From what I've seen personnelists are often assigned to a unit CSS (or equivalent), or the base MPF, or to AFPC.
Personnelists can make a huge difference in people's lives and careers. When a personnelist does their job well, nobody really pays attention because things are going smoothly. When a personnelist does their job poorly everyone knows and it frustrates and can jeopardize important actions.
When a personnelist goes above and beyond to deliver top notch customer service, fix things quickly, explain the various steps, ensure the paperwork is delivered to the next office expeditiously and correctly, and they communicate and are available to the individual - it's like they are Airmen angels, serving their assigned population. I am not exaggerating.
Like many support functions in the Air Force, the pesonnelists have had an issue of going back and forth with centralizing services and cutting resources, and then decentralizing them but not restoring resources. That means that "everyone" is expected to know all the rules and programs, without formal training, combing through sometimes unclear and contradictory regulations.
Know your stuff, be helpful, be available, and do it right, and people will sing your praises. it can be an amazing job.
I hope this helps.
Good luck
I good personnelist is a great ally to have. I have known a few that have fixed quite a few things for me. Albiet, they are often things other personnelist neglected or the system messed up, but still.
I wanna name drop (in a good way) but won’t. One staff sgt CSS back at my old base literally carried the whole squadron on her back. She made it seem effortless. Her competence allowed her to navigate through other avenues like the MPF where she had a lot of pull. She made my life in processing and out processing a breeze which can be some of the most stressful times of year. I don’t remember a lot of pilots, commanders, or generals that were there tbh, but I will always remember her though.
Funny, as an O-4 with high-level exec experience I also wanted to name-drop my 3F5. I wouldn’t have made it through my exec tour without her. Good personellists are so important to the force. Bad ones really suck tho haha
Well put. I’ve ran across 2-3 good personnelists. And damn, was it amazing to be able to rely on them to do their job well. I’ve also come across some that have lost outprocessing folders (3 times) and yes I know that dates me, and also straight up Google a question I had right infront of me.
Im sick of having that inclination to understand their AFIs when it’s not my job. So to OP, learn your job and understand that sometimes, the smallest things can significantly affect someone’s career
Shit I went to NCOA with a chick that bounced around the IC doing CSS. Had a normal CSS job, then went to NSA, then went to CIA. All doing CSS work for assigned Air Force folks. It can be pretty fucking Gucci
I’m a personnel MSgt; the job is fucking rough as shit mentally but if you take the time to learn your job if you retrain you’ll be an invaluable asset to your airmen
You know what else is mentally draining? When MPF loses my reenlistment paperwork and I have to go through all the hoops to right the wrong while amn snuffy gets a day off for the wing meeting it’s flying quota while the flight line still has to work. Rant over
You know what else is draining? People saying we never processed their paperwork when they never sent it to us in the first place. Not saying the MPF is perfect but members fuck up just as much.
I’m a career maintainer and I cannot even count the number of times a personnelist has come in super clutch for me or for one of my folks. The ones in Commander Support Staff are running the entire squadron’s admin functions and a million other things all while taking the time to go to bat for squadron members with the base Personnel section. They are incredible and I am sure it can be extremely stressful.
Right? My CSS was calling the GTC people at 11 PM on a Sunday because MY stupid ass didn’t do something on their website and I had no internet connection to fix it. She’s an absolute god send to our unit, I can’t imagine the job is without its stresses like literally any other AFSC.
Holy fuck my guy, calm down. I know maintenance is rough (because I am MX) but on the administrative side they do a ton of essential shit for our missions that we don’t even think about. Yea we can laugh and call them nonners but I’m sure their workload can be just as stressful as ours on busy days.
So I'm 3F5 admin. Sibling AFSC to 3F0 personnel.
The mental load comes from the workload first. They service the entire base populous. Mil, civ, dependents. Everyone.
So you are correct. They're not thinking about bolts. Or jets... that's your job. They're worried about making sure that you reenlist on time so you can continue getting paid. They're worried about making sure your decs are in your records so that when promotion season comes along, you'll be ready with a complete package. Do you have a family that depends on you and your career to provide for them? The 3FOs are the ones who ensure that they're all loaded into DEERS and have their ID cards.
Long and short They're worried about all the behind the scenes processes and procedures that you need, so that you don't have to, and you can be more focused on the job.
The way I think about it is this. As an admin, if I screw up someone in the unit pays the price. I'm managing their career behind the scenes. I know everything about everyone because the boss needs to know it.
