 Hi, my name is Emma and I joined the Air Force because I did not know what I was doing in college. I didn't want to waste a bunch of money and time going to college to get a degree and going into a career field that I didn't love. I also joined to travel, get some good life experience, and I also joined to get free education. I have been in for just under two years and I am currently a senior Airman. I am a Fusion Analyst and my AFSC is one in four X1 Bravo and there are actually two shreds to one in fours, the Alpha and the Bravo. I was lucky enough I actually got to choose this job in depth and I didn't have to go open contract. But this was not the job that I originally wanted. I originally wanted to be a loadmaster or air traffic control but I failed the perception at MEPS so I had to look into another career field but after looking into all of my other choices I was actually really interested in the intel career field so I was actually happy with my choice. I signed a six-year contract and that is because it is mandatory for one in fours now because our tech school is a lot longer than most other tech schools. Tech school for one in fours is at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas and I actually really enjoyed my tech school. It was a lot of fun, the material was interesting, made a lot of great friends. A piece of advice I have going along with tech schools, if you do have a long tech school and you have the opportunity to bring your car down, I highly recommend it. It made it a lot easier for my friends and I to go out and explore the city and even drive to some neighboring cities, go on some hikes, go to the lake. It was really convenient and made tech school a lot better for us. Of course the Alpha and the Bravo Shred can go to different places. Unfortunately for the Alphas there are not that many options. I think there's only about five options when you get right out of tech school and for the Bravos I want to say there's probably about a dozen options or so and of course the more you progress the more bases that open up to you. If you want to know which bases exactly are available to you right out of tech school I will put those in the blog post that I write about being fusion analyst. So for the one and four Bravo Shred a typical day is reporting and focusing on intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance or ISR and we focus on collecting, analyzing and disseminating the intelligence. Basically the fusion and fusion intelligence is taking all of the intelligence that's gathered, analyzing it and fusing it together and kind of seeing how it fits. Basically putting together a big puzzle. And then the Alpha side is a little similar. I think I can't speak much to it but I know they are more in the cyber realm and digital network intelligence type stuff. Average work hours a week are probably between 40 and 45 hours. Typical work week not too strenuous. So far I have been trained in Air Force and NSA reporting and editing classes which can be very valuable if I want to continue a career as a reporter and an editor. I can probably take that to corporations or another three letter agency when I get out. I know there are options to deploy as a one and four. For example my flight chief has been deployed before but it's not extremely common as it is for some other career fields. There are a lot of chances to go T.D.W.I.S. and to go to classes and seminars and stuff like that. As of right now I plan on getting out after my first contract after six years. I've been kind of going back and forth ever since I joined if I want to get out or stay in but right now I want to get out. I want to see what else the world has to offer and I'm not sure this is quite my dream job to make a career out of. So my number one job choice now is still hard to say just because I've only had experience as one job. I do really enjoy my job. Some days are better than others of course. If I were to go back and do this again I would probably stick with this job but if I didn't have anything wrong with my eyes I still think I would love to be a loadmaster or even a boom operator. I have a couple friends who have done that and they said they really love that. Some advice for new one and fours is to not be discouraged when you don't get your security clearance. It does take a long time to get. There is quite a backup going on right now. For example, it took me eight months being here at my first base before I could even start my job and a couple friends that I work with had to wait over a year to get their clearance and that's just really discouraging. You feel like you kind of don't fit in in the Air Force and you're not contributing to anything but just keep your head up through this time. Take this opportunity to diversify yourself and work on your strengths. For example, I got my CDCs knocked out right away and I started diving into CLEPS and got started on my bachelor's degree before I even started my actual job. There's also a lot of opportunities. You can go to different classes and briefings and just try to train yourself as much as you can even though you're not actually doing the job. And I guess the same goes for anybody during the Air Force. Use this time and opportunity to gain as much knowledge and skills as you can before you get out even if you are only staying in for four years. Take advantage of your tuition assistance and your GI bill and traveling. Speak to as many people as you can. Try to get life experience and job experience from everybody you can. Everybody's Air Force career is different. So just try to gain as much knowledge and experience as you can with your time in the Air Force. Your base and your job is what you make of it. It's only going to be crappy if that's how you think of it. Just try to make every moment and every step in your career a positive one and you'll definitely enjoy your time in the Air Force a little bit more. If you want to ask me more questions or you want to check out more from me you can follow me on Instagram at Emma Dindler and I also have a YouTube channel also called Emma Dindler.