LFittNI,
I am glad you moved the thread back to rank.
We had a job application from a WO of a particular trade. His credentials were no doubt first rate and would have got him many plum jobs through PMA.
While the manager, to whom he applied for a job, knew roughly what a warrant officer was - ask any dark blue and they will probably give you the same opinion of RAF WO - and he knew what MT stood for, the man was already two strikes down.
The CV, OTOH, was pure job suicide. His qualifications were all numbers prefixed by "F" and we did not have the decode. What it did not tell us was whether he could operate a tractor, JCB, or service a tank. Nor did he appear to have civilian licences to operate power tools.
Simple skills that he no doubt mastered in the RAF but "WO q this and that" was just as damming as I was "OC Eng Wg, of course I can run your parts shop."
True story:
Ex-RN Lt Cdr starts a Land Rover refurbishment company. Needs a storeman and employs an army Lieutenant. In no time army Lt is making a profit selling on recovered stores surplus to core. Good thing ex-military officers. Needs an office manager - employed a retired flt lt.
Flt Lt had an office. Door always open. People could come and see him any time.
Office manager did not fit parts to Land Rovers, did not recover parts to stores nor pack parts for despatch, did not last long.
The moral? The rank does tell you something if you know the decode and can both warn you off or attract you if you know that that individual should have the attributes you need.