All jobs come with stress and cumbersome loads. It just looks different is all
Wait, you got reclassed into a job where it’s:
- Mon-Fri / 9-5
- Family days on Friday
- Every holiday off
- More base choices than most AFSC’s can dream of
Oh, you poor thing! It’s almost like you hit the lottery and haven’t realized it yet.
Lunch from 1030-1340. Lock the doors at 1500. Closed every second Thursday and third Wednesday. Alternate duty location/group PT once per month. Get to turn people away and tell them they need an appointment (you don’t even have to stop looking at your phone to tell them this). Have hidden phone numbers so no one can call…and when they do it’s an automated phone tree that goes nowhere. Either way you don’t have to worry about it.
Kind of a sweet deal.
Pretty much.
Many think they want to be apart of the Ops side of the house until they realize it means pulling anywhere between 12-17hr shifts. All these MPF airman have no idea how good they have it.
Medical (in the Air Force) has been getting worse and worse since DHA has taken over. Enjoy the family days lol. But really you’ll be fine. Use your TA and make the most of your first assignment. Don’t get married to get out of the dorms.
Like BoaterSnips mentioned, medical is rough. I know more than a handful of current and former med folks and they shared things with me that I thought needed to go IG or EO. Med seemingly eats their own for no apparent reason.
Friendly neighborhood personellist here. Everyone has pretty much hit the main points. Don't suck, do good, etc. The upshot is that we get a ton of possibilities for assignments. Want to go overseas? Bet. There's a thing called PERSCO and that job is possible at every single deployed location. Even the really gnarly ones you see on TV. As a MSgt, I don't see as many of those any more but the ssgt and tsgt job postings are all over the damn place.
I think you lucked out actually. Personnel isn’t a sexy job but you get to impact people’s careers and help them deal with the bureaucracy of the Air Force. No one likes dealing with paperwork and admin responsibilities, but that’s how we actually get shit done, through forms and emails and documentation. It also can set you up well for management roles/leading organizations, and it isn’t back-breaking work that’ll destroy your body by 40 (except maybe carpal tunnel).
I did it for 6 years. You do get to interact with all ranks and career fields, so that part can be interesting..You also have a plethora of assignments and special duties that you could encounter. Overall, I probably would’ve picked a more “interesting” job, but I don’t have any regrets doing it.
I've seen it with comm as well. Usually the SOF positions. One had jump school where you could get qualified for parachuting out of planes. Was down at Macdill at SOCOM iirc. They're out there for some of the support career fields, just depends on unit/position filling.
It’s easy as long as you keep up with A1’s bullshit and reg changes/updates. Boring as hell, lots of middle school drama at MPFs and most other AFSC’s will bitch about someone losing something. Pray you get assigned to a CSS and utilize as much Tuition Assistance as possible.
A good personnelist can make or break a unit and potentially make a huge difference in people’s lives. Your job is what you make of it, plus Keesler is a lot of fun!
I’m also a 3F0 reclass due to medical disqualification, coming from special warfare. It’s not the coolest job ever but there is plenty of satisfaction you can get from helping customers. Also you’ll get to see the in’s and out’s of Air Force policy and procedure which can help you to advance your career, retrain, or even just be aware of opportunities. Good luck, and enjoy the keesler DFAC while you have it.
Thankfully I’ve never met a bad personnelist. They have all done an outstanding job to help me when I needed it and were alway willing to go a step above to provide support. I imagine it can be a thankless job but they really do impact the lives and careers of all Airmen.
Everyone kind of covered the experience/tips, so I’ll hit tech school.
It’s pretty useless. You will learn very little. As personnel, you can work a plethora of different duty sections and a ~25 day tech school is not going to teach you enough to know how to work any of them. Go to class, learn what you can because there are at least the most basics of basics, graduate on time, then head to your first base for a whole lot of OJT.
I signed for linguist and got reclassed to personnel. I was a little salty at first, but I’m now 4 years in and I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed it despite its challenges.
So you’ll be in the 335th TRS which is the Bulls, the other 3 AF TRS on this base are the 334th “Gators”, 336 “Red Wolves”, and 338 “Dark Knights”. If you want you can message me and I’ll send you an invite to the discord where all the different squadrons talk to each other. Might help you meet people before you get there.
I was also reclassed from medical after years in my job and also landed a 3F billet.
Keesler was fine. It sounds like you are still in initial skills training so you'll likely be treated as a newbie in the "triangle", I was a prior service trainee so I was across base in lodging.
Being a 3F either means you can be a POS that doesn't answer their phone / teams message or you can make yourself invaluable and desirable. I landed a few great gigs because I put myself out there.
