Joining the Military
Walking into a recruiter's office can be an exciting proposition for a person interested in joining the military. However, while many recruiters are honest, upstanding people, the old saying about recruiters is "you know that they are lying when their mouths move". People, young people especially, will go into a recruiting office and often buy any pitch that a recruiter sells to them. This leads to many people regretting ever "signing the line" and joining the military in the first place. However, you can avoid the pitfalls of dealing with even the most unscrupulous recruiters buy following this advice.
First, go into the recruiter's office for the first time with a professional attitude. When a recruiter approaches you, they will have you sit down at their desk and discuss what you want with them. Do not say something like "I want a job" or "I want to shoot guns and stuff". The former will tell the recruiter that you do not care what kind of job you get or the benefits you can have, and the latter will tell them that you are immature and they can pull a fast one on you.
Tell them your situation. If your main focus is getting a good job that you can use on the outside then look over the jobs that that branch offers before you walk in the door. Come with a list already written down. It could include linguist or intelligence careers if you want a top secret clearance that you want to sell to the civilian world. It might have vehicle mechanic jobs or electrical careers if you want to work with your hands after you get out of the military. Discuss where you would like to be stationed and find out what career paths are there.
Ask the recruiter about pay, bonuses, and benefits early on. While this is not a good strategy when you are interviewing for a civilian job, it will prove very valuable when you are looking at getting a good start in your military career. It will tell your recruiter that you are interested in having all of the pay that you can get, as well giving as an overall impression of your intelligence and motivation. All of the military branches have programs to allow you to get instant advancement to higher ranks before you leave for your initial training. The Army can promote you to E-4 if you have a college degree, or up to E-3 with some college courses, membership in JROTC, being an Eagle Scout or getting the Gold Award in Girl Scouts, or by completing a set of pre-Basic Combat Training training objectives. The Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard will promote up to E-3 with similar criteria, and the Marine Corps will promote to E-2 before Boot Camp. Ask your recruiter about how you can get promoted early and what you will have to do to get it. It is free extra money and faster career progression. Take it.
You do not have to go into the recruiting station alone. You can take a parent (or both) or a friend who is or was in that branch of the service. Your parents will be able to raise questions that you may not think about, and having someone who knows what being in the military is really about (your mom or dad, an uncle, a friend, etc) there with you will either keep the overselling on the recruiter's part to a minimum or allow you to know what the truth is and what is a misrepresentation of facts.
After you take your ASVAB (the test they give you to see which jobs you are qualified for) they should show you a list of jobs or job fields that are currently open. If you are not happy with the list, the bonuses are not enough for you, or your dream job is not on there then you do not have to pick one job right then. New training options come up every week and month, so you can always waltz right back into the office and ask to see new career options. Wait until you get what you want if it is that important.
Be wary of promises that you will not deploy to a combat zone or to sea. Almost every job in the military has some use in a deployed environment. You might believe that if you sign up for a personnel specialist career then you will be sitting at a desk doing paperwork. That desk has a good chance of getting shipped to Afghanistan on a regular basis though.
When you get to MEPS for your physical and meeting with a career counselor it will be a long, hectic day. It starts at "zero dark thirty" (meaning well before the sun comes up) and may not end for you until 5 pm. There will be a lot of waiting very quietly in lines, medical exams that you will NOT enjoy, and a lot of other general frustration. By the time you get to the career counselor's office you will be tired and the temptation to breeze through your paperwork without looking it over. This is the last thing you want to do. Talk to the counselor about every question you have, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. This is your future after all. Make sure the job you reserved and bonus amount your recruiter promised is still there. Show up with a list of everything your recruiter told you and double check with the career counselor. Look over every word of your contract like you are panning for gold. You will get everything that is in your contract and nothing that is not. Ask to see where everything is in your contract. This means your job, your bonus, where you will train, when you will leave, everything.
Following this advice will help you get what you were looking for out of the military. It will be a positive start to your military career, and you will not have to wake up each morning blaming your recruiter for you not liking your place in life.
