.
 
Thanks Mikil and USAFA10s. A lot of time between now and when he has to make a decision about schools, but he's happy to hear that it's a viable option out of the academy. Good luck to both of you in your careers and thanks for serving!
 
My son is in the early stages of investigating the academies. I am familiar with and have a lot of contacts to help with questions regarding USNA, and know that almost all grads are commissioned as unrestricted line officers. However I don't have the same familiarity or contacts for questions regarding USAFA. My son's main question is can a cadet be commissioned directly into the Non-Rated Developomental Engineering Field (62EX)? Follow on question #1 would be if they can what are the chances, i.e. how many in each class are commissioned as Developmental Engineers? Follow on question #2 would be if they can't what is the career path that leads to that field? Thanks in advance!

I'm currently a 62E, coming straight out of USAFA (09). I'm not sure how many of my class got 62E, but I know it wasn't many.

Career progression isn't all that great around FGO level if you stay strictly engineer - typically you cross over into the 63 (program manager) career field at some point if you want to make rank. 62 is great as a CGO though with lots of unique job opportunities. I just got orders for my 3rd 62E assignment (PCS-ing later this summer), and I'm very glad I chose 62 instead of 61.
 
Back
Top