 What's up guys? Welcome back to another video. Today we have Jay Sutton. You actually have your own podcast. This is right behind us. It's Destroying Doubt. Go ahead and just let people know where they can find you or anywhere you want people to go follow you on. Instagram, this is Jay Sutton. You can follow me there or on Facebook at Jay Sutton. YouTube at Jay Sutton sounds pretty pretty simple and Destroying Doubt podcast. You can find that on pretty much any podcast platform. Today I'm going to be talking to Jay about joining with an open contract because when he joined the Air Force back in 2014 he joined as Open Mechanical. I didn't join as Open Mechanical though I had a mechanical job so I'm just going to run you through some questions maybe help some other people out there that are getting stuck with an Open Mechanical contract and then they don't know what they're going to be doing so we're going to go ahead and help you guys out right now. You're currently out of the Air Force now and how long were you in and what rank were you when you got out? I was in for about three years and I got out as Chief Master A1C of the Air Force. Basically he was just an A1C for a long time like when you're almost a senior airman. So when you first joined what was one of the reasons or the main reasons why you were joining the Air Force? I think this is good for people when they're looking into okay what jobs do I want to do in the Air Force? Kind of understanding other people's reasons for joining in the first place So what was the reason why you even wanted to sign a contract? If I had to put a percentage on it probably like 90% of school I was working a job that I hated and I was making good money at this job and I had worked my way up I wasn't doing something I wanted to do before living and I realized that school would help me get to where I wanted to go and to do what I wanted to do so my wife actually had a lot of college debt and I didn't want to add to that so How am I going to get free schooling and not rack up that and you're living with Terry? Yeah and actually it was a Marine that worked under me at my job that talked to me about the military I never thought about it before and he was like you should join the Air Force so I like how the Marine guy is like yeah just go Air Force Like no thoughts about it just Air Force Other 10% of that was I was always the youngest person Although I joined the military over I was always the youngest person kind of in charge in the civilian world Gotcha And I was I felt like I was always the smartest person in the room And I always heard about how smart the Air Force was so I wanted to be around people that were a lot smarter than me I wanted to be uncomfortable I wanted to be around young people that were smarter than me so Gotcha That's another reason why I joined you That's a cool mindset I didn't turn out that way because I found out there's no reason Air Force to but you know whatever So first thing I do want to say for everybody that's watching this is you're more likely to get an open contract when you join the Air Force Anyways about 60% of the jobs or so that come out to recruiters are open they're not a specific job And the recruiters can only work with the jobs that the big Air Force sends them So if big Air Force is saying hey we just filled these open contracts there's nothing more that your recruiter can really do So odds are you're probably going to get offered an open contract so just keep an open mind to that We'll get more into the selection process of your job once you get an open contract But just be aware that like open contracts aren't the worst thing in the world But I mean they're not the best obviously because you don't have a said job But there is a really low chance of you getting the exact job that you want Because big Air Force isn't always throwing those exact jobs out at the moment So when you're in debt and your recruiter hit you with an open mechanical contract Where you just like alright cool let's do this or did you have any concern for it or why did you end up signing in the end I think that I wanted to do air traffic control I think that's what I wanted to do And I guess it's not a job that you can just easily get or whatever And so he would call me every so often because you can only be in a debt for how long Like a year I think like a year and every few months he would call me he was like you want to leave He called me at work like I had to like duck off in this the recruiter I'm like yeah he's like you want to leave like tomorrow I'm like tomorrow I'm like what's the job he said constructions and pavement or something like that I'm like no and he would call a few months later and it was some other crappy job And he was like look the last time he called me he was like look your time is ending up He's ending in a debt I have open mechanical for you or whatever do you want to do that And I was like sure because he pretty much put it like if you don't take this we're going to put you out of debt So I was like alright cool So I was going to ask you how long you're in debt for but you said pretty much almost a year So you were running up on that that end time so I was actually in debt for 11 months as well So my recruiter was like pushing to finally get me a job contract when I joined There is going to be that kind of rush like if they've been waiting for months and months months Trying to get you that job that you want and it never comes through Like they they either have to just give you something or debt discharge you and then you have to redo everything again And a lot of recruiters are just like it's too much work like why am I going to keep working with this person for years Possibly when they're not going to accept a contract