Ask here about the Recruitment Process, Basic & Occupational Training, and other questions relating directly or indirectly to serving in the Canadian Armed Forces.
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Good morning guys, I am currently a Regular Force member and am considering a transfer to the Primary Reserve, with the intention of serving as a Logistics Officer in an Army Reserve unit.（ I’m not logistic officer now by the way)
I am already BMOQ-A qualified and currently hold the rank of 2Lt. I would appreciate any insight on the following points:
From a realistic perspective, including typical course availability and potential training backlogs, how long does it usually take for a Reserve Logistics Officer to reach OFP after transferring in? And I probably will miss next 2026 summer course bc I will start my process next January.
With approximately one year of commissioned service, but prior to reaching OFP, would a member normally remain a 2Lt, or is promotion to Lieutenant possible before trade qualification? (as a reservist) I saw there are a bunch of positions require LT and I’m afraid they won’t even consider me.
Thank you in advance for any guidance or experiences you’re willing to share
Is the weapons engineering technician trade changing in the near future to a specialist role due to the new destroyers?
[deleted]
If you haven't done aircrew selection yet I'd say te odds are pretty low.
The CAF isn't a proper job?
CAF is better than a proper job.
What trades did you originally apply for?
Pilot and intel
Question for Materiel Management technician or previously supply tech. What are the career options for MMT like?i cant find much information appreciate any inputs.thank you.
Every part of the Military requires materials. Equipment for people, parts to fix said equipment, and everything big and small.
As such, MMTs exist everywhere. On warships getting food and spare parts to fix systems. In air bases to fix helicopters jumbo jets and fighters. In army bases getting parts for vehicles or weapon systems.
You can / may be involved in the proper lifecycling of those parts. We can't just get a new cannon for the tank and the old one goes in the dumpster. Old one needs to be inspected, returned, and sent to facilities to be rebuilt.
MMT is logistics. Militaries live and die by logistics.
What resources are the best if I want to learn how to operate as a member of an infantry platoon, and general infantry terms, maneuvers, etc? Something that could help me grasp the basics (H-Hour, Firebase, etc). Asking this question because I am a sig op who was recently attached to another unit as a platoon sig. Since BMQ-L/SQ was removed, I'm noticing a knowledge gap which I would like to fill, thanks.
ACIMS should have all the power points you need. Could also watch YouTube videos
Hello r/CanadianForces,
I'm looking for candid advice and experiences, particularly from those who transitioned from a stable civilian career or joined later in life as an Engineer Officer.
I am a 36-year-old Civil Engineer with a professional licence (P.Eng. and PMP), currently working in the public sector with a good salary, benefits, and a defined-benefit pension. I am comfortable, but I have always been thrilled by the idea of service, challenge, and significant change.
My life circumstances are the primary pause: I have a wife with an established career, a grade 1 child, and a mortgage. I am comfortable with the idea of a significant jump, but the financial and family aspects require a realistic assessment.
My Core Questions:
Is starting basic training and the Officer training pipeline at 36 genuinely too late? I understand I will be starting essentially from "zero" in terms of military experience.
Are there common pitfalls or specific challenges for individuals with established lives (spouse's career, children) that I should be preparing for, especially regarding the initial mandatory training phases away from home?
What is the realistic entry-level pay (2Lt/Lt) for a Direct Entry Officer (DEO) Engineer with a professional degree and years of experience? I have seen conflicting reports, but I understand the starting pay is designed to be competitive with the private sector for entry-level positions.
Based on my initial research, I anticipate starting around the 2nd Lieutenant (2Lt) rank and progressing quickly to Lieutenant (Lt), with a salary likely starting in the low to mid-range of an Officer's pay scale (potentially around $60k-$70k annually during training, quickly jumping up upon promotion to Lt and Captain). Is this a fair assumption, and how does my civilian experience factor into the initial pay increment (PI)?
How fast is the promotion track (Time-in-Rank) to Captain? I understand it is often automatic (around 2-3 years) if all training and performance requirements are met. Is this a reliable timeline for an Engineer Officer?
How quickly can one realistically reach the Major rank (and the corresponding pay bracket of $125k+)?
For Engineer Officers, what is the cumulative time away from home for Basic Military Qualification (BMQ) and initial Occupational Qualification (Engineering School at CFB Gagetown, for example) in the first 12-24 months? I need a realistic estimate for my family to prepare for.
I appreciate any and all constructive feedback, especially from those who have been through this specific transition. I have an appointment with a recruiter in the new year and am trying to gather as much unfiltered information as possible to prepare for that meeting. Thank you for your service and for your input.
