Welcome to the Scientist AFSC discussion blog. The purpose of this blog is to foster discussion between future Air Force officers interested in the Scientist career field and current officers in the scientist AFSC. The views expressed in this blog are solely the opinions of the individual authors and not of the United States Air Force nor the Department of Defense.
That largely depends on the job you are doing. For example, my first analyst job was to characterize the orbital debris threat to military operations. That required working with NASA, NORAD, AFSPC, National Labs, observatories and commercial entities to try to figure out how much "stuff" is up there, the probabilities that a collision will occur (and whether that causes a series of cascading catastrophic events), mitigation issues, and what our ability is to recover from an event (e.g. launch another satellite and/or shift demands to other operational sats). This was a large cat-herding exercise with scientific tests and experiments (including a shuttle mission), lots of data-crunching and simulation work, and briefs of your results and conclusions (in boss-understandable format) to allow him to weigh the risks based on your analysis.
Recently, I had the chance to work in the Analyst Cell within a CAOC and I was tracking strategy-to-task-to-results. Essentially, the boss wants to conduct the air war in a particular manner, his intentions flow down in various ways and result in numerous products (like the JIPTL) which then creates more products (ATO, ACO, SPINS, etc.), which are executed and we get results back on the sorties. So... the question the boss has is, "I wanted the IADS threat to be reduced by 50% today, what actually happened?" Did his words get properly conveyed and relayed that resulted in targets and sorties that produced the desired results? You have TBMCS (with practically no analysis tools), MS Office, and a phone (and everyone is too busy to talk). The boss needs updates every day since you are effectively giving him a grade on how he is conducting his air war. And since you are the designated geek in the room (i.e. the one without the flight suit), expect to receive wild, out-of-the-blue, nearly impossible to answer questions to come your way. Your data-mining & condensing, stats, and briefing skills and any operational experience you've picked up along the way will definitely be put to the task.
I have also found that the type of work you do on a daily basis largely depends on what job you are doing.
From my own experience, I was an operations research logistics analyst at HQ/AF Materiel Command. I worked on big picture issues like: how should the AF manage its spare parts inventory to keep planes flying, and how well is the AF logistics system supporting the warfighter? Being a headquarters position, this is very different that what some of my peers were doing at test agencies or labs. If you look at the career pyramid for an analyst, the goal in your first few years is to give you experience at a variety of these levels. If you like more of the big picture questions, headquarter positions are great. If you like to be closer to the "action," an operational test position might be better.
Overall, though, you will definitely get to use your degree and analytical skills no matter where you go and pick up invaluable experience along the way.
I agree with both of the comments posted here that the work varies greatly with your job. Some analysts work future force structure issues, while others work day-to-day operational performance issues.
The underlying theme, however, is that your boss will look to you to provide a quantitative perspective on various issues. Your boss will expect you to be able to analayze data and provide recommendations rooted in an analytic approach.
I received my Ph.D. in Modeling, Virtual Environments, and Simulation (MOVES) from NPS. I was the first (and still only) AF guy to get the MOVES Ph.D., but I know of an AF behavioral scientist who is there now working on his MOVES Ph.D. I would love to see more AF OR-types getting MOVES degrees (and yes, they offer a MOVES Masters as well).
Saw this information on a briefing recently (apologies for not spellchecking):
298 61S3A positions (Active, Guard & Reserves):
27 California 16 Nevada 1 Utah 1 Arizona 51 Colorado 36 New Mexico 2 Oklahoma 20 Texas 4 Missouri 5 Louisianna 1 Illinois 7 Alabama 25 Ohio 2 Georgia 46 Florida 7 New York 1 Pennsylvania 23 Virginia 2 New Jersey 2 Mass. 2 DC 2 Maryland 1 Hawaii 6 Germany 1 United Kingdom 3 *DATA MASKED*
Where civilian analysts are found: (likely military too?) Arlington, VA Eglin Hurlburt Kirtland Hanscom Lackland Langley Mac Dill Maxwell Nellis Offutt Pentagon Peterson Randolph Rome, NY San Antonio Schriever Scott Tinker Vandenberg Wright-Patterson USAFA Other
11 comments:
What kind of work does an Analyst do on a daily basis?
