So it's time to meet the recruiter...... Part II

Okay, so let's continue the conversation of meeting the recruiter. Having influences in your life can be positive and negative towards the decision of whether to join the military or not. If you want your journey towards the military as positive as possible, I always suggest inviting the important people in your life to meet the recruiter with you. There are multiple reasons on why you want to invite the important people in your life. If you are still young and living in your parents home, chances are they are still making, or helping make, large important decisions in your life. Joining the military is a very large decision in your life.

Also, if you are 17 and want to join the military, I hate to tell you but you are not going anywhere unless you convince your parents that this is the right choice for you and your future. You want to include them from the beginning, even if they are not all that excited about the whole idea. I will at some point drop a section into this blog on how to get your parents to take you seriously and how to get them to sit down with the recruiter. Also, if you have a significant other whether it is a girl/boyfriend or husband/wife, you will most definitely want to include them in the process of joining the military. In most cases, having the important people in your life with you through the whole process will make your life a whole lot easier.

Joining the military doesn't just affect you, it affects everyone around you. Having them there gives them the opportunity to directly ask the questions that are highly concerning to them. Also, when you are trying to figure everything out about joining the military, you are likely going to forget many questions that are very important due to the amount of information you have to retain and the fact that you are probably going to be nervous and excited. Also, by doing this, your most influential people will have a better understanding of what you are going to be getting into, therefore relieving a lot of tension that will bite you in the behind later down the road when they are constantly asking you tons of questions that could have been answered in the beginning. Also, it will alleviate much of the anxiety and nervousness your loved ones are going through by making them part of the process.

Trying to relay all of the information you are receiving from the recruiter to the ones that are asking will almost always result in a high level of mis-communication. In some instances of “the recruiter lied to me”, this is where it is generated. In this case, the recruiter will inadvertently look bad because you may relay to your parents that you are going to get $80,000 cash enlistment bonus regardless of what job you do in the military, but what was really said is that you may qualify for certain cash enlistment bonuses ranging from one amount to another and the $80,000 was college education money that you get so long as you join for a certain amount of time on your first enlistment. So after you enlist and come back home to proudly show your parents your enlistment paperwork, they will immediately assume the recruiter lied to you when he is completely innocent. If you don't listen to one thing that I write on here, at least listen to the advice I just gave you. Also, if you decide not to listen to this particular advice and go at it alone, drop me a line and let me know how that works out of you; I need a good laugh once in awhile.

Also, recruiters come from all walks of life so you can usually determine how they are going to treat you by the way they greet you. If they come off as rude or grumpy, in my opinion, that is when you turn around and find another recruiter. Yes I know we are military and this may be the stereotypical response you would expect; however, this is not the case. You deserve to be treated with the highest respect. Keep in mind, you should be returning the respect too so don't go getting a big head thinking you run the place. You should arrive with questions written down that you have already thought of and bring something to write on. I can assure you that if you don't, you will forget almost every question you thought of for the last 2 weeks. Ensure that the recruiter answers your questions fully and completely to your satisfaction. Do not let a recruiter okie dokie you and give you some half-assed answer. The recruiter should also be showing you basic stuff like the current pay chart, college money incentives, and different jobs you can do. Also make sure he gives you literature to read so after you leave, you can review some of the information you went over. Also, if something sounds too good to be true, challenge that recruiter. Write down whatever it is you are not sure of, go home, and look that stuff up on the internet. The internet is a world of information and you are sure to find your answer. If you find contradicting information, give him the benefit of the doubt and just ask him to show you proof of what he said. If he can't, walk out and never return. Go find another recruiter.

So it's time to meet the recruiter...... part I

Okay, so you have decided on which branch of service you might be interested in and you want to talk to someone in person to get some information and ask some direct questions. I'm glad that you have made it to this step because it shows that you are serious about making decisions in your life even if you don't join the military, but at least you know what your options are. There are a few ways that you can go about getting in contact with a recruiter.

You can simply look the recruiting station up in the phone book and give them a call or you could also go to their office. If you are not within city limits of the recruiting station I will suggest call them to ensure someone is there before you make a trip to find the door locked. We get some different holidays and longer holidays in the military and we are constantly on the go so there is no telling if you will find the door unlocked or not.