What is your salary right now? edit: ball park dont need specifics. +120 k or sub?
About that
okay thats not a huge cut since your wife is working too, basically like going on an extended PATA. If you can survive a drop in salary for a few years than it could work for sure. The thing I would be worried about is if she can continue her career remotely or in a new place. If she's losing her income and you are taking a cut then it would be a bad move IMO. I would say reserves in that case.
I'll probably have to start thiking towards that (reserve) although I rather go all in. Anyway thanks for taking the time and respond to me.
Not trying to take the wind out of your sails, but expect a significant pay drop. For a General Service Officer, which includes engineering officers, you will start off at the bottom of the DEO 2Lt pay scale. All DEOs enter with a professional degree for the trade they were accepted for, that's why they're DEOs. Civilian experience rarely, if ever, is taken into account for officer starting pay increments as you still have no experience as a military officer.
Promotion to Major is competitive. You could be promoted within 4 years after reaching captain, or 10, or never. It entirely depends on your competition, promotion numbers, and your own competitiveness.
Also, officers are posted frequently. After your training, be prepared to move yourself and your family every 3-4 years. You can also go on Imposed Restrictions where your family stays put and you move, but there are limitations to that. You might be one of the lucky ones that stays in one general area for long periods, but don't count on it.
Had my interview today and found out my gross salary would be 4,700 per month but then after taking away two thousand for housing and food it would be 2,700. My cousin is in the reserve force and says he doesn't need to pay for his food. He also says the two thousand is a "Small deductible" and I'm still being paid a good amount. Obviously I'm not joining for the money but is 32k per year really a good amount?
Also two other questions: How hard would you say the force test would be for a fairly unfit 5'9 230 pound man? And also when I fly to Quebec will I be met with a bus that will bring me to the army base, or do I have to get to it on my own?
Having the username "HateFilledMind" and politics on your profile while identifying yourself as a potential recruit isn't a good idea. Your social media will be checked when applying for a security clearance.
You need to grow up real quick and adopt the ethos if you want to make the Canadian armed forces a career or you will not be welcome.
Made a similar comment to this user previously. Not a good look at all. It will certainly be a culture shock when this guy has to sleep with 30 other individuals who come from diverse and different backgrounds/cultures.
You arent being charged $2000 for food and room. If you weren't being reimbursed its like 675 for food at 125 for the food
Unless you live off base and sign a lease for $2000 a month, in which case you are.
Everyone in Canada has to pay tax
Is 32k a year good money? No. But the starting gross for a private is 50k.
You'll be making at least 62 by the time you are posted anywhere with cfhd. And corporal starts at 81k
Appreciate the reply.
You're initially charged for rations & quarters but it's reimbursed while you're in the training system and you just pay income tax on the value.
The big deductions on your pay aren't housing and food though, they are income tax, employment insurance, and your contribution to our pension plan. These are generally paid at any job, and aren't CAF specific, less our pension plan.
Reserve members don't pay rations and quarters because they aren't living and eating on a CAF base, which Regular Force members do during their early career while training.
Finally, there are several buses each Saturday from YUL to CFLRS. If you get in after the last bus then you take a cab and get reimbursed with the receipt.
Clear and concise, thanks.
I am still two years away from graduating from high school and I think if I want to apply to somewhere as competitive as RMC, I need to get ahead of a lot of people, I'm wondering if I could get some tips. I've been talking to a lot of members of the CAF around me and they encouraged me to join the Reserves (which I plan on doing when I turn of age) but I also want to know what I should do on the co-curricular/extra-curricular side of things as well. I'm not sure how to get started and how to get ahead. I'll probably expand on it if I come back to this later since I just got back from cadets and I'm slightly sleep deprived and half-awake.
Not the reverse (the OT process can take longer than you expected), but like others said and always understand there is always uncertainty during the application, no matter what.
Varsity sports, learn french, volunteer and join committees/clubs at school
I have a really stupid question regarding dental cleaning. I'm bound for BMQ next month and have already enrolled. I was previously under the Canada Dental Care Plan and I'm due for a routine dental checkup a few days before BMQ. I understand that provincial healthcare is no longer valid once enrolled, so I was wondering if this is the same thing. Is that still valid or should I just cancel the appointment and let the medical staff at CFLRS handle it?
You get your teeth checked week 1 of bmq
But you will have to wait until BMQ is done and you are at your next base to get your teeth cleaned.
