Is being an Air Force linguist worth the fuss?

A score of 96 is still good, that just means that you won't get Korean or Arabic or Chinese, but there are plenty of other languages that you can get. When you leave the DLI, if you have the general credits from college, you can leave with a minor in your language as well as a security clearance. Intell people have a more of a cush job - espeically in the Air Force (they call it the Chair force here at the DLI - If I were you I would go for being a flight linguist as oppossed to being signal intell (sitting all day in a cubby hole with ear phones) - you have a better chance of peomotion, more experience for when you leave and a better chance of getting a great civilian job as a linguist. Linguists in the civilian world get pain a ton of $ and you can travel a lot as well. Yes the DLI is hard, but if you are stuggling but doing your best, they will just roll you back a class. If you do not put forth the effort the will rock you out and that is never a good thing because then you can be reclassed. I would go for it because you will alway wonder "what if" - anyway Monterey is beautiful

Linguist is a great job. I wouldn't say it is the best job in the entire Air Force, but its a good job. (And in reply to the poster above me, there are lots of jobs that will get you into the FBI after your enlistment not just linguist). However, Linguist is a very hard job to do. Training is very long and difficult. I had a guy in my tech school that went to school to be a Korean linguist. He was there an entire year, and the last test you take to pass or not, he missed by just a few points. He had to end up retraining into my career field, however, he had been in for over a year by the time he got to my tech school and my tech school was 6 mths. So he was in the Air Force for over 18 mths before he even got to his first duty station. If you think you can do it, then go for it. Noone but you can decide if you want to be a linguist. Honestly I wouldnt suggest getting a computer job because a lot of them are either going away or being combined with other jobs. It is really hard to get a CJR in a computer career field right now, so you might be forced to retrain to stay in after your first enlistment and by this time you may not be able to pass the test to get into linguist job. Just something to think about. Good luck in whatever you decide.

According to my friend who happens to be a Marine Linguist, she says its the best MOS a person can take. Apparently she plans to work in the FBI after her 5 years. So yeah i guess its a pretty coveted MOS. Plus since there are so many drops from the classes the numbers needed are never filled. I suggest going for it; remember recruiters have spots to fill. If thats what you really want ask the recruiter if you can wait for the spot, because cross training is done only in undermanned MOS's so they may want to send you into some crappy MOS. Plus the Air Force is over manned so in a non critical MOS you are more likely to get out in 4 years if your not perfect. Best of luck Semper Fi

It is awesome!! And by the way....if you can pass the flight physical, go Aircrew. When I joined I would only join if it was a guaranteed job so I don't know why they can't do that for you. It was in my contract that I would be an Airborne Linguist as long as I passed all the training. Good luck....and yes it's worth all the LONG years of training and fuss.