BogiDope - A new UPT Hiring Website

[ANGFlyer]

Thanks to Toro for approving this message.  

There is a new website called BogiDope that launched last week.  BogiDope has several unique features specifically designed to help you land your dream UPT slot.   

To list a few, BogiDope has a library of detailed hiring related articles, a complete list of upcoming UPT hiring boards (25 UPT board announcements between now and 1 July), and offers one-on-one consulting (application review, advice, interview prep, etc) to give you a leg up on your competition.  BogiDope’s custom designed interactive map feature allows you to easily search through every (175+) Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve flying squadron by aircraft type (F-22, C-17, MQ-9, etc).  In addition to every squadron’s location, it will give you the squadron’s contact information, a hiring point of contact, and dates on any past or future hiring boards.  

BogiDope is just getting started, so you can expect several exciting new features to be released in the weeks and months ahead.  If there’s a feature you think would be helpful to the UPT community, please let us know.  

BogiDope is also growing fast on Facebook.  Like or follow BogiDope at https://www.facebook.com/BogiDope1/. Become apart of a growing community on Facebook to collaborate with others try to earn a UPT slot.  Request to join the Facebook group “Future Military Pilots”.

Thanks again to Toro and the Baseops team for allowing us to spread the word on something we feel will help a lot of future military pilots. 

[ripster]

ANGFlyer, thanks for the tip about BogiDope. I created an account. Looks like a ton of hiring info, good articles and the interactive map is great. Highly recommend it.

This would have made my life easier when I was rushing units.

 

[Lenny1107]

Future Pilots,

 

Check out this website.  Its awesome!!! It is the information I wish I had when I was transitioning form Active Duty and switching services to the ANG/Reserves.  It's the most interactive website I have ever seen.  At least in my experience, half the battle is trying to find who in fact is hiring and how to get a hold of them.  Once you figure that out, then starts the process how do I do this.  I seriously wish I had this when I was transitioning.  Not only does it cover the UPT information.  But its just great information for those looking to transition between services and or aircraft.  Transitioning services is not easy.  Every time I tracked down one person with one piece of information, I had to find someone else that knew the rest of the process to help me.  This website is one stop shopping to all of it.  I signed up, I'm a member and it will benefit many.  

[EJC123]

Just signed up.  Great site!  Sent you a PM 

[fullaft]

PM sent.  I am just getting started learning how to get a UPT slot and become a pilot.  The map on the site is a great resource for locations, hiring boards and contact info.  Thanks!

[mb1685]

I could probably count the number of times I've felt compelled to write an online review on just one hand (and it's usually for extreme disappointments), but I wanted to buck that trend to weigh in on BogiDope.

I've been chasing the military aviation dream for a while now. After applying for Navy OCS (got selected with a Pilot slot but had a family emergency and now I'm too old), applying for Air Force OTS (got selected with a CSO slot -- stoked but still hoping to get picked up by a Guard/Reserve unit before going to OTS and committing to AD), and applying with 20+ Guard and Reserve units (had a couple of interview invitations so far), plus reading BaseOps.net and AirWarriors.com for years, I thought I had a pretty decent handle on what it takes to put together a really good application package for military aviation selection boards. But I'm always looking to learn and improve, so after seeing this thread a few weeks ago and being impressed with what BogiDope has to offer so far, I decided to buy an annual membership since it seemed really fairly priced.

The articles on the site are awesome so far, but I was especially interested in the consultation service. Last week I spoke to Stephen on the phone after I'd sent him one of my Guard UPT board application examples a few days before. He's a former AD F-15E pilot and now a Guard F-15C pilot and FedEx pilot. I was seriously blown away by talking to him. He provided extremely detailed and granular feedback on exactly how I should tweak multiple parts of my application, as well as some really awesome tips on how to address some unique background factors I have. I don't mean "this part should be more specific and you can take this part out because it's irrelevant, but other than that it's good" -- I mean going line by line through everything and really finding the best ways to organize and communicate everything. He really took a lot of time in getting to know me, my history, my goals, family situation, etc. to be sure that he could give me truly personalized advice, and he went the extra mile to make sure that everything on my mind was addressed. He's a really easy guy to talk to and I feel much more confident about applying to future boards now that I've had some truly exceptional quality feedback from someone with experience that's as legitimate as it gets.