so that's something you have to keep in mind So yeah with you you were like might as well just sign it because you don't want to go through all that process And keep waiting away you just start putting it off at that point So at basic training when you got there when did you pick your jobs like they let you decide what you wanted to do And how did you if you remember because I know that was a while ago But how did that process go and then when did you find out your job I can't actually remember the entire process I do remember picking jobs and I didn't I was talking to people at Depp and the people I were at Depp with They were like experts at picking jobs and all this other kind of stuff And they said don't put certain mechanical jobs because you will get it if you put it And they were like dude go for NDI this would be a good job whatever No dirt involved go for NDI and I was like alright so I put NDI and I can't remember putting anything out Do you remember how many options you get I think like some people said like they made you put like five or seven or ten I can't remember I think it changes over time so I didn't join this open mechanics So I didn't do any of that at basic I think I just put NDI and if I put something else it was something that I knew I wouldn't get or something like that Yeah well so like because I think with that maybe they would let you submit Because like your dream sheet at basic training when you submit it you could put two things on your dream sheet And so they're like but it's like if you don't fill it out like you can't be mad about what you get If you don't get your number one it's like they get a pick whatever they want to give you at that point Because you didn't give them a preference So I think yeah if you think you only put NDI you probably weren't allowed to But they're like if you get something else like that sucks because that's what you chose I think I rolled a dice on that one I did the same thing with what you said the dream sheet too I just put like Florida, Florida, Florida, Florida and I got a Florida so You're lucky Yeah I did I think right before you go to tech school so like toward like six or seven weeks Yeah toward the end of basic training Okay so and then when they told you you had that job you were like sweet I got the job that I asked for Yeah And the tech school was in Florida in Pensacola so Yeah so you were all right there you were like oh sweet Yeah you're like Tindall's what like three hours away from Pensacola But I didn't know I was going to Tindall's die I would be stationed here probably until Halfway Yeah Tech school or something like that so that was cool that was good dude You're like I'm just staying all right here in a little panhandle Yeah So what Jay did is only put one job and you got your number one pick Cause that was the only job you put it Would you recommend that for other people? Probably not I feel like he got really lucky and that can happen sometimes But I would honestly recommend that you guys actually put a list of like full on jobs that you're willing to take Because like we were just talking about if they don't have that one job available Now it becomes everyone else that actually filled out their list one through five or whatever They're gonna consider all their options because you didn't give them any other options to consider So basically you're gonna get the like last pick of the litter and nobody wants that So definitely be sure to fill out your stuff accordingly in best case scenario to your least favorite that is still an option So that way you're at least giving the airport some sort of knowledge of what you want Rather than them having to just decide for you because that can end up really badly for some people So Jay got lucky but I would not suggest you do that if you're truly serious about it I don't think you really had anything else in mind when you signed you were just kind of like whatever like I'm just here So maybe that is your mindset But even then I would say look into the jobs and kind of know what you want to do in the open contract that you're getting I just want to say do your research because I talked to people like family friends Whatever who had served in the military and people in my depth I was talking to I've reached out to everyone I could and looked online And I think at the time people were telling me for whatever reason they needed people with NDI at the time So I knew that if I put it there was probably a good chance that I would get it So do all the research, ask whoever you can, whatever question you can So that would probably help us with What is your advice for somebody? I know what you kind of just gave was some advice But what would be some other advice for somebody that's looking to possibly sign an open contract of some sort How can we help them know what they're getting themselves into? Well just know, have a good idea of what you want to do So if you want to do NDI it probably wouldn't be best for you to go open general You want to be, if you know the, what other open areas are there? I know there's open general, open mechanical, open administrative Yeah and then open electric Open electric, so just have a general idea of where you want to go Like don't be wanting to go open electrical and go open mechanical because you're going to hate life You know what I'm saying? So just do your research and kind of figure out and hit around Which area you want to work in and then go open in that one if that's what you choose to do or have to do Alright guys, well we hope you appreciate this video Maybe open your eyes a little bit to how the open mechanical contract works And we hope to see you guys in our next pieces of content that we create And we'll see you guys in the next video