VA Ratings were received on the 27th of October, now I'm just waiting on the 199 as well. Signed my NARSUM on 28 September.
Fort Carson Timeline
- Thread starter EasyMoney0826
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This is pretty much where I'm sitting, I have my proposed ratings however and signed my Narsum on Oct. 1. Any word yet?
Sorry for the late response but I received my 199 on 3 NOV. No surprises so I signed it that day. PEBLO told me TRANSPOC is taking about 1 week right now so hopefully orders early next week.
Your fine, how many conditions were you filing for? Has a month been average for most people?
Nothing yet on my end. I spoke to my PEBLO yesterday, she said she was conducting a site visit and she would utilize those resources to secure my 199. Of course, today, she is out of the office so I won't hear anything earlier than tomorrow.
I'm still pretty confident that I'll be out of the Army by 1 January 2021 at the latest.
I won't be appealing anything, unless it is drastically different from what I am anticipating.
I already know I'm at 90% VA, just waiting to see what the DoD says.
I already have a good paying job lined up, I'm moving to an area where the cost of living is 35% lower than here in Maryland, and I'll have my supplemental income from the VA.
I prepared really well for this by completing my Bachelor's Degree and immediately starting my Master's. I have several IT certifications and a TS clearance which has allowed my transition to be exponentially smoother than some other people I've seen go through the process.
26 conditions. VA combined 3 of my conditions and non rated 4. Still ended up with 100%. 1 month seems to be the average time.
Absolutely, I wish my PEBLO would actually communicate with me and try to do something on my behalf. Funny enough they seemingly only work until 1100, after that they're "unavailable". They'll ignore my emails and never pick up the phone, but off my soapbox. I'm in the same position, if my VA ratings remain the same I won't be contesting. Congrats on the news. What'd you major in, CS? And for certs A+, Sec+, Net+ and CEH probably?
Ok so the amount of ratings doesn't seem to be the dilemma, it's just fatiguing. I appreciate everyone that's been taking their time to answer my questions.
I majored in Network Operations and Security for my Bachelor's Degree, ended up with A+, Net+, Sec+, Project+, ITIL Foundations, CCNA, CCDA, Linux Essentials and Cloud Essentials. My Master's is in CS, and I'll end up with CEH once I'm done with it.
And yeah, they're on their own damn time. I'm happy I get emails back at all, even if the majority of them say no changes. I'm remaining as patient as I can be, but it's not easy.
Dang, nice certs are you going private or gov. Sector? And absolutely with getting answers.
Private sector. I actually landed a job as a Senior Network Admin for a community college close to home. The position pays well and falls under teacher's salary rules. I will get 3 weeks off in the summer, 2 weeks off during Christmas, and all other Holidays off as well. My wife and kids can go to school for free, and they have a Cisco Academy there so I can work towards my CCIE over the next 5 years or so.
I could have gone straight to a government contractor job, which would have paid about $12k more annually, but the drive is 30 minutes further each way, and honestly the benefits are better with the college than the contractor.
I could have gone straight to a government contractor job, which would have paid about $12k more annually, but the drive is 30 minutes further each way, and honestly the benefits are better with the college than the contractor.
Nice what school are you doing a computer science masters at?
I've been looking and they all seem to require a computer science undergraduate degree
My apologies, I understood CS to be Cyber Security and not Computer Science.
I went through WGU for my Bachelor's in Network Ops and Security and started my Master's through WGU the month after I graduated.
That's absolutely fantastic, were you a 25B/D, or 17C in the army?
25S actually.
Nice man, how do you feel about the WGU program? Do you feel it adequately prepared you for a career in IT/Cyber?
I absolutely do.
The course material of course is directly built for the purposes of preparing you for the certification exams, because completion of the course requires acquisition of the certification.
In addition to the standard certification courses, there are performance assessments as well, which require you to focus on the project management side of the house.
Mind you, I have experience in network engineering, project management, network administration and system administration as a 25S. This was just luck of the draw for assignments and experience. But I feel even without this experience, the degree plan itself and the material associated with it, would adequately prepare most people to perform those duties.
As for the cyber security roles, it depends on which position you are sitting in. I couldn't be a software developer and know how to use a holistic approach to developing quality code and secure code simultaneously. But I know how to approach a software development project using the holistic approach, and can effectively manage the project based upon what I have learned and applied in the cyber security realm.
I guess the easiest way to explain how I have benefited from the degree programs is that it has validated a skill set that I already had with a diploma and a plethora of certs to back it up.
I would personally suggest WGU for a few reasons:
1) You walk out of the program (depending on the program) with 6-10 certifications and a diploma, all for cheaper than most universities.
2) It's a 6 month term instead of an 8 week term, which allows for greater flexibility when completing courses.
3) If you finish your entire course load prior to the 6 month term ending, you can add additional courses to your term for no additional cost, for example, if you were to follow below:
a) A+ - January 1st to February 1st
b) Network+ - February 2nd to March 15th
c) Security + - March 15th to May 1st
Once I have completed those three courses, I still have 60 days remaining in the term so I can add courses to the term for no additional cost, it's a flat rate term, so:
d) ITIL - May 2nd to May 30th
e) Cloud Essentials - June 1st to June 30th
You can complete 18 semester hours for the price of 12. I did this and was able to complete a 6 term degree plan (already had an associates) in 3 terms.
Wow, thank you for the break down. I'm still in the midst of trying to decide whether I want to transition into the medical field, or continue with my IT career/education. I'll have to research the WGU program for sure, it seems to be extremely promising from your experience. Is the accreditation regional or national? And do you feel the degree or the certs from the course are more valuable for yourself?
Sorry for the late reply.
I feel that the entire package is what made WGU so valuable to me. Some people have 1 or 2 out of the 3 items (experience, certs and degree), but I have all 3 which has made me very marketable.
If one were to focus on one as opposed to the other, I would suggest the certifications, especially if you're going to stay on the government side, ya know 8570.
Well ladies and gentlemen, I'll be getting my 199 any minute now. Just got the email from my PEBLO saying she just received it. I'll let you know in a bit where I'm at.