Hi,
I've been enrolled for two months in the 2Div PRes now and just recently got my ECN email and O365 access. I'm also doing weekend BMQ right now.
I've been told I could see the start dates of my trade courses on the app but there's nothing on it, it seems. I need to know the details in advance if I want to warn my civilian employer of my leave and also maybe hire someone to help my wife at home with the chores and the kid.
Do I need to finish BMQ before available courses unlocks in 2IC? Is there someplace in Teams where there's a calendar with all upcoming courses that I can look up?
Thanks for all the info you can give me!
Wha app are you referring to?
It's an app found in Power Apps. Unsure to what extent it's used in the CAF, but it's in use at my unit.
Ok but what is the app name? OP mentions teams but that is not where you would find course dates so what app are they looking on?
The app name is 2IC, it's an app found in Power Apps, from the office suite I think.
Now, I was under the impression there was that kind of info on Teams, hence why I mentionned it, but i'm just a PRes DEO 2Lt and part of my job is being confused so... Just doing my job not understanding how things work in the CAF!
Interesting. My unit just looooves D365 but I’ve never heard of 2IC and can’t find it in the App Store. Oh well.
A recruiter just told my friend that there are no officer trades open right now for general bachelors degree holders? Is that true? I thought we were recruiting...
Edit: They were also told that some officer trades are not open to permanent residents? Intelligence Officer for one... that is not listed on the website and is wasting people's time.
The CAF doesn't care about wasting peoples time. They have many times more applicants than people they can recruit each year.
Currently, PRs cannot get Top Secret security clearance. Every trade that requires TS is off limits for PRs. Plenty of officer and more importantly NCM trades out there.
People misunderstand things all the time, even if they swear they didn't... Always confirm with recruiting for yourself.
Yes, we are. But that doesn't mean 100% of occupations will be available 100% of the time...
If your friend is applying for the Reserve Force, then they're only applying for positions in their local area or at a specfic unit. Reserve Officer positions tend to fill up quickly and it's not unusual for there to be none available at a given unit or location.
If your firend is applying for the Regular Force, then they're apply for positions nationally. Each occupation gets X number of positions to recruit between 01 April and 31 March of the current fiscal year. Those targets expire and new targets take effect 01 April of the following year.
If the occupation fills all of it's openings for the current year, it closes to new applicants, and may stop processing existing applicants until new targets take effect. We're now at a point in the year where many occupations are beginning to hit capacity for the year, if they haven't already.
I would also note that the CAF generally isn't having a hard time attracting Officers, there's much fewere positions for Officrs, and those positions tend to be more relaibly filled. It's moreso our NCM roles that are struggling, and currently available opensings likely reflect that.
If a occupation closes for the year, new and existing applicants will be informed and offered the opportunity to change their occupation choices to something that remains available. Alternativly they can opt to temporarily "close" their file and wait until February of the next year to "reopen" it for consideration against positions coming available 01 April.
Hiring isn't done all at once for most occupations. It will be distributed throughout the fiscal year, but not necessarily evenly.
Thanks for the reply. This is for female Reg F officer applicant. They listed three trades and were told those three trades + all general degree holder trades were closed for the remainder of the FY.
Gender isn't really relevant, but it's not surprising they encountered multiple closed trades at this stage in the year.
They started the application process in the summer… I thought the recruiting process had been improved? Is August through to April basically a write off then annually due to no openings?
I understand that there are specific quotas and trades may be closed for non-minority male applicants, but open for others. Is that no longer the case?
Again, gender has no bearing on your application. If a trade is closed for men it is also closed for women. If a trade is closed for non-minorities (wtf?) it is also closed to minorities.
The only times that there are restrictions are with respect to PRs. Some trades are not available to non-citizens.
It's not exactly correct to say that gender/sex/race has no bearing on applications. The CAF has certain policies designed to meet its obligations under the Employment Equity Act, which includes positive steps to increase the representation of women, Aboriginal peoples, and members of visible minorities. In Canada, "affirmative action programs" are enshrined in Section 15(2) of The Charter.
https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/maple-leaf/defence/2021/11/caf-commitment-employment-equity-plan-2021-2026.html
There was a news story a few years ago about CFRG's employment equity policies, which at that time included closing certain trades to men while continuing to process female applicants.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-canadian-forces-jobs-where-only-women-need-apply
https://archive.is/20190419210347/https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-canadian-forces-jobs-where-only-women-need-apply
Bro got baited by a clickbait article
You know that article is from 2018, right?
