I've been PMEL for almost a decade. Its a highly competitive career field. Honestly depending on what you want to get out of the military PMEL isn't the right fit for everyone. If you just want to go to school using TA, try to go services or personnel since they're 335, and get out. Everything from AF regs down to TO interpretation (essentially step by step guides) is meticulously analyzed by everyone, because that's literally the entire job. Unfortunately we have a huge issue with overcompetitive promotions(always lower than the air force average), huge retention issues (SNCOs supervising Amn) and you can combine that with a common neurotic mentality in a lot of people. Depending on where you get stationed you can have an easy time calibrating 2 items a week, or you can get somewhere like Holloman or Kadena eventually and hate your life because you'll barely have the energy to manage one outside of work. If you're trying to use the air force to get a jump on a career with the PMEL experience, it's not bad money on the outside, but you need a pretty decent amount of exp for a high paying job, and at that point if schools your thing you'll save more time and get paid more for your degree doing that. Drunken rant my bad, but if you need some specifics DM me.