That largely depends on the job you are doing. For example, my first analyst job was to characterize the orbital debris threat to military operations. That required working with NASA, NORAD, AFSPC, National Labs, observatories and commercial entities to try to figure out how much "stuff" is up there, the probabilities that a collision will occur (and whether that causes a series of cascading catastrophic events), mitigation issues, and what our ability is to recover from an event (e.g. launch another satellite and/or shift demands to other operational sats). This was a large cat-herding exercise with scientific tests and experiments (including a shuttle mission), lots of data-crunching and simulation work, and briefs of your results and conclusions (in boss-understandable format) to allow him to weigh the risks based on your analysis.
Recently, I had the chance to work in the Analyst Cell within a CAOC and I was tracking strategy-to-task-to-results. Essentially, the boss wants to conduct the air war in a particular manner, his intentions flow down in various ways and result in numerous products (like the JIPTL) which then creates more products (ATO, ACO, SPINS, etc.), which are executed and we get results back on the sorties. So... the question the boss has is, "I wanted the IADS threat to be reduced by 50% today, what actually happened?" Did his words get properly conveyed and relayed that resulted in targets and sorties that produced the desired results? You have TBMCS (with practically no analysis tools), MS Office, and a phone (and everyone is too busy to talk). The boss needs updates every day since you are effectively giving him a grade on how he is conducting his air war. And since you are the designated geek in the room (i.e. the one without the flight suit), expect to receive wild, out-of-the-blue, nearly impossible to answer questions to come your way. Your data-mining & condensing, stats, and briefing skills and any operational experience you've picked up along the way will definitely be put to the task.
I have also found that the type of work you do on a daily basis largely depends on what job you are doing.
From my own experience, I was an operations research logistics analyst at HQ/AF Materiel Command. I worked on big picture issues like: how should the AF manage its spare parts inventory to keep planes flying, and how well is the AF logistics system supporting the warfighter? Being a headquarters position, this is very different that what some of my peers were doing at test agencies or labs. If you look at the career pyramid for an analyst, the goal in your first few years is to give you experience at a variety of these levels. If you like more of the big picture questions, headquarter positions are great. If you like to be closer to the "action," an operational test position might be better.
Overall, though, you will definitely get to use your degree and analytical skills no matter where you go and pick up invaluable experience along the way.
Are there any grad school slots other than OR that can be pursued at NPS full time in this career field?
Also, how is force shaping effecting 61A's?
I agree with both of the comments posted here that the work varies greatly with your job. Some analysts work future force structure issues, while others work day-to-day operational performance issues.
The underlying theme, however, is that your boss will look to you to provide a quantitative perspective on various issues. Your boss will expect you to be able to analayze data and provide recommendations rooted in an analytic approach.
I received my Ph.D. in Modeling, Virtual Environments, and Simulation (MOVES) from NPS. I was the first (and still only) AF guy to get the MOVES Ph.D., but I know of an AF behavioral scientist who is there now working on his MOVES Ph.D. I would love to see more AF OR-types getting MOVES degrees (and yes, they offer a MOVES Masters as well).
For more information:
http://www.movesinstitute.org
what are all of the possible bases for the scientific analyst? are any of them also space or missle bases?
Saw this information on a briefing recently (apologies for not spellchecking):
298 61S3A positions (Active, Guard & Reserves):
27 California
16 Nevada
1 Utah
1 Arizona
51 Colorado
36 New Mexico
2 Oklahoma
20 Texas
4 Missouri
5 Louisianna
1 Illinois
7 Alabama
25 Ohio
2 Georgia
46 Florida
7 New York
1 Pennsylvania
23 Virginia
2 New Jersey
2 Mass.
2 DC
2 Maryland
1 Hawaii
6 Germany
1 United Kingdom
3 *DATA MASKED*
Where civilian analysts are found:
(likely military too?)
Arlington, VA
Eglin
Hurlburt
Kirtland
Hanscom
Lackland
Langley
Mac Dill
Maxwell
Nellis
Offutt
Pentagon
Peterson
Randolph
Rome, NY
San Antonio
Schriever
Scott
Tinker
Vandenberg
Wright-Patterson
USAFA
Other
61SXA Command Distribution:
AFOTEC 22% ACC 18%
AETC 12% AFMC 16%
AFELM 5% USAFA 10%
AFSPC 6% AIA 4%
Assession degrees:
52% Math
23% OR
14% Sci/Tech (this is me, BTW)
3% Management
8% Other
Masters degrees:
(50% have MS by 5th year of service)
(1/6th earned on their own)
51% OR
11% Math
15% Sci/Tech (still me)
8% Management
15% Other
Ph.D degrees:
30% of FGOs have a Ph.D.
This great information.
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