Sign On: Diploma Holder = Farmer Officer ? Worth It ? Wise ?

jus-tea SG

My friend recently asked me abt this, I'm not very sure so I was wondering if i might be able to get some help here.

My friend's leaving the 1st cdo Bn due to some personal reasons, he has not attained his berret and officially is not vocation trained. With his pes status he would most probably be sent to infantry. If so could he sign on as a INF officer with his new unit's OC recommendation siting leadership potential etc. He is a diploma holder from a local polytechnic.

Thanks.

kengkia SG

if he can get his OC to attain recommendation from CO i believe the case will be stronger and provided that he can get sliver for ippt everytime...

jus-tea SG

i need to mention that my fren's a private

jus-tea SG

i need to mention that my fren's a private

diablotical SG

I think your friend must think about it first. I am not sure how does it work from here. If your friend's OC recommend him to go for officership then he will need to go through the 9 months of Officer Cadet Course.

Since he is a diploma holder, you have to ask him whether is he interested in advancing his studies? or does he has any interest outside? if not, he can try to sign on if only he really has passion for a career as a professional soldier.

Most people will advised not to sign on with a diploma. For me I look at things at another angle. Now the employment scheme had increased to 50 years old for officers. Meaning to say everyone promotion timeline will be delayed slightly longer. For those taking local study award (LSA) to study doesnt mean that your route of advancement is good. Look around, out of 10 officers so many ppl are LSA holders. You have to be a scholar like SMS, SAFOS holder in order to climb to rank like full Colonel or even BG.

A degree is of course important. Maybe I would suggest your friend to consider the SIM part time undergrad studies since SAF recognize it now. When i was in my Bn, I got colleague that actually walked that path. He was the formation rank number 1 LTA even though he was still a diploma holder. How far you can climb also depends on your military performance as well as your academic attainment.

My whole idea is that SAF is a lifestyle. Not a career. If your friend really like being a full time soldier, a commander and officership. Just go for it. You will not know whether u make a correct decision or not until u realise it a wrong one. By sitting there you wont get an answer.

Fatum SG

look, it appears that your friend still has his PES status, so he's not medically excempted, eh ? He was then asked to leave 1CDO, obviously.

so there must be something wrong with him, whatever that "personal reason" may be. There are enough people getting injured and getting medically downgraded from training that they won't lightly remove anyone medically combat fit cos they still have to make up the numbers, unless it's non-performance, attitude, lack of mental fortitude, or whatever.

You think the army would still actually want him as a regular, and as an officer some more ?

jus-tea SG

thks diabolical, it's really an insight. Thanks Fatum but it wasn't much help, we do need the numbers at times i know, but we make exceptions too.

xLgLx SG

any idea what's the salary scale for undegrad senior officer ? because most of the saf site only show up to captain.

insidestory SG

any idea what's the salary scale for undegrad senior officer ? because most of the saf site only show up to captain.

errm do you mean graduate officer? undergrad means you're still in university without a degree. you only need to know up to CPT. thats why they don't list the salaries beyond that to people who may not even be a OCT or 2LT at the point of time when they read.

MAJ and beyond is too far away, no need to calculate so much. Its like wondering what your kids will look like 15 years from now when you don't even have a girlfriend now.

Even if they give, with such a long time in between by the time you get to it with inflation, the figures will not be the same set of figures you saw donkey years back.

insidestory SG

No one in the SAF cares whether SMS exists or not, sorry to say.

There is a very big gap between SAFOS and SMS, and the next gap SMS and ATA is almost not there or quite small.