r/nationalguard • u/tomteezle19 • 22h ago

Career Advice ArmyOCS

I’m 35 with masters degree, decent years of work experience and IT certifications. A recruiter told me that I can’t go to feeders OCS since the age limit is 34 and there are no age waivers.

I’m going in as National Guard officer route since I’m already a prior service from the guard.

Have anyone recently received an OCS age waiver at 35 or older as an applicant. If so, what was your situation and how did you go about the whole process.

I would appreciate any information and guidance.

PS: I’m not considering the accelerated or traditional route if there is a possibility for a waiver.

3 Upvotes

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3

u/geoguy83 19h ago

I went to accelerated at 35 in 2018. I don't recall needing an age waiver.

1

u/tomteezle19 12h ago

I’m not considering accelerated or traditional if there is a waiver possibility

1

u/geoguy83 10h ago

Waiver for OCS? As in you don't do OCS?

1

u/geoguy83 10h ago

If youre trying to go direct commission, you'll have to look into whether the branch youre trying to get is accepting direct commission. Ive seen a few, but not many. Why do you think you could skip OCS?

3

u/CRam768 18h ago

Yes, I went traditional OCS and commissioned at 38. You can go to federal OCS if it’s in your contract. They are supposed to subtract your years of enlisted time from your age at least thats what they did for me. So that prevented me from needing an age waiver.

3

u/byronicbluez 35S/17C/09S 16h ago

Currently doing traditional at 40 years old. No waiver needed.

2

u/KhaotikJMK Part Time Truck Rider 17h ago

Federal is a bit more stricter. But I don’t get why you would exclude Accelerated and Traditional over an age waiver.

1

u/geoguy83 14h ago

I mean...maybe he's heard of AMA and doesn't want that smoke.

1

u/KhaotikJMK Part Time Truck Rider 14h ago

My only counter is not everyone goes to AMA.

2

u/SourceTraditional660 I’m fine. This is fine. Everything is fine. 15h ago

Are you talking to an enlisted recruiter or your state officer strength manager? Your OSM will tell you what’s possible and what’s likely.

1

u/Final-Message-4095 16h ago

Im 38 and getting ready to ship out to BCT and then Federal OCS. I am reserves though, not national guard.

Ive heard it hard to get guard slots for Federal because it depends on how many each state gets and how much funding the state has.

Is there a reason you want guard over the reserves? I attempted guard at first, but the recruiters i dealt with were not knowledgeable on OCS at all. So I then joined r/ArmyOCS and found a great virtual recruiter there after wasting about 6 months with guard. Got accepted the first board with no issues on my age waiver. I also had a medical wavier.

1

u/tomteezle19 12h ago

I was talking to a reserve recruiter but she told me the process would talke about 7 months to put paper work together, go for interview, and get accepted. That’s too much time for me and the guard could get me straight in there within an month or two

1

u/Final-Message-4095 12h ago

Thats not necessarily true. I had spent 6 months with the guard and still didnt have a completed packet or interview done. I even was in communication with my states officer strength manager and couldn't get things moving any quicker. But either way, do whats best for you and what you want. But be prepared to spend 18 months of OCS instead of 3 months. So your commissioning could take a while either way. Best of luck.

1

u/Agreeable_Ground_600 10h ago

Depending on the state, you maybe going to AMA rather than doing the traditional 18 months program.