By all means, follow the advice of
@EvilEagle. I'm a career AFRC pilot (so called Guard/Reserve baby), and I second Evil's gouge. The process for an off-the-street hire (UFT aka UPT board) is generally they advertise for one or two positions for the FY and take applications. Then they interview, then select and they send you to OTS, then UPT and so forth, culminating in MQT (now called TI) at the unit before being full up mission qual. All total it's an 18 month to 24 month process. Quicker in the Reserves than Guard, but that's a topic for another thread. Guard used to have AMS but now I believe it's combined with regAF...Reserves always sent their civilians and enlisted to regAF OTS, which is how I commissioned as a 2LT more moons ago than I care to count.
At any rate, the process is extremely competitive, as these positions are excellent furlough protection from the volatility of civilian professional pilot jobs, enjoy insane airline pilot networking, have little in the way of penalties in terms of access to career opportunities compared to regAF and also offer flexibility to throttle up or down participation depending on how you feel that year. RegAF folks do have access to the latest equipment and exchange tour opportunities, but there's greater risk in ending up with a deal you never bargained for, like not flying at all for instance.
The process of "rushing" units is meant to get a feel for the candidates, and as Evil has highlighted, this is coordinated through a pilot at the squadron that got assigned the job of handling hiring into pilot slots. Recruiters will not be the correct avenue to handle off-the-street pilot position hiring. Generally baseops dot net forums has contact info since aspirants are always trolling for the latest POC information on upcoming boards. Guard and Reserve units also advertise their contact information online (official USAFR and ANG sites). You need to get phone numbers for the actual flying squadron. Not the Wing, not the Group, not the mission support squadrons, the
flying squadrons (fighter, airlift, refueling, et al). There you can ask about the POC for pilot hiring, usually a CGO or FGO line guy.
Here's the problem I see with your situation: You're gonna hit 35 in September and haven't so much as taken the AFOQT. I'm not trying to jab at you gratuitously, but the time to have this epiphany was 27 at the latest brother. These jobs are very coveted. I knew I wanted this very job since the age of 9. Everything in my life as a youth revolved around aligning myself to get a Guard/Reserve fighter pilot job. Even then, it wasn't enough. I came of age in the 2000s and BRAC hit hard, no hiring. By the time '07 rolled around it was TAMI-21 in the regAF side, and things were bleak on the T-38 pipeline. I was broke as a joke as a grad school nobody, and I was hungry. So I had to give up the dream and cast a wider net; managed to get a bomber slot just to get in the CAF side of things and never looked back. These days I'm a career trainer guy and I love my job. Not what I wanted at the onset but I still count myself lucky. And you want to swing a sponsorship to OTS and UPT starting from scratch at 34.5? You've been misled I'm afraid.
For the benefit of others who might be reading this as aspirants, let me be clear: There is no shortage of pilots at your level. There is a RETENTION problem, but the USAF is too recalcitrant to admit to it , and is using the canard of "pilot shortage" to draw attention into a "production" problem that doesn't exist, because they don't want to address
retention of 12-15 year O-4s. Why am I telling you this? Because Guard and Reserve jobs are more competitive than active duty positions. Thus, that exodus of regAF pilots running away from the dumpster fire that is the Active Duty shoe-clerk culture dominated Air Force right now, are going direct into our Guard and Reserve units, which is why the ARC doesn't have to crank up their UFT accessions. IOW your demographic isn't as needed as you're being led to believe. Certainly to no significant different a degree than even 10 years ago.
Furthermore, the actual units have to follow up on all waivers related to their hires. That's line pilots who are tasked with that additional duty. To put it in perspective, I got a prior-AFRC-Viper friend of mine trying to get back to the USAFR after originally jumping into aggressor Hornets with the USN (to get home to NOLA). Gets med DQ from carrier qual because potato, and things go south when the unit goes back to blue air qual and gets told he can't be in it anymore as a no-carrier dude. Then gets an offer for a intra-service BACK into the USAFR (crazy world). It has taken almost
24 months just to get through SG (medical corps in the AF, the jealous nemesis of the pilot cadre lol) as a prior-AF guy already rated and with the Navy already given him a waiver (the AF doesn't honor it, standard). He's almost about to lose his scroll in the Reserve and time out on the application, they're taking that long. This is for a 4-ship Viper/Hornet experienced guy going into a mickey mouse ADAIR (T-38 aggressor) job. Do you really think they're gonna crank up the presses for a 34 y/o rando pedestrian?
By all means inquire, but I don't think you have a realistic timeframe witch which to empower any flying squadron to send you to UPT in time. 100% chance of not getting it if you don't ask of course. Good luck to ya.
Sadly I was in an intel unit my whole time active duty (at an Army base no less *shudder*)
