If a sailor has qualified for a rate, but has not yet become a petty officer, he is called a designated striker, and is identified by a striker's badge that displays the sailor's rating, along with his group rate marks. This process is called 'striking for a rating'. Sailors who have gone directly to a base, station, or ship without any specialized training are eligible to select a career field, and through correspondence courses and extensive on-the-job training, may qualify for a rating. One of three apprentice devices may be worn above the rank insignia, which denotes the sailor is an apprentice in a particular field and is in search of a rating to join. They are divided into five definable groups or job communities, with colored group rate marks designating the group to which they belong: seaman, fireman, airman, constructionman, and hospitalman. Sailors in pay grades E-1 through E-3 are considered to be in apprenticeships while searching or in training for a career path. However, the decision was reversed and the rating system was restored in December 2016. The rating symbols depicted for each rating badge listed below (except for the rating badge of a command master chief) is boatswain's mate. Naval sailors were thereafter to be referred to solely by their rank and would hold a Navy Operations Specialty (NOS) instead of a rating.

On September 29, 2016, the United States Navy discontinued enlisted ratings after 241 years of use in an effort to modernize the classification system. 4.4 Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy.4.3 Fleet master chief and force master chief.For example, some billets might not only require a hospital corpsman first class, but might specify that he/she has NEC 8402 (Submarine Force Independent Duty), NEC 8403 (Fleet Marine Forces Reconnaissance Independent Duty Corpsman), or any other of several NECs depending upon the billet's requirements. This defines what jobs they are qualified to do.

Upon completion, they are assigned a four-digit Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC) code, which identifies a specific skill within their standard rating. Some sailors may undergo additional training in a 'C' school either before or after a tour of duty. Ratings are earned through 'A' schools, which are attended before deployment and after undergoing initial basic training at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Illinois, or (less commonly) by 'striking' for a rating through on-the-job training (OJT) in the Fleet. Personnel in pay grade E-1, since 1996, do not have an insignia to wear. E-2s and E-3s have color-coded group rate marks based on their career field. Rates are displayed on a rating badge, which is a combination of rate and rating. All E-7s are called chief petty officer, E-8s senior chief petty officer, and E-9s master chief petty officer. E-4 through E-6 are called petty officers. All E-1s through E-3s are known as seaman, fireman, airman, constructionman, or hospitalman. This enlisted numbering system is the same across all six branches of the U.S. Associated with the enlisted pay grades is a numbering system from the most junior enlisted sailor ('E-1') to the most senior enlisted sailor ('E-9'). The same term also refers to one's area of occupational specialization within the enlisted Navy. Navy, only officers carry the term rank, while it is proper to refer to an enlisted sailor's pay grade as rate. In the United States Navy, a rate is the military rank of an enlisted sailor, indicating where an enlisted sailor stands within the chain of command, and also defining one's pay grade. Navy, worn on a service dress blue uniform's sleeve. The badge of the Master Chief Petty Officer of the U.S.

Enlisted pay