I'm going to be honest, I'm a little confused at your statement of "so many NECs available to choose from".
Granted, I'm active, not reserves - but in my experience NECs are tied to billets. You're given orders to fill a certain billet, and that billet you're going to requires certain training, so they send you to C school on the way to your new duty station and when you've completed the school, you get the NEC to prove it. Some duty stations also have OJT paths to earning a NEC that corresponds with your day to day job for specific rates (i.e. we have a training pipeline at my command that corresponds to the CTR NEC 9148, but even if I complete it and do the same job, I can't get that NEC because it's CTR-specific and I'm a CTI).
Both of my NECs are from my training pipeline and I was required to complete that training to be able to do my job. I've never had a choice.
|