On one hand I almost don't want to recommend it because I don't want other applicants to be even more competitive, haha. But of course I'm a team player so I'll spread the word -- I think BogiDope is an extremely valuable resource if you're really serious about getting a Guard or Reserve gig. I highly recommend checking it out.

[Hopefulflyer389]

Just signed up for the Annual Pro Account and will see how it works out. The lay out is nice thus far and my order # was "69", so I'm optimistic that this will be a good website to chase the dream.

[shadow_pilot]

How much was the Annual Pro Membership? What did it include? I don't see that option anymore on their site. 

[Hopefulflyer389]

On 11/22/2017 at 10:26 AM, shadow_pilot said:

How much was the Annual Pro Membership? What did it include? I don't see that option anymore on their site. 

Annual pro membership is no longer available as they made all of the benefits free. I.e. map, articles, etc

[Hopefulflyer389]

35 minutes ago, Kiloalpha said:

Thread Revival. Anyone with more than 20-30 posts used their consulting services and liked the feedback from hiring units? @Hopefulflyer389 or @mb1685

 

Yes. The services I used were packet evaluation and interview prep. I get good feedback on both portions, but didn’t get the job because of factor x,y, or z. Bogidope is great to use and I recommend them to anyone that truly wants to have a shot at a dream job. 

[Yoda]

I used their services, less than 20-30 posts, no positive feedback yet -- but I just started applying as I am not available for 12 months.  I started with the resume prep, I am going to add the interview prep.   

The resume/CV letter guidance was really top notch.  As others have said, nothing earth shattering but extremely helpful.  For me, it's hard to write about myself and they really helped with selling myself.  Overall, it really increased my confidence in my resume and cover letter.  Picture this: unit is going to invite 10 people for interview, without the prep you are #11, with the prep you are #10.  It is then worth every penny if that is where you want to go as you now have a chance to show in person what your paper might not show.  Same goes for the #1 slot at the interview for 1 UPT slot -- there is some stiff competition out there and marginal gains may mean going where you want to go and flying what you want to fly and getting nothing at all.

[mb1685]

On 9/13/2018 at 3:08 PM, Kiloalpha said:

Thread Revival. Anyone with more than 20-30 posts used their consulting services and liked the feedback from hiring units? @Hopefulflyer389 or @mb1685

 

I found it extremely worthwhile. A few units told me that my (updated) cover letter and resume (formatting/style) were the best they'd ever seen, but my age always ended up being the issue keeping me from getting interview selections.

[N730]

Anyone else having trouble with their website. It’s been giving me an error and failing to load all weekend.


Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

[ayz33]

26 minutes ago, N730 said:

Anyone else having trouble with their website. It’s been giving me an error and failing to load all weekend.


Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

It's been sporadic this weekend but works for me at the moment

[donkey]

21 hours ago, mb1685 said:

I found it extremely worthwhile. A few units told me that my (updated) cover letter and resume (formatting/style) were the best they'd ever seen, but my age always ended up being the issue keeping me from getting interview selections.

Mind if I ask how old you are?  Either way, good luck with your future boards!

[mb1685]

On 9/30/2018 at 7:57 PM, donkey said:

Mind if I ask how old you are?  Either way, good luck with your future boards!

I turned 29 earlier this year and most of my board applications were while I was 27 and 28. Thank you! But I'm actually calling it quits on the boards. Life has some other cool stuff in store for me which is also aviation-related. 

Edited October 2, 2018 by mb1685

[donkey]

Thanks for sharing and interesting that you were getting push back at 27/28.  Either way, sounds like you’ve got things figured out!

[OnlyInCleveland]

I used BogiDope for a mock interview and was thoroughly impressed and feel a lot more prepared for the real deal. Without giving all of his info away just in case (seems like some of us spoke to the same person), the interviewer I had is a current fighter pilot commander who not only interviewed over 5 times himself as an applicant but has now sat on more UPT boards than he can remember. It was great practice and just a good way to ease some of the nerves before going to the real interview. He gave me great feedback after and I really feel a lot more comfortable after having done a mock with him.

 

I also just love getting emails from the site saying that a new job posting has opened up and frantically opening the email to see what airframe/where it is!