An alternative way to get a hold of a recruiter from the branch you choose is to visit their website (which I have posted links on the right for you to explore) poke around for some information and put your information into their database. Each branch has someone that collects this information, most of the time will call you to see if you are interested and meet basic qualifications. Then either someone from the call center will either call the recruiter directly or send us an email with your basic contact information. If the recruiter gets the information right away you will probably be surprised as to how fast you get a call from the recruiter. I know I have been sitting in front of my computer, the persons information pops up in my email, and I call it as soon as I see it. When the person answers they are usually surprised how quick I call them and in some cases they exclaim that they just put their information in the system, got a call from the call center, and then received a call from me in under 20 minutes. It is a pretty efficient system for us to get a hold of potential applicants.

So, when you talk tot he recruiter either face to face or on the phone they will ask you a series of questions and it might seem as they are interrogating you but they really aren't. These questions will range from asking about your personal contact information, to law violations, or health conditions you may have or had. The reason for these is ensure that you meet the basic qualifications of what that service is looking for. If you don't meet these qualifications then depending on the recruiter it may be a short conversation. Don't take it too personal, recruiters have a ton of stuff to do in one day and we don't spend time working with applicants that are not qualified. If your recruiter is decent he will at least tell you if you are permanently disqualified with a detailed explanation or what it will take for you to get qualified. Now, assuming you are qualified, you and the recruiter will determine a good place for you two to meet. Here are some suggestions for that. If you are way out in the middle of nowhere ask the recruiter to drive to see you. Don't feel bad what soever, we get a free car and a paid gas card that goes with it, not to mention we like to get out of our office from time to time. If you don't want to drive and you don't want any strangers in your house then suggest a public place like the library or even a park on a nice day.

So which Branch of Service?

So what you looking for?

So. You may have by now put enough consideration into enlisting into the military but this is where it starts getting confusing for most people. There are some people that are born to be in the military, have dreamed about it since they where a child, and have already decided which branch of service they will enlist into and there is pretty much nothing you could do to change their minds and that is o.k. For the rest of us, we have no real clue as to which service offers what except for the ads that we see on television or hear from our relatives that served many years ago. So when looking to see which branch of the service you think you would fit in the most you need to look at a couple of things. Think of the things that you like to do in life that could correlate with what you could do in the military. If you are a person that likes to do a lot of outdoor events like hiking, hunting, shooting guns then possibly the first place you could look is the Army or the Marines.  If you are one that has spend a lot of time out on the water and loves to travel to exotic places then possibly the Navy or the Coast Guard could be a good choice for you. If you are one that likes to get into the more technical aspects of things then you may want to look into the Air Force and of course the same branch if you wanna fly those jets at supersonic speeds. So this is just the beginning of your journey by narrowing down what branches you think might best suit you. But don't let this fool you by any means. There are so many options throughout the other branches of services you might just find another one that can offer you exactly what you want even though it's wasn't first choice.  If you are serious about joining the military it would behoove you to go and sit down with all the branches of services.  This way you have a chance to see exactly what each one of the offered so when you do make that choice it is completely educated and in the long run you won't doubt your decision from one branch or the other.  Also, before you choose a branch to contact about your first meeting with them, you need to ensure you have a list of certain items with you.  You first need to completley understand what your wants and needs are. You also need to have goals set in mind and have a rough idea of how much you are willing to put into this enlistment i.e. the amount of years, active duty, or part time duty.  If you know that your ultimate goal is to achieve an education through the military, do your research and know exactly how much it will cost you in the end so that you can compare these figures to what the military is offering. Otherwise, even though you are getting what you and that branch of service agreed on in terms of education money, you may in the end come up short and may be stuck with student loans to finish things off. So I say again, do your research on what it will take to achieve what you want through the military before you contact your representative. Also talk to you the ones in your life that care about you and find out what their opinion is on all the branches and ask for their input of what you should be getting out of the military if you choose to join. Also, if you do have someone that is a solid influencer in your life like your parents, girl/boyfriend, or maybe your spouse ask them to be with you when you make first contact with the military representative.  They can help by simply having someone with you that you know to ease the tension if you are nervous and also ask questions that may not occur to you at that time.  You would not believe how many people I have interviewed for the military that just don't ask any questions and then when it comes time to leave they are all kinds of confused even though I tried to answer them all in the beginning. So always be prepared.