It's not terrible, and if you don't like it you can apply to retrain in your FTA window.
yeah the idea of being treated like a newbie is kinda the only part im dreading bc I’ve been out of basic for almost eight months already and starting over sounds shitty 😂
Go enjoy Shaggy's. Good food there. Also go to the island if you got the money for it. National Park and usually nice waters. Had a blast when the family and I went.
I’m in the reserves in a flying squadron and we have a personnel troop who does so well and everyone likes them so much they will literally go TDY with us like 7-8 times a year. Actually crazy
What I'd give to get force retrained into a desk job (and out of mx), ugh.
That said, dont see it as a step down. You are still going to have tons of opportunities for medical classes, certs, etc (actually, you're going to have MORE opporunity now, as your job will be less stressful and not overly saturated with patient care). You also sound very young, this is going to be prime time for you to get your ducks in a row and figure out what you really want to do career and school wise.
Its not a wrong road, its just a different road.
From what I've seen personnelists are often assigned to a unit CSS (or equivalent), or the base MPF, or to AFPC. Personnelists can make a huge difference in people's lives and careers. When a personnelist does their job well, nobody really pays attention because things are going smoothly. When a personnelist does their job poorly everyone knows and it frustrates and can jeopardize important actions. When a personnelist goes above and beyond to deliver top notch customer service, fix things quickly, explain the various steps, ensure the paperwork is delivered to the next office expeditiously and correctly, and they communicate and are available to the individual - it's like they are Airmen angels, serving their assigned population. I am not exaggerating. Like many support functions in the Air Force, the pesonnelists have had an issue of going back and forth with centralizing services and cutting resources, and then decentralizing them but not restoring resources. That means that "everyone" is expected to know all the rules and programs, without formal training, combing through sometimes unclear and contradictory regulations. Know your stuff, be helpful, be available, and do it right, and people will sing your praises. it can be an amazing job. I hope this helps. Good luck
I good personnelist is a great ally to have. I have known a few that have fixed quite a few things for me. Albiet, they are often things other personnelist neglected or the system messed up, but still.
I wanna name drop (in a good way) but won’t. One staff sgt CSS back at my old base literally carried the whole squadron on her back. She made it seem effortless. Her competence allowed her to navigate through other avenues like the MPF where she had a lot of pull. She made my life in processing and out processing a breeze which can be some of the most stressful times of year. I don’t remember a lot of pilots, commanders, or generals that were there tbh, but I will always remember her though.
Funny, as an O-4 with high-level exec experience I also wanted to name-drop my 3F5. I wouldn’t have made it through my exec tour without her. Good personellists are so important to the force. Bad ones really suck tho haha
3F5 are Admin, the better version of personelists ;)
Whoops, shows what I know. Thanks for the correction!
This. I'm career 3F5 never had 3F0s in the shop with me until now. But holy shit. Seeing what my 3f0 ssgt brings to the table is beyond impressive.
Well put. I’ve ran across 2-3 good personnelists. And damn, was it amazing to be able to rely on them to do their job well. I’ve also come across some that have lost outprocessing folders (3 times) and yes I know that dates me, and also straight up Google a question I had right infront of me. Im sick of having that inclination to understand their AFIs when it’s not my job. So to OP, learn your job and understand that sometimes, the smallest things can significantly affect someone’s career
LUCKY!!! personnel is the number 1 job on my afsc list..
[удалено]
I met some who were assigned to recruiting squadrons, far away from the flagpole, they really liked it.
Shit I went to NCOA with a chick that bounced around the IC doing CSS. Had a normal CSS job, then went to NSA, then went to CIA. All doing CSS work for assigned Air Force folks. It can be pretty fucking Gucci
Personnel has a massive amount of assignments they can go to. Medical is a high school drama meat grinder.
I’m a personnel MSgt; the job is fucking rough as shit mentally but if you take the time to learn your job if you retrain you’ll be an invaluable asset to your airmen
everyone wants to hate on the nonners until you become the nonner
Big facts
You know what else is mentally draining? When MPF loses my reenlistment paperwork and I have to go through all the hoops to right the wrong while amn snuffy gets a day off for the wing meeting it’s flying quota while the flight line still has to work. Rant over
You know what else is draining? People saying we never processed their paperwork when they never sent it to us in the first place. Not saying the MPF is perfect but members fuck up just as much.
I mean you’re better than finance if it helps at all 🤷🏻♂️
DFAS and AFPC need to secede some of their power back the bases
"what are you worrying about, it's only paperwork" followed by "how come nobody gives a crap about my paperwork"
How is it rough mentally? You're not dropping warheads on foreheads or worrying if a bolt was screwed on correctly as you watch an F-15 take off.
