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When you're stationed somewhere, does that mean you never go on the ships?
I don't mind listening to recordings - I can do the person to person translating when I finish my career. But if it somehow limits my travel, I'd like to amend my goals. :< I was reading your sentence and got confused about who has the good choice of stations and opportunities to go outside CONUS - CTM/ITs or CTIs?
Some rates are very limited in their duty stations ie Nukes...Recruiters push the Nuke field hard as its difficult to find recruits but they have very limited duty stations. Only where nuclear powered ships are home ported and when they are up for shore duty then usually recruiter or teaching. Other rates like CTR's do anywhere in the world where there is a listening post. CTT's are the technical aspects of CTR's. IT's are the combined rates of RM's and CTO's which are anywhere in the world embassies, any us naval base, or nato command where the navy has a presence. CTM's and ET's fix the equipment, with CTM's dealing more with the specialized equipment for surveillance and listening equipment while ET's deal with telecomm gear.
Here's a link to the navy.mil detailer page...
CTI Rating Information (http://www.persnet.navy.mil/Enlisted/CryptoInfoIntel/RatingsInformation/CTIRatingInformation.htm - broken link)
@GeorgiaTransplant: How do I interact with the investigators? I am a very honest person and will share what they ask of me. Leading a clean life makes life simple, in my opinion.
Once you are approved by the Navy to go into a cleared field, you will be have an investigation open on you. Contrary to popular belief, you can't just decide you want a clearance and apply-has to be a specialty that inherently needs one, or a particular job that has a clearance tied to it. That's basically to stop guys with 19 years and 6 months from deciding they desperately need the highest clearance possible just before retirement and their application for civilian jobs.
Once the investigation is opened, you fill out a form with places you've lived, people who know you well, school history, legal trouble, alcohol, drugs, etc. going back a certain period of time depending on level of clearance you have been put in for. Very self-explanatory.
A basic records/background check will be run on you-credit score, legal issues, etc.
Then you will be contacted by an investigator, who will come and see you personally and start asking questions. Areas with no trouble will be quick, areas with trouble he will really go deeply into. Plan on one-two hours depending on your background, maybe more if there are issues.
After they're done with you, he or other investigators will go the people you listed and start asking questions. One of the key questions: 'who else might know about this person?' They start 'developing' contacts, and you're not involved in who gets developed to prevent you from calling everyone you know and saying 'hey, don't tell them about X', who then get interviewed.
The contacts frankly are used to check your story: is the application accurate? Did they 'forget' to mention that little heroin habit in college? It is about 100% impossible to not have something in your background be discovered and documented by the investigators, so tell the truth up front. If you don't, that's nearly worse than having a problem in the first place: if you're going to hide something that trivial, could you be blackmailed about it? This is where its key to VOLUNTEER IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM. Don't wait for them to ask about it and assume if they don't ask they don't know. It's entirely possible they know already and want to see if you will be upfront and truthful on both your application and your interview. If you're neither upfront (e.g. volunteering all possible issues) nor truthful, you are a poor security risk.
After it's all done, the investigator wraps it up in a report and it's sent to the Central Clearance Facility, where an adjudicator who you will never have spoken to (to avoid conflicts of interest or sweet-talking kooks) looks at all the facts, questions, answers, and asks for clarification where needed from the investigators. The adjudicator applies specific criteria and their judgment and then decides whether to deny, grant, grant interim, grant conditionally, or kick it to a higher-graded adjudicator. If it's denied you have some specific legal protections on appealing or asking for reconsideration, but ultimately if there's a serious question and you really haven't shown rehabilitation, the error will be to the government's side: it is better to deny than to have yet another security leak.
It's honestly very fair, but very time-consuming. If you get denied, you got denied because you were a poor security risk due to your personal habits or background, or your inability to tell the complete truth during a process where you sign affidavits that you are telling the complete truth and are clearly told you must volunteer all issues and tell the complete truth about them, and you need to fix the issues that are listed on the intent to deny (e.g. failed to reveal jail sentence, evidence of alcoholism, etc.) before trying again. The biggest mitigator of issues is time and consistent work on your problems.
@GeorgiaTransplant: Wow! Very informative! Thanks!
@belllhead: Wow, thank you, I hadn't delved that far into the navy.mil site, so thanks I saw that CTI are required to be world-wide assignable; that's fine by me! [I asked a question but realized I had read the source incorrectly! lol]
Just finished talking to the recruiter; although I didn't talk much, when he asked how my credit was I stated "I have a few small debts and school loans". He then went into this long diatribe of how if I wanted to be a CTI, I needed to make sure my credit was good BEFORE I went to MEPS. He said that more and more recruits are being turned down for CTI for having ANY defaults on their record.
Sigh, seems I have to go in as a different rating and get employed first. That's my most important reason for joining, because I really want to dominate my finances. I'm tired of having little bits of money from doing web design and other small jobs for people. The money I've earned in the past years has only been enough to feed me and pay for housing... I've lived a seriously frugal lifestyle, going days without eating most times.
Sigh, I'm sad.
I know that my future is bright so I am going to buckle down and do something undesirable so I can do what I really want. In the meantime I will continue to study languages, and I'll be so happy to be able to pay my bills. I'll feel human. You really don't know how having no money to pay your bills can make you feel so low and not human....
More questions:
I was told that I could take the DLAB but join under an unrelated rating. I would be eligible to crossrate after 18 months. How successful are people typically at crossrating the first time around?
What are the variables involved in crossrating?
Are some ratings harder to crossrate out of because they really need you?
What ratings would you recommend for me, seeing as how I want to be a CTI and would like to crossrate at 18 months?
I'm thinking of becoming a Hospital Corpsman since my 3 years of college were in a Biology degree. But I'm deathly afraid of it too, because it's likely they will hold onto me with a death's grip and I would be severely unhappy in life, and for the rest of my life. I also like the Photographer position, but only because photography is one of my hobbies. [I've had some prize-winning photos on the collegiate level.]
Thanks again, everyone, for answering my questions.
Something else I was thinking about was that when you fill out the security clearance paperwork (normally electronic) have a statement prepared to explain your situation. A statement that is no BS and accepts personal responsibility for your actions and what you are doing to rectify the situation. Don't write a book, one or two paragraphes that are clear and to the point. Remember never lie or BS.
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I saw that CTI are required to be world-wide assignable; that's fine by me! [I asked a question but realized I had read the source incorrectly! lol]
