Ex RN X Officer

[pashton86]

Just a quick note to say thanks to all who have offered advice and support over the last few months. I had my selection interview in Portsmouth on Monday and now anxiously await the postman at sometime next week for the results! I feel it went pretty well, resisted the temptation to talk about the RN excessively though I did make a bit of Snaffu on crewing numbers. Once again many thanks to you all.

[pashton86]

I sent all the info to the Deck/GMDSS team in Southampton in the 1st week of December, apparently the chap's been on leave and at the IMO conference hence the delay. I suspected as much regarding the RN raining, I'm really only expecting to get any credit for the foundation degree side of things based on a conversation I had with the principal of Fleetwood Nautical college. Still I'm always happy to spend a bit of extra time at sea.

[Junior]

I'm guessing you'll still need the standard amount of sea time, you may get some dispensation for your current FE/HE course.

Dont hold your breath though, If you training was all 'in house' RN training then in the Merchant Sense it wont count for much. IME MCA letters only take a few weeks, did you go to the one in Plymouth or Southampton? It 'may' be worth having a day out in Southampton and going to see the MCA in person.

[pashton86]

Many thanks for the swift reply, I'm still awaiting the MCA, apparently Cpt Thomas, the examiner, has been out of the office for extended period. We can but try hey?

[Junior]

Think of the AIB interview and your close by. It wont feel as intimidating as the AIB, but you'll be asked similar style questions.
You will also get RFA type questions, (there are loads of posts on here about Ratings interviews). You will probably get asked what you know about the Cadetship, the training pipeline, the colleges the RFA use, the different phases etc. You will probably get probed on your knowledge of what a Deck Officer does, the certification, (and further certification too, up to your Masters ticket) and where you would see yourself in 5, 10 , 15 years time. You may also get asked why now choose the RFA? trickier than it sounds, you need to make it clear that your not here just because you dropped out from the RN. Did you get a letter back from the MCA, how much of a Cadetship do you need to complete?

[pashton86]

Just a quick one, does anyone know roughly what the selection interviews focus on? Had it been the AIB I'd know where I was up to but I feel I'm going in slightly blind. All help gratefully received.

[Josh Sylvester]

Best of luck!!

[pashton86]

Thanks for the replies guys, the letter I received states "Selection Interviews are scheduled to take place in Feb 2010 in Portsmouth. Details will be forwarded in Due Course". And I am indeed applying for officer cadet.

[The A Team]

The fact that you got binned from the RN would not stop your application, however it will come up at interview. If you have already passed AIB (for the RN) you will not have to do this again, you will still have an interview - no where near as difficult as an AIB tho.
Q2 - You will more than likely still have to complete the RFA Officer Induction course at BRNC.
Q3 - I would be suprised if the MCA accredit you with anything substantial, the MCA will tell you what modules of a cadetship you need - once you have been accepted the RFA will contact the relevant college to find out how long this would take - sea time has to be taken into consideration.

What letter did you get back from the recruitment office? I take it you have applied for an officer Cadetship?

[loki]

The only people who could answer your questions are the recruitment office. Give them a call, but failing RN training isn't a hinderance.

[pashton86]

Hi Chaps,

I'm currently on my terminal leave from the RN, having been binned on IWO, for those in the know I passed nav sea week, failed 3 exams passed 2 resits but failed RoR by 1% so thats me gone. Now I've applied to RFA had a letter stating that i'll be contacted regarding an interview in Feb. I'm assuming that this will be AIB forgoing the RT test. Additionally I've gained a Cert(HE) in Nautical Studies from U of Plymouth through my training, needing 20 credits to complete. Now the questions I have are as follows.

1) Would the RFA even consider me given my withdrawl from RN training?

2) If so would I have to undertake training at BRNC having passed out previously?

3) While awaiting to hear back from the MCA regarding equvialncy of training can anyone give me a heads up of what I would actually need to do?

Sorry for the long post but as you can probably guess my lifes a bit up in the air at the minute and some concrete advice would be great. Many thanks in advance.