I’m a career maintainer and I cannot even count the number of times a personnelist has come in super clutch for me or for one of my folks. The ones in Commander Support Staff are running the entire squadron’s admin functions and a million other things all while taking the time to go to bat for squadron members with the base Personnel section. They are incredible and I am sure it can be extremely stressful.
Right? My CSS was calling the GTC people at 11 PM on a Sunday because MY stupid ass didn’t do something on their website and I had no internet connection to fix it. She’s an absolute god send to our unit, I can’t imagine the job is without its stresses like literally any other AFSC.
Holy fuck my guy, calm down. I know maintenance is rough (because I am MX) but on the administrative side they do a ton of essential shit for our missions that we don’t even think about. Yea we can laugh and call them nonners but I’m sure their workload can be just as stressful as ours on busy days.
This comment is so ignorant it’s hilarious
You should go work at the MPF for a month. Both jobs are stressful but in different ways
I tried to MSgt but they told me to focus on Ops :(
Shut up nerd
So I'm 3F5 admin. Sibling AFSC to 3F0 personnel. The mental load comes from the workload first. They service the entire base populous. Mil, civ, dependents. Everyone. So you are correct. They're not thinking about bolts. Or jets... that's your job. They're worried about making sure that you reenlist on time so you can continue getting paid. They're worried about making sure your decs are in your records so that when promotion season comes along, you'll be ready with a complete package. Do you have a family that depends on you and your career to provide for them? The 3FOs are the ones who ensure that they're all loaded into DEERS and have their ID cards. Long and short They're worried about all the behind the scenes processes and procedures that you need, so that you don't have to, and you can be more focused on the job. The way I think about it is this. As an admin, if I screw up someone in the unit pays the price. I'm managing their career behind the scenes. I know everything about everyone because the boss needs to know it. All jobs come with stress and cumbersome loads. It just looks different is all
Wait, you got reclassed into a job where it’s: - Mon-Fri / 9-5 - Family days on Friday - Every holiday off - More base choices than most AFSC’s can dream of Oh, you poor thing! It’s almost like you hit the lottery and haven’t realized it yet.
Lunch from 1030-1340. Lock the doors at 1500. Closed every second Thursday and third Wednesday. Alternate duty location/group PT once per month. Get to turn people away and tell them they need an appointment (you don’t even have to stop looking at your phone to tell them this). Have hidden phone numbers so no one can call…and when they do it’s an automated phone tree that goes nowhere. Either way you don’t have to worry about it. Kind of a sweet deal.
Pretty much. Many think they want to be apart of the Ops side of the house until they realize it means pulling anywhere between 12-17hr shifts. All these MPF airman have no idea how good they have it.
I've heard folks hate medical lab. Long hours, draining, and boring. Personnel might be boring too, but you get those nonner hours and easy desk work.
You get a phlebotomist who knows how to stick without poking (not a double entendre) \*chef's kiss
Plus all federal holidays and family days. Thanks DHA.
Be grateful, they could have discharged you instead
ykw you’re right and this is really the kind of energy I needed to be set back in the right direction honestly
Medical (in the Air Force) has been getting worse and worse since DHA has taken over. Enjoy the family days lol. But really you’ll be fine. Use your TA and make the most of your first assignment. Don’t get married to get out of the dorms.
Like BoaterSnips mentioned, medical is rough. I know more than a handful of current and former med folks and they shared things with me that I thought needed to go IG or EO. Med seemingly eats their own for no apparent reason.
Friendly neighborhood personellist here. Everyone has pretty much hit the main points. Don't suck, do good, etc. The upshot is that we get a ton of possibilities for assignments. Want to go overseas? Bet. There's a thing called PERSCO and that job is possible at every single deployed location. Even the really gnarly ones you see on TV. As a MSgt, I don't see as many of those any more but the ssgt and tsgt job postings are all over the damn place.
I’ve never met a lab tech that enjoyed lab, you probably dodged a bullet 🤷🏽♂️
I think you lucked out actually. Personnel isn’t a sexy job but you get to impact people’s careers and help them deal with the bureaucracy of the Air Force. No one likes dealing with paperwork and admin responsibilities, but that’s how we actually get shit done, through forms and emails and documentation. It also can set you up well for management roles/leading organizations, and it isn’t back-breaking work that’ll destroy your body by 40 (except maybe carpal tunnel).
