Posted on Jun 17, 2014
How to Get Promoted as an Officer. Anything to add?
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When I visit one of my Battalions, I always give an OPD. One of my most popular is how to get promoted. Here is my wisdom on the subject for your benefit:
Getting promoted consists of three things that boards examine:
1. Education
2. Assignments
3. Experience
Of the three, education is the most important because it is a hard requirement. You don't have ILE? You don't pass go! Know the number of Majors who had their educational requirements complete and were promoted to LTC? 100 percent! That's right, even those who got terrible OERs were promoted because there were only 500 (numbers are made up) educationally qualified and over 500 slots required by the Army. Those without ILE? None promoted even though they were the best officer.
Next are assignments. You need key assignments as commander, operations officer, etc. Note that temporary assignments help here too. Were you Mission Commander for an exercise? Make sure it says those words in your OER. Boards look for officers who took risk even if they only did OK. That is much better than the officer who floated in the background and was "just there".
Lastly, experience. Mainly this means deployments in today's context, but missions and exercises count too. I get a lot of junior officers stressing that they don't have a combat patch. Don't worry about it, 90% of Lieutenants don't have that either. It all is a matter of who you are competing against on the board. You're a LT?, no problem. You're a MAJ/ LTC without a deployment? Big problem.
There is so much that I could say on this subject that doesn't fit into this space, but let me know your questions and I will answer separately.
Getting promoted consists of three things that boards examine:
1. Education
2. Assignments
3. Experience
Of the three, education is the most important because it is a hard requirement. You don't have ILE? You don't pass go! Know the number of Majors who had their educational requirements complete and were promoted to LTC? 100 percent! That's right, even those who got terrible OERs were promoted because there were only 500 (numbers are made up) educationally qualified and over 500 slots required by the Army. Those without ILE? None promoted even though they were the best officer.
Next are assignments. You need key assignments as commander, operations officer, etc. Note that temporary assignments help here too. Were you Mission Commander for an exercise? Make sure it says those words in your OER. Boards look for officers who took risk even if they only did OK. That is much better than the officer who floated in the background and was "just there".
Lastly, experience. Mainly this means deployments in today's context, but missions and exercises count too. I get a lot of junior officers stressing that they don't have a combat patch. Don't worry about it, 90% of Lieutenants don't have that either. It all is a matter of who you are competing against on the board. You're a LT?, no problem. You're a MAJ/ LTC without a deployment? Big problem.
There is so much that I could say on this subject that doesn't fit into this space, but let me know your questions and I will answer separately.
Posted in these groups: 
Promotions
Officers
Promotions Officers
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 19
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Sir, in response to the education requirement. At what point in an Army Officer's career does possessing a Masters Degree become a "must have"? I'm sure the mentality of the earlier the better applies here but just wondering if it will become an unwritten/unspoken rule in future O-4 boards.
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BG (Join to see)
Honestly, O-4 is not that competitive although it will be tightening up as we transition to a peacetime Army. I wouldn't consider a Masters a must have until you are up for COL. LTC is competitive, but COL is where they really make it hard to get promoted.
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LTC Jason Mackay
I would not discount COL Goddard's assessment of the value of a Master's, but individual timelines may vary to create space in your career that facilitates a graduate degree. Early KD / branch qualification as a Captain could build a window. The O4-O5 window is tight to go to ILE, migrate to a KD experience, and deal with delays in slating etc. The BN command and SSC waiting game is fluid.
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CPT (Join to see)
1LT(P) (Join to see) regardless, push for your Master's Degree. I completed mine in two years during a deployment and GRF under the 82nd Airborne Division. The key is to pick the right school, to look at your schedule, and to truly devote time. I'm working on my DBA just because, but it would help both professionally and personally.
You know what's great? Army TA will pay for all or most of it. TA rules are getting tougher and would recommend utilizing it. Look at it this way, you receive a $4500 tax free pay raise.
You know what's great? Army TA will pay for all or most of it. TA rules are getting tougher and would recommend utilizing it. Look at it this way, you receive a $4500 tax free pay raise.
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LTC James McElreath
I personally found that if I were continually working on ones education that is was best to work toward the next promotion as soon as one is promoted. You never know when there is a hurdle and you need to take it a little slower. There is nothing more that I could add that would mean any more than what BG James Owens expressed in his entry.
