I Have A Couple Of Questions About Joining The Australian Defence Force As An Aerospace Engineer

[Bluelogic32]

HI, I want to be an aerospace engineer and the best way that I can think of doing that is joining the ADF so I can get the education and experience I'll need for the aerospace industry. I do have a few questions I need answered about joining though. What age do I have to be to join if I didn't finish school? And can I join if I didn't finish school? I'm 17 now, I left school while I was in year 2 and started home schooling after that. I've completed a cert 2 in English and math at tafe. My dad is in the army and he never finished school, he got in with a year 12 equivalent from tafe, I don't know if it is different now though. Another question Is can I join if I have Aspergers syndrome? I was diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome a few weeks ago and I don't know if the ADF Allows people with disorders to join. How smart do you have to be to join? The reason I'm asking this is because I never listened to my mum telling me that my education is important, and would give her a hard time when she would make me do school work. If she had known that I had Aspergers when I was younger she could have got help for me sooner, and I wouldn't have just sat around all day playing video games and watching tv. Anyway I'm very inarticulate(because of my Aspergers), I'm very good at maths, however I forget how to do it all the time. I'm also very bad a English, English is by far my worst subject( I remember when I was at school I'd get great marks in every thing but English). I'm trying to reeducate myself now though. I'm not dumb or anything, I'm very intelligent, my IQ is 130, I'm just poorly educated. I live in Victoria as well I don't if that changes anything. Thank you for your help.

[Baldric]

Hi, this is a UK Site

[Buenchico]

Clicking the links on the left of this page may well answer a lot of your questions:
http://www.defencejobs.gov.au/airforce/jobs/AerospaceEngineerOfficerElectronics/Entry/?entryTypeId=3

However you'll need to be exceptionally good at mathematics to succeed in that field. (My own university degree is in mathematics, and I've taught maths to university entry level, but I know that I'd still find much of the course content for a subject such as Aerospace Engineering to be extremely difficult).

Given your high IQ, you would probably perform well in the written component of the aptitude tests:
http://content.defencejobs.gov.au/pdf/triservice/DFT_Document_GuideToAptitudeandAbilityTesting_20090810.pdf
but it has to be faced that the ADF might regard it as a problem that you state "I'm very inarticulate" since good communication skills would seem to be an obvious requirement for a military officer.

Your best chance of getting meaningful answers though is almost certainly to speak to someone in the ADF recruitment team. Phone 13 19 01.

Incidentally, you might be 'doing yourself down' by describing yourself as 'inarticulate'. Psychiatrists and psychologists can never agree as to whether my own position on the autism spectrum actually falls within the definition 'Asperger's Syndrome' or is only 'akin to Asperger's'. However I'm certainly lousy at communicating within most social situations but rather good at communicating elsewhere (such as in a classroom). The wording of your post (which is far from inarticulate) suggests that something similar might apply to you.