Will I need an age waiver to enlist, and how hard is it to get? Would I be able to put in a packet for WO right away, if I choose that route?

Your recruiter is screwing you. Mine did the same to me. If you are already 32 you will likely not be eligle for OCS after AIT based on age restrictions. Also, I believe you have to be at least one year out of AIT to even apply.

PLEASE do not let your recruiter screw you over. If you plan to take the OCS route do it now!! I promise you will be ineligible if you try later. And age waivers are not a thing for active component.

Your recruiter gets ZERO credit for you if you take OCS route. They have been doing this song and dance for years. I can tell you that firsthand.

For Warrant officer Technician you can apply up to your 46th birthday. You must be pinned before the and even then I had people in my class at 50 years old so at 33 you should be in great shape but I would advise you to do I it now because time flies. Good luck

SPC (Join to see) tough question. But there are a lot of experienced veterans in here, SP5 Mark Kuzinski Lt Col Stephen Jordan 1stSgt Mac Mastroni MSgt Michael Sterling TSgt Pamela Cleere MRP, SRS, ABR, CRS, GRI, Realtor, RB-22176 Capt Gina Densler MSgt David Heil

Bear one thing in mind with the contract bonus... you will not receive it all in 1 lump sum. It will be ~10,000 upfront after AIT and the rest payed out in monthly installments with your paycheck for the duration of your contract. Learned thatbone the hard way when i was told i was getting a 40k enlistment bonus for 92F.. so dont count on a single penny from that until AIT is complete. And then, with you wanting to reclass so quickly, i dont know if thr Army will force you to payback that enlistment bonus... they pay that inorder to secure soldiers for a contrats length of time in THAT position. If you fail to comolete the required length of service you're then required to pay the FULL bonus amount back to the Army... so if you do receive any amount just be warry of spending any until you get a definant answer from the Army on whether they're gonna make you return it or not.. last thing you need is to be paying your employer in order to work for them.

Best of luck in either OCS or WO board!

you do not need an age waiver; You have until you are 34 if you do not have prior service. If you want OCS or Warrant e mail me, I can get you a packet. The selection board only meets quarterly so, if you want it go for it. Secondly, I do get "credit" if I get an applicant to go OCS, so CPT Everett is incorrect. I'd be happy to process your packet or get you to the closest Battalion for the board. [login to see]

I used to be a drill not to long ago and I can say this we had tons of people coming in to go straight to OCS which if that’s your ultimate goal I would have done that. I’m not sure about the age but I’m sure there is a waiver for it. However as long as you had a bachelors we had 09S’s (OCS candidates) come in and as soon as they were done with BCT we shipped them straight to OCS. The same goes for Warrant Officers but mainly street to seat. They came in as 09W’s and unless you were prior service I don’t think you can come in and go straight to tech warrant. But I do know that you can go to WOCS as an E-4 but I think that’s only for the street to seat. Regardless whether it’s street to seat or OCS though if you come in as an 09S or 09W you’ll be an E-4 for BCT then get promoted to E-5 on record (receive E-5 pay) while you are a candidate. This isn’t the first time I heard this. I had SO many soldiers come to be as a drill and tell me their recruiter told them to go enlisted first then put a packet in for OCS later. And in the same class I had others that came in specifically to go to OCS after graduating BCT both of which came in with the same level of education. I’m assuming by what you said you already signed the contract so I would just do what you need to until after AIT while doing research and put your OCS packet together. However if you end up becoming an NCO before you will not only get the perception from both the enlisted and commissioned side but the O-1E pay will also be a nice bonus.

May not need to go to OCS. Check this out:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/us-army_talentmanagement-activity [login to see] 971319296-IpdC

From what i understand in order to be a warrant officer you need to at least be an E-5 with two to three ncoers. You have the other prerequisites that are required it seems like. But not the service time.

A little more background: I applied for the Cyber Command Direct Commissioning - but was denied (the letter stated that at the time of application they didn't need my skill set) and suggested I enlist, attempt OCS to contribute to the cyber mission etc..

You can, 100%, go into OCS out of Basic Training. The MOS code is O9S, Officer Candidate. It doesn't matter if you plan on the active route or reserves. The only difference is you must already have your degree for active duty. If you are going into the National Guard you only need 60 credit hours to go the traditional route through the state based program, which gets the same results, just over a 1 year time frame.

As far as age goes, to go the officer route you only need to be commissioned before you turn the age of 42. If you plan on going pilot warrant, you need to be in warrant school before turning 33. My recruiter told me the opposite. He told me I should go OCS, and not enlisted. I signed up as a O9S, but ultimately went enlisted and took the Intel route. I didn't become an officer because of, believe it or not, recruiter "mishap," meaning my degree, as well as another gentleman's were rejected for reasons we were not sure of. I went on with my service and the other guy opted out. He was 35 when he joined. By the way I was 27 when I joined, and I have served with gentlemen who were former enlisted, but went officer at the age of 40.

Basically, if you want to be an officer, then do it. Talk to an officer retention officer for better information. I hope this information helps you out.