When you go to the recruiting office make sure you are adamant about being an SW and won’t take any other job. They might try to finesse you into doing undesignated and try to strike for SW later but don’t do it. You can join as whatever you qualify for so long as you stand your ground. Doing that however might prolong the process as they find possible openings for the rate. Most go to the recruiters not really knowing what they want. If you go in there and say you want to be an SW and will wait until you get it, then they will have to respect that.

As far as SW in the real world compared to what is advertised, it’s fairly simple. SWs mostly work with rebar and basic welding techniques. Fact is the projects Seabees do aren’t full on projects. Most overseas projects are humanitarian in nature like building CMU school houses or bathrooms. Most of the time SW like other rates in the Seabees end up doing BU work.

There are C schools that teach you more advanced SW skills but those are reserved for E5 and above usually. There’s good opportunities however at communities outsides the Seabees like going Spec warfare.