At an Annual Training Conference in Cincinnati, OH
Near the end of my first deployment, I started to ask my leadership if I could stay deployed. The 25th Infantry Division was replacing us and even taking over our Strykers, so I thought it would be a no-brainer. I was someone with a year of experience who already was familiar with the area. This is what I signed up to do, and I was loathing going back Stateside and training all over again. I never thought I’d be an Army Recruiter.
They didn’t let me stay deployed. After a few months of being back in the States, I came down on orders from the Department of the Army (DA) stating I was selected for Recruiting. I talked to my chain of command about it and let them know I had no interest in doing it. It didn’t make sense for me to be a recruiter because I didn’t want to be in the Army!
A week later, I got some more orders from the DA to report to Ft. Jackson, SC to go to Recruiting school. It was weird to me, but I guess I was going to be a Recruiter.
There were two things I never wanted to do in life: sales and fast food. Thanks to my stint in recruiting for the Army, I’m down to one. I was sent for a two year tour of Recruiting to Dublin, OH (a suburb of Columbus).
What I did
My “mission” was to “lead” two soldiers a month into the Army. Primarily for the Regular Army (RA), but also the Army Reserve (AR). This meant talking to almost everyone I came in contact, calling hot and cold leads, visiting colleges, high schools, strip malls, events (anywhere with people between the ages of 18 and 42 essentially). I was to “lead” them in to joining the Army.
Job Highlights
- I got to go to some WWE events for free.
- I got to be in the Army without being at a military base. It was nice to not have to see military stuff every day everywhere.
- While in Columbus, OH, I got a side gig for a news paper about The Ohio State University. It was awesome. I got paid to go in to bars and take pictures of drunk people. After the bar managers/owners found out what I was doing, I got preferential treatment and free drinks! This ended badly because some students complained that because I wasn’t a student, I shouldn’t be allowed to do it. Even though the editor was a former marine and said I was one of their best photographers, he had his hands tied.
Positive Takeaways
- This wouldn’t have been bearable if I didn’t work with Fojay, White Mike, Lester T., and Giggles.
- I got to learn some sales techniques, something I wasn’t even interested in.
- I learned why I ended up in the Infantry – The Guidance Counselors get points for putting in new soldiers in more demand. Maybe I could’ve ended up in Broadcast Journalism or Military Intelligence, but the guidance counselor wouldn’t have received as many points. That’s what matters I guess.
- I got extra pay because recruiting is stressful and the extra hours.
- Because of this experience, I learned a lot of the shady tactics that recruiters use and I am able to share them with potential recruits to this day. If you are thinking about joining the military, check out my page I made just FOR YOU!
Negative Takeaways
- When I completed Recruiting School, a civilian employee got up in front of all of us graduates and asked, “Who here hasn’t extended their contract to meet the requirement for recruiting duty?” She said as long as your have 12 months left on your contract when you report to your recruiting station and are an E-4, you are set. I let her know that I was told I had to extend my contract out to two years, and I had to do that before I even reported to Recruiting School, but because I already signed the paperwork…
- Recruiting is stressful and you work a LOT of hours if you aren’t putting in two soldiers a month. If you aren’t putting in soldiers, you are at the bidding of your Station Commander (your office boss). If you are continually not putting in soldiers, you are at the bidding of your First Sergeant (local area boss).
- First job I ever got fired from. I had to finish my enlistment there because the chain of command didn’t submit my transfer paperwork fast enough.
Even More Negative Takeaways
- Throughout Recruiting school, we were taught about the new direction Army Recruiting was going. It was more about building relationships and gaining the trust of the public. However, when I got to my recruiting station, it was balls-to-the-walls old school sales, something I didn’t care for one bit.
- One time when I was asked about infantry life in the recruiting office, I was very honest. Immediately, another recruiter (who was working with another applicant) asked me to go to the back room with him. He CHEWED ME OUT for making the Army “sound boring” (telling the truth) and proceeded to paint a Hollywood-style word-picture of what the Infantry was like. He said that’s what I needed to tell people who asked. I almost laughed in his face, partially because he forgot to close the door to the back room, and we were less than 20 feet away from our applicants. Unfortunately, recruiters are salesmen, and trusting everything they say is quite difficult.
- I told one falsehood to new recruits over and over again – that a soldier will only be called up from the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) if World War 3 happens. I later found out the government will call up soldiers just whenever they feel like it. After I got called back, I did some research on the IRR and found out soldiers get called back more often than one would think, even before Operation Iraqi Freedom started.
Final Words
Sales may not be that bad, but selling something you believe in is much easier. I was already mad that they wouldn’t let me stay deployed, they made me sign on for an extra 11 months I didn’t have to do, and after Basic Training started to offer “High Speed, Low Drag” options, I really didn’t believe in the product. You should be passionate about selling something, not selling it just because you were told to do it.
If you are thinking about joining the military, take a look at my page with some things you should think about before you join. Make sure you realize that you are signing up for an 8 year time stint, as I learned the hard way when I was recalled from the IRR.
Questions? Comments? Email me or Tweet me!
If you found this helpful or entertaining, please consider your support to BLoafX.com at the support page. Links to Amazon on this site are linked to my affiliate account with Amazon. Any link you click to Amazon that results in a purchase will generate a percentage to me.
Please subscribe to my blog. Every time I get a blog post, you’ll get an email notification! It’ll be a variety of posts, so maybe you’ll learn or see something new often! Thank you for your support!