The most recent Auditor General's report on CAF recruiting (October 2025) clearly states, "the Canadian Armed Forces prioritizes qualified women applicants during the selection recruitment process." (para 38). A "qualified" applicant is anyone that meets minimum eligibility requirements.
https://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/parl_oag_202510_07_e_44723.html
Why would you think anything has changed? The CAF has instituted positive equity practices for decades.
The Employment Equity Act requires "instituting such positive policies and practices and making such reasonable accommodations as will ensure that persons in designated groups achieve a degree of representation in each occupational group in the employer’s workforce".
Which doesn’t mean barring certain genders or races from any trade. It simply means encouraging people to look at less traditional trades. It means hiring the best person for the job, not just the first person who applies. It means not discouraging women from applying for combat arms and not discouraging men from applying to HRA/FSA.
The CAF is recruiting. That doesn't mean there is an infinite number of positions in every trade though.
Officer occupations tend to be relatively competitive in general, with many times more suitable applicants than there are available positions each year (there is no shortage of university grads looking for work). If the CAF has already filled is predetermined intake for regular force officers this year, then it will simply focus on recruiting for vacant NCM positions the remainder of the fiscal year.
Is it possible for a CAF recruiter to refer you to another recruitment branch in a different province if you move out of the original province that you applied for within?
Asking because I'm currently waiting for my application to move after applying in June. I'm still early in enlistment process (13% of my file is completed) and I'm unemployed right now at the age of 22.
I live in the Toronto area and am thinking about moving to a different province (Alberta) to find work to pass time while also getting paid.
Will moving to a different province mess up my file due to my commute?
I wanna ask current members before asking my recruiter this since I think current members and vets are more trustworthy.
Yes. They will just send your file over to the other recruiting centre. It's not a problem.
Your recruiter is more trustworthy. Recruiters for the CAF have no skin in the game in terms of bonuses or quotas.
Cool! Thanks for the info!
You realize recruiters are ALSO current members and many also hang out in this subreddit.
You know what I meant. LOL
No I don’t. Recruiters don’t get bonuses to enrolling people. They don’t get fines for not enrolling people.
Yes
I got several questions with my application process and my mos:
I injured my right knee (ACL tear and meniscus damage) and I sent in all the required medical documentation to my MO. I think I sent it in October so about 3 months ago. Realistically, how long do you think the review of my medical documentation would take and get approved before moving onto the next step? (P.S. I did do my surgery in July of 2024.)
How long did it take for you guys to finish the entire process? (Because I hear different stories of how long it takes for an average Canadian to join the CAF).
I’m hoping to take up on the job of Intel Op, I was wondering if anyone knows how long is the course for the MOS and if it’s difficult to graduate from.
And lastly, what’s the best advice for someone like me before I go to one of the basic training bases across Canada?
A little advice that helped me thru BMQ: set tiny milestones for yourself. Don't think about getting thru the course, think about what you need to do before the next meal, or the next chance to stop and de-stress, or the next chance to sleep. Another 5 weeks is daunting, an hour left till lunch is easy. You string together a series of tiny "just another couple hours", and the next thing you know it's all over.
Listen carefully to instructions, keep your head down, and work together. You've got this.
Thank you! I’ll keep that in mind! 😁
RMO reviews can take up to 6 months. They're usually much shorter than that, but yours will probably require more review than most.
It's all over the place. Some people take 3-4 months, others take 1-2 years, and most are scattered everywhere in between.
Not sure on length, but my understanding is the course isn't terribly difficult.
Basic training is a "game", you just push through.
They're going to be short with you. A high standard for cleanliness, attentiveness, and behaviour is not only expected, but demanded. They're going to expect you to function on bare minimum sleep, they're going to push you to physical exhaustion, they're going to keep you under pressure and stressed.
Also, if you're joining the Regular Force, there are no "basic training bases across Canada"... There's only two locations.
The vast majority of Reg Force BMQ's are run at CFLRS in Saint Jean, QC. However, they do run a small number of courses at a detachment at CFB Borden near Angus, ON.
To answer #4, there is only one true BMQ training base and that is CFLRS in St Jean Sur Richelieu, Quebec. 95% of all applicants will go here. Some will go to Borden, but CFLRS is the norm.
Be in shape as being fit will lessen the likelihoodof getting injured,be ready to learn, close your mouth and open your ears. Learn to be part of a team and work together for the common goal of earning a weekend.
What kind of math do NWOs do? I’m assuming trigonometry?
Mental trig, vectors, division, and multiplication. Lots of fun!