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Concur with this great bit of advice. Unless you take the time to make sure you have the required military education it doesn't matter what jobs you hold or how many deployments / exercises you go on, you will not even get looked at for promotion - especially in the reserves.
Once you get the educational part taken care of, it's your assignments and how you did your job. Take the hard jobs. It's better to do a good job as the operations officer than as the special projects officer.
And make sure as part of your dialogue with your senior rater discuss your future. Not everyone is going to command a battalion or brigade, but you can still get promoted by doing a good job in a tough assignment.
Once you get the educational part taken care of, it's your assignments and how you did your job. Take the hard jobs. It's better to do a good job as the operations officer than as the special projects officer.
And make sure as part of your dialogue with your senior rater discuss your future. Not everyone is going to command a battalion or brigade, but you can still get promoted by doing a good job in a tough assignment.
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LTC Barry Kimmons
Sir
I concur fully. Officers need to take OPD seriously and listen. Furthermore, mentorship is important as well. Officers should ensure they have an excellent peer and senior mentor as part of the Officer development process. Finally, if you get selected for a residence course GO!!!!! The Officers you will meet have valuable experience to share and some become life-long friends.
I concur fully. Officers need to take OPD seriously and listen. Furthermore, mentorship is important as well. Officers should ensure they have an excellent peer and senior mentor as part of the Officer development process. Finally, if you get selected for a residence course GO!!!!! The Officers you will meet have valuable experience to share and some become life-long friends.
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In reading the comments on this thread, I notice that BG (Join to see) is addressed as COL in the earlier comments.
First, Congratulations on that, Sir. Very darn few soldiers actually ever get to wear those stars.
Second, (and this one is for anyone else reading) It looks like he knows what he's talking about when it comes to how to get promoted. I'd listen.
First, Congratulations on that, Sir. Very darn few soldiers actually ever get to wear those stars.
Second, (and this one is for anyone else reading) It looks like he knows what he's talking about when it comes to how to get promoted. I'd listen.
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I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to respond to this or not and decided that I had to.
While I understand and agree with what BG Goddard said, to some degree, the fact is that the best way to get promoted as an officer is to perform your duties, whatever they are, to the absolute best of your abilities. Seek the tough assignments and do them well.
Professional military education is a must, as is civilian education, but they are nothing more than "ticket-punching". While you certainly gain great information in professional military education, there is no education better than "on-the-job training". You can study all day about how to be a company, battalion or brigade commander, but the only way you can get good at it is to do it.
Professional officers have to seek the hard jobs and, at the same time, find time to get the required education requirements accomplished. At times, that is very difficult to do.
Which is better for our Army and our nation ... an officer with experience as a company commander, battalion commander and brigade commander who only has a bachelor's degree (but is a graduate of all the PME courses) or an officer with a Masters Degree or PhD who has served as a staff officer most of his/her career? I can tell you that my two Masters degrees have not helped me one bit in the execution of my duties in the Army and, to a large degree, neither has the Officer Basic Course, Advanced Course, Command and General Staff Course, Armed Forces Staff College or War College. What helped me succeed in the Army was the experience I got by serving in hard assignments and working with troops. That is where you get your real education for being an effective and professional leader.
While I understand and agree with what BG Goddard said, to some degree, the fact is that the best way to get promoted as an officer is to perform your duties, whatever they are, to the absolute best of your abilities. Seek the tough assignments and do them well.
Professional military education is a must, as is civilian education, but they are nothing more than "ticket-punching". While you certainly gain great information in professional military education, there is no education better than "on-the-job training". You can study all day about how to be a company, battalion or brigade commander, but the only way you can get good at it is to do it.
Professional officers have to seek the hard jobs and, at the same time, find time to get the required education requirements accomplished. At times, that is very difficult to do.
Which is better for our Army and our nation ... an officer with experience as a company commander, battalion commander and brigade commander who only has a bachelor's degree (but is a graduate of all the PME courses) or an officer with a Masters Degree or PhD who has served as a staff officer most of his/her career? I can tell you that my two Masters degrees have not helped me one bit in the execution of my duties in the Army and, to a large degree, neither has the Officer Basic Course, Advanced Course, Command and General Staff Course, Armed Forces Staff College or War College. What helped me succeed in the Army was the experience I got by serving in hard assignments and working with troops. That is where you get your real education for being an effective and professional leader.