So you are thinking about joining the military Huh?

It's a hard job to figure out what you want sometimes......

So if you are visiting my page then you or someone you care about is contemplating enlisting into one of the branches of the United States Armed Forces. Thinking about enlisting into the military is by far one of the biggest decisions anyone can make in their lifetime. This process is often compared to buying a house, getting married, and having children. There are good reasons for the comparisons.  These three things that are compared to joining the military have major correlation with one another. Buying a home, getting married, having children, and joining the military are all suppose to be rewarding, joyful, and bring a certain level of positive stress to your life. The intention of doing these things is to make a large move forward in life and creating a certain level of happiness or fulfilling a certain need in a most positive way.  All of the examples can go south on you real quick and create a whole world of havoc regardless of if you do the right thing or  not.  You can't pay your mortgage that means you will probably lose your home, leaving you homeless and with a huge debt pushing most people into bankruptcy. Getting married can be the most wonderful experience of your life, but usually when it goes south it can have very bad consequences on you, your friends, family, children, and of course the other spouse. Also having a child can turn out to not be the happiest thing in your life. You child could be a bad seed creating misery in your life, could turn out to have a long life illness that you will have to tend to for the rest of your life, or your child could just be a total failure in life regardless of what you did to raise him or her. The same goes with joining the military, you may have an absolute great experience and you get everything out of the military that you wanted. Also, you could have a bad experience in the military and depending on the situation you could have to deal with these for the rest of your life. And all of these examples that I give are in one way or another contractual. Being in a binding contract is great when everything is going well, but if doesn't go as planned then being bound to a contract can prove to be difficult to say the least. You do not have the luxury of just walking away from it when the going gets tough and if you do then it will just create a whole other list of issues.These are not the only reasons thinking of joining the military are tough. You know that when you enlist into the military you are walking into a world that you only think you know something about but you have no true idea of what it's all about. Also, you are being asked to make a long term commitment into this new world you have not had a chance to explore except through movies or other peoples experiences. You also have to decide if all the horror stories that you always heard about the military are true and if what you are getting from the military is worth the risk of taking that chance.  And yes, there is always that looming question of will I get deployed, will I get hurt, and what are the chances of dieing while serving my country.  So I say again, it's a hard choice to make and you should not make this choice by yourself or uniformed.  As I write my blog, I will hit all the subjects and many, many more as I hope that this will be just one tool that you use to help you decide whether the military is for you or not.

Welcome to my Blog and I hope you get something out of this.

Welcome... My name is "THAT PHONIC GUY" and I am an actual recruiter for the Army. The purpose to get this blog going is to inform and educate people on different topics involving enlisting the military.  During this blog I will speak of the goods, bads, and otherwises. I will not be biased during these blogs.  My intention is not to persuade you to enlist into the Army nor enlist into the other services.  My intention is to educate you well enough so that when you think you are ready you can make an informed decision.  Joining the United States Armed Forces is not a easy decision and it's not meant for everyone either.  Enlisting into the military is not something you wake up one day and say "hey I'm gonna go serve my country". I mean, it does happen like that from time to time, but if you are trying to do it smartly, you don't go out like that.  You need to be educated about what you will be getting into.  It is a serious decision, with a long term commitment, and in some cases serious consequences. It is not something you can just back out of if you don't like your job, or you miss your family, or maybe you don't like your supervisor.  That again is why I am doing this, so that  you know as much about joining the military as you can.  Being that I am Active Duty Army there will be some times that I will speak from my own experiences, but am not interested in pursuaing you into the Army.  That is something you will have to come up on your own.  Also, if you find something that I put in a post that is incorrect, please let me know. If while reading my blog you notice something that you believe is incorrect, please do not hesitate to make it a point to let me know. All I ask from your correction is that you send me in a direction so that I can verify. Give me a link, tell me what manual I can refer to, or what ever reference that you have recieved your information from.  I ask that if you have a response to anything that I post please leave a comment.  I will no only respond to the comment, but I will also be able to use these as a compass and guide this blog in the direction of what my readers are interested in.  Again, thank you for taking the time to visit my site and I hope that you get something from this.