I Got Promoted!

So... the United States Air Force has a pretty complex means of gauging whether or not someone has earned enough points (yes, we call them points) toward promotion to be promoted. In this case, I was vying for promotion to Master Sergeant. You earn points by accumulating important medals, having a career record that looks good unto a board of three higher ranking individuals, and test well on your promotion test. Note; after this testing cycle, there is no more testing for promotion for people ranked E-6 through E-8, so as an E-6 this was my last chance to put my studying to good use.

In 2016 I studied hard, and crammed until I tested well enough to get scores well above the average for those testing from within my career field. Though, every year the top brass of the USAF decide how many people they want to promote and then settle on a "cutoff score" that would limit the amount of people who were promoted to that amount. The cutoff score was raised significantly in 2016 from what it was in 2015, so I missed it by about 10 points.

In 2017 I studied harder, and once again I got a better score and I missed it by about ten points.

In 2018, same heartache.

For 2019, I studied until my mind was a virtual interface through which I could pull information about the USAF and my career field from a vast library of subject matter. Like Sherlock, I practically built a fucking mind palace. This year they (barely) lowered the cutoff score, and I made it by 5 points. If the cutoff score was the same this year as it was last year, I would have missed it by (no joke) .27 points. That's 27 hundredths of a point, and missing by that much is a real thing in the USAF.

I... fucking... MADE IT! And... I don't have to study anymore since promotions for people of my rank are purely based on your career record now. It took me 19 years to make a rank that I see a lot of people running around with after only 10 years, and I don't regret a damn thing.

Here's to greater responsibility, and more money in my pension check when I retire.

Click for Spoiler:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/~3MAA...rWC/s-l300.jpg

That's awesome man congratulations!

And thank tou for ypur service

Good job ED!

Forgot a rank in there...

Congratulations to you! That sounds like a great accomplishment.

Congrats

Great stuff man! Sounds like you're quite proud of yourself, as you should be.

Well done.

Congrats on a job well done ED.

Whatâ??s the plan going forward? At 19 years youâ??re eligible in one year, but I expect youâ??ll go at least three to increase your retirement?

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Originally Posted by Fire Marshall Bill

What’s the plan going forward? At 19 years you’re eligible in one year, but I expect you’ll go at least three to increase your retirement?

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At the moment, I’m on a three year assignment. They raised the high year tenure for E-6s to 22 years, and I was pretty desperate to move to a new area. If I had a choice, I’d stay in for as long as they want me around. There’s the extra money I’d make after retiring for doing so, and there’s the fact that my retirement checks are only going to be half of what I’m making now.

The angel on my shoulder is telling me to work on getting a BA in Accounting while I’m still in, and the devil on my shoulder is telling me to play more Dead Cells.

I would definitely recommend doing what you can to set yourself up for a career after. Not sure what your career field is, but I made sure to pick one that translated to the civilian world. Did my six years active and got a great job on the outside. If you need a degree, certainly not a bad idea to use the military to get it.