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BG (Join to see)
First, never be afraid to have a professional discussion, that's the only way to improve the system. Remember, that I am discussing the way the system is, not the way it should be. I agree with everything you have said, but think that you are a perfect example of what an officer needs to do. I do believe, however, that the military education is valuable beyond "ticket-punching". I believe that you don't need ILE to be a good Majors, but you do need it to be an effective Major. I have performed very well in AC planning because I studied MDMP and knew the process and vernacular. I have seen other Majors just sit dumbfounded because they didn't have the ILE education to understand what was going on - they were quickly sidelined by the AC guys because of this.
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COL Jean (John) F. B.
I totally agree with what you are saying, however, if I had to choose between a Major with great education and one with great experience, I would go with the one with experience every time (with the caveat that it also depends on the job I need that Major for). My experience is that actual experience doing the job is much more effective than studying how to do the job. Part of the problem with our country today is that it is being run by people who have only studied how to do it and have never actually done it. We can't allow our Army to fall into that same mindset. What we need is a balance of education and experience, and I think our system in the Army does a pretty good job of that. It is up to the individuals to avail themselves of the opportunities, realizing that there are many distractors and impediments in getting everything done.
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Great OPD sir. Unfortunately some still don't get it. I've heard your same words many times before from senior leaders but many still not follow the advice being given. I understand timing and many other things come into play but the question I ask is how do the ones who complete the requirements manage... The answer is they have a plan. Hopefully some officers will see this and adjust fire.
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Thanks sir for the info. I'm in an OCS process right now and this sort of information is very useful.
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CPT (Join to see)
It's good info and holds true for the most part but for your career field, the requirements and what is looked at is somewhat different because we are a highly specialized field and don't necessarily follow the typical promotion requirements of the Army competitive category. Right now, just concentrate on passing the school that you are in and worry about promotions later. You will be pretty much guaranteed CPT and have another 5-6 yrs after that before you even get looked at for MAJ. You will get that info in the future.
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Sir, thanks for this thread. I will be interested to see how the Army manages MAJs who are coming out of a grad school related broadening assignment (USMA, fellowships, etc) and are not able to make ILE until YG+12 or 13 and then the compounding issues that causes for filling in on KD MAJ jobs. It's good to see ILE being the focus, especially on time, after what's occurred over the past few years, but I do think the focus on ILE at YG+10ish can cause some issues for top performing officers that are selected for a broadening assignment that requires a follow-on utilization.
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BG (Join to see)
Totally agree, there seems like there is never enough time to do everything that you need to. It gets worse at LTC as you need to cram War College and Bn. Command into 5 years which you can do provided everything lines up just right - and that rarely happens!
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Suspended Profile
Sir:
I've received good advice in this area in my career. If I may piggyback on your thoughts, I'd add: 1) seek command assignments, 2) seek challenging assignments, 3) just do well in whatever assignment you are in which will be reflected in your OER, 3) complete PME in a timely manner (well before the board meets, 4) pursue all educational opportunities, and 5) for Reserve Component officers, don't homestead in the same unit/chain even if you are changing jobs internally.
I've received good advice in this area in my career. If I may piggyback on your thoughts, I'd add: 1) seek command assignments, 2) seek challenging assignments, 3) just do well in whatever assignment you are in which will be reflected in your OER, 3) complete PME in a timely manner (well before the board meets, 4) pursue all educational opportunities, and 5) for Reserve Component officers, don't homestead in the same unit/chain even if you are changing jobs internally.
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Thanks for this valuable information BG (Join to see) . I can see myself in the future as an Officer and this information is a must for everybody who wants to succeed as Officer.
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Thanks for the information. I can say that just about LTs that I know are killing for a deployment. It is important but it won't make you a better officer for just deploying. Education is very important. If one focuses on those areas I am sure a promotion would being coming your way shortly.
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BG (Join to see)
Eric, deployment is a magnifying glass. It makes poor officers look really bad and it makes good officers really shine! It is also invaluable in learning to deal with non-military players, from civilians to USG and other Government agencies.
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