I did it for 6 years. You do get to interact with all ranks and career fields, so that part can be interesting..You also have a plethora of assignments and special duties that you could encounter. Overall, I probably would’ve picked a more “interesting” job, but I don’t have any regrets doing it.
My personnelist just went to Air Assault, so it's not a total lost cause. You just gotta get to the right units.
How tf did they get to go to air assault?
Right unit and attitude. Dude killed it here at his job and PT.
I've seen it with comm as well. Usually the SOF positions. One had jump school where you could get qualified for parachuting out of planes. Was down at Macdill at SOCOM iirc. They're out there for some of the support career fields, just depends on unit/position filling.
We have J prefix positions.
It’s easy as long as you keep up with A1’s bullshit and reg changes/updates. Boring as hell, lots of middle school drama at MPFs and most other AFSC’s will bitch about someone losing something. Pray you get assigned to a CSS and utilize as much Tuition Assistance as possible.
Medical is boring as well lol.
A good personnelist can make or break a unit and potentially make a huge difference in people’s lives. Your job is what you make of it, plus Keesler is a lot of fun!
I’m also a 3F0 reclass due to medical disqualification, coming from special warfare. It’s not the coolest job ever but there is plenty of satisfaction you can get from helping customers. Also you’ll get to see the in’s and out’s of Air Force policy and procedure which can help you to advance your career, retrain, or even just be aware of opportunities. Good luck, and enjoy the keesler DFAC while you have it.
Thankfully I’ve never met a bad personnelist. They have all done an outstanding job to help me when I needed it and were alway willing to go a step above to provide support. I imagine it can be a thankless job but they really do impact the lives and careers of all Airmen.
Everyone kind of covered the experience/tips, so I’ll hit tech school. It’s pretty useless. You will learn very little. As personnel, you can work a plethora of different duty sections and a ~25 day tech school is not going to teach you enough to know how to work any of them. Go to class, learn what you can because there are at least the most basics of basics, graduate on time, then head to your first base for a whole lot of OJT. I signed for linguist and got reclassed to personnel. I was a little salty at first, but I’m now 4 years in and I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed it despite its challenges.
thank you!!
Can’t wait to retrain into anything other than SF. Remember, it can always be worse
Make the most of it. Get a trade certification or degree in something that's useful and pays well. Find hobbies. Lego. Go camping
Just lock in you got this
At least you're getting some school. They used to send personnel people DDA straight to a unit for pure OJT.
Just avoid The Dark Knights at Keesler 🤦🏼♂️
the what 😭😂
So you’ll be in the 335th TRS which is the Bulls, the other 3 AF TRS on this base are the 334th “Gators”, 336 “Red Wolves”, and 338 “Dark Knights”. If you want you can message me and I’ll send you an invite to the discord where all the different squadrons talk to each other. Might help you meet people before you get there.
ohh awesome thank you!!
I was also reclassed from medical after years in my job and also landed a 3F billet. Keesler was fine. It sounds like you are still in initial skills training so you'll likely be treated as a newbie in the "triangle", I was a prior service trainee so I was across base in lodging. Being a 3F either means you can be a POS that doesn't answer their phone / teams message or you can make yourself invaluable and desirable. I landed a few great gigs because I put myself out there. It's not terrible, and if you don't like it you can apply to retrain in your FTA window.
yeah the idea of being treated like a newbie is kinda the only part im dreading bc I’ve been out of basic for almost eight months already and starting over sounds shitty 😂
Keesler isn't that terrible in that regard, it's full of folks with long tech schools. You'll be the senior-junior-airman.
If it makes you feel any better, lab is rough. Those guys get smoked daily.
If you work at MPF, you'll basically be immune to standards or consequences. So that's cool.
Go enjoy Shaggy's. Good food there. Also go to the island if you got the money for it. National Park and usually nice waters. Had a blast when the family and I went.
I’m in the reserves in a flying squadron and we have a personnel troop who does so well and everyone likes them so much they will literally go TDY with us like 7-8 times a year. Actually crazy
What I'd give to get force retrained into a desk job (and out of mx), ugh. That said, dont see it as a step down. You are still going to have tons of opportunities for medical classes, certs, etc (actually, you're going to have MORE opporunity now, as your job will be less stressful and not overly saturated with patient care). You also sound very young, this is going to be prime time for you to get your ducks in a row and figure out what you really want to do career and school wise. Its not a wrong road, its just a different road.
As someone who was reclassed into Personnel 23 years ago, I’m sorry.
Take it with a grain of salt it’s an easier job which means way more personal growth can be had. It’s a 9-5 schedule and not outside in the elements.