I'm trying to reclass into the BEAR program as a 35P but I suspect that process is taking longer than usual. My career counselor said that she sent a message Army HR for a class slot for FY2010 because there are no available classes this fiscal year for 35P. She said that she sent my package through to the appropriate POC; however she cannot sign me up in the BEAR program until there is an available class seat for me. She said to contact her next week (9 days from yesterday) for a response from HR on available class for 35P.

Since this is her first BEAR package that she is doing:

My questions are:

1) Is there a way I can check to see if my package is really submitted to appropriate channels?

2) Should it take this long (9 days) to get a response from Army HR on available class? (She said that is normal turnaround time for Big Army).

I have been trying to get into this program for the last two months and I feel that if this process drags on too long that there may not be any bonuses available in Fiscal Year 2010.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Everyone has a boss, talk to hers. DO NOT throw her under the bus though.

Her boss was standing there and he that they are swamped even though I my appointment got rescheduled at least three times. When I suggest that maybe I could go to another career counselor, they got bent out of shape, thinking that maybe they are not doing the job efficiently.

One hold-up occurred (for instance), was when I was told that she needed a copy of my discharged papers from the reserves (for her to calculate accurately my time in service). But I later found out that she submitted my BEAR package regardless of this document; when I provided it to her later. She later said that it was not a show stopper but that she wanted to verify that my time-in-service was accurate (which it was). I later find out that her senior career counselor told her that she could have submitted the package after he helped her verify my time-in-service.

You need to keep in mind that this is the end of this FY and another is coming up. Also once she sends the request the branch it goes to has two weeks I think to take action. I am sure that one of the 79S will correct me if I am wrong. It really depends on the school house for that MOS and how far out they are projecting for future training seats. Remember that school seats are being filled by new recruits coming in off the street as well not just you. Gotta look at the big picture and try and see how the Army is expecting to grow in the future and what CMF's they are expecting to grow. Not trying to rain on you parade just need to take all those things into consideration.