ha ha, that's funny that you say that marlin, because that is exactly what I did (play down my ELT to get the operator job, at least for one of the interviewers, I had 4.) And when I was intervewing for Chem Tech, I turned the volume up on the fact that I was an ELT. After reading RollTides post, I think he misunderstood. I'm not saying ELTs are better qualified for a certain job, I'm just saying they are qualified to DO MORE jobs compared to the other ratings. Avoid the tasty trap here of saying "but i was qualified this and that and I did this as well". I'm merely comparing basic minimum qualified ELT vs EM vs ET vs MM. And I guess i'm using a Fast Boat Nuke, because it was different on Targets. Any of these ratings can go on to qualify whatever else the command will let them, within thier rating. I got to be ships Diver, and exercise leader, and on the tender I was the dosimitry guy and a bunch of other stuff too. But I'm not going to add this in to what ELTs and MMs qualify, because there are plenty of other extras everybody can get in all ratings. Yes, ELTs may not have been AS QUALIFIED on the average to do MM jobs, but it is still on the resume. There were plenty of guys like Marlin too, just not me and most of the ELTs on my boat. We were all slackers. I'm sure there are guys out there interviewing candidates who like MMs better than ELTs, but there are also guys out there who prefer ELT, ET, and EM. But no matter what interviewers prefer, ELTs are still qualified to do more than two major departmental jobs. If there are 12 jobs up for grabs say 4 operator positions, 2 chem tech positions, 2 HP positions, 2 maintenance positions, 2 IC tech positions, who has more possiblilities?