Pros
Enlisted Perspective Only: The pay is good for someone with zero prior skills and experience. The health, education, vacation and retirement benefits are also good for not requiring anything more than a High School education and clean background. Opportunity to travel is decent. You are provided college credit just for learning the basics of your job, and can easily earn an Associates Degree within 3 years with minimal effort. This is accomplished through their Apprenticeship and Journeyman programs. On average, after 3-4 years you begin to be offered several supervisory/management opportunities. The Enlisted Air Force Active Duty is perfect for someone leaving High School and does not want to attend a traditional 4 Year University or is unsure of their next step.
Cons
Enlisted Perspective Only: Promotion can be difficult through management levels (NCO tiers) depending on your career field (AFSC). It is very difficult to terminate employees even if they are unprofessional, poor quality, can't meet standards or are lazy. As a result, others who care about their career end up working extra to pick up the slack. Since Enlisted Air Force recruits mostly join after High School, the enlisted force has a large number of uneducated, inexperienced, unprofessional members. Every one is paid the same based on rank and years of service. This can be upsetting to discover if you are working 60 hour work weeks on midnight shifts in a very challenging technical job with high exposure to risk and inclement weather and others work 40 hour day shifts Mon-Fri in indoors that is comparable to a customer service environment. It is difficult to change jobs to a career you would prefer or better matches your post education and natural skill set. You are required to meet the Air Force needs first and this often places people into jobs they do not enjoy nor are good at.
