Results from 18OT02 have been unofficially released so there are tons of selects helping their fellow non-selects in the Facebook groups. This is great stuff; this is what it is all about. Here are a few comments about the Applicant Profile which caught my eye.
Just a little bit of feedback for everyone, a lot of people keep mentioning how they’re not sure what they can do better, different, or they’re stuck in a job where they can’t PCS, deploy, etc. I’ve looked at a lot of select and non-select packages, and one thing that usually stands out, not always, but usually, is how much more organized the app packet is on select’s packages. Yes, there’s a base template, but it’s also essentially your resume, you want the board to WANT to read it. If you’re formatting one section a certain way, format all sections that way. Make everything flow. Make everything EASY to read. I personally bolded certain words/phrases thoughout the app profile that I wanted to stand out in order to draw the board members in and focus on what I considered to be most important. Organization and layout is one thing that literally EVERY SINGLE PERSON can improve for future packages if they want to. The other is translating your work history into something that ANYONE can read. DO NOT just pull bullets off of your EPRs. Translate those bullets into sentences, spell out any work related acronyms, expound on the big stuff. You don’t know what the background will be of those on the board, so you want to ensure that no matter who they are or what their background is, that they know exactly what you did and exactly why it was significant. If you’re writing your own rec letter, keep it to one page. If you’re writing your own 56 bullets, put yourself all the way to the right, use every available line and strat yourself. Trust me, if your CC isn’t comfortable with the strat(s) they’ll tell you and rework the bullet(s), but who knows, they may just keep it also. I know this is really wordy, but I hope it helps some folks. And before you ask, no, I won’t share my package. While I’m very willing to help anyone with information or feedback, I also think a certain amount of effort should be put forth by anyone wanting to go through this, not just a copy, paste, edit for personal info job.
I completely agree, my CC destroyed my formatting for my package and told me this is something that stands out. My job doesn’t deploy or TDY from the base I am right now so that’s obviously not something huge. Bullet writing as well my CC pretty much said have your wife read your bullets if she understands them good if she doesn’t then keep fixing them. Obviously my wife is civilian.
Great advice and I’d also like to add to strat yourself as much as possible. If you won NCO of the Quarter, that means you’re #1 of XX NCOs that quarter. Also, get with an officer to restructure your bullets to most closely emulate an OPR/PRF format. Get rid of as many acronyms as possible and use terms that anyone could understand. These are the changes I made and ended up selected this time. Best of luck to you all!
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