Dear Readers,
Joining the military and serving your country can seem like the noblest of causes. Just make sure you don’t get stuck in a job you can’t stand. If you’ve ever thought “how do I join the Army?”, “Is military life right for me?”, or “What branch of the military should I join?”, this post is for you.
*Note: This post is also for you if your spouse or loved one is considering joining the military. This can be a tough and confusing time for them and your family and I hope that this post will help guide you into smoother waters.
Here are my tips and tricks that should help you through the first few steps of decisions about military life. I hope you can learn from our mistakes and take on this new journey with intention and purposeful direction.
How to join the military
The first time my husband (back then he was my not-boyfriend-boyfriend) approached me about joining the military we were at dinner in a crowded taco bar. I’m sure he waited for this exact moment because I was boozed up on margs and in queso heaven, he’s a smart man. Anyway, he looks at me and goes “I’m gonna join the Marines!” I just stared back, “no you’re not”.
The truth is that he wanted to serve and he knew that he wanted to do something totally badass, so he figured the Marines was a good place to start. And of course he had gone in to talk to a recruiter… how could you not want to join when you get in the office with the X-box and the pull-up bar and macho dudes are doing macho stuff? You know, like playing X-box and doing pull-ups.
While I did not argue that he wanted to serve, it had been a dream of his since he was a boy. My argument was that he didn’t think about how his skills could be best used to serve his country.
“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” -John F. Kennedy
Here’s the thing you have to understand about my husband, he’s brilliant. He is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met and I’m quite the know-it-all, so coming from me that’s a big deal. Right before joining the Army he dropped out of medical school, where he was passing just fine and putting in minimal effort. So he’s smart.
I have nothing against the Marines but going into the Marines, even as an officer, he would have never gotten the chance to further his education or push his intelligence. He would’ve been told how to do a job leading people, led them, done some paperwork and got up the next day to do it all over again. That may be a great fit for someone who has a natural talent at leading people, heightening group morale, or wanted a future in managing people. But that is not my husband.
Deciding to serve
My point is that you first must decide if you want to serve. From there, you can decide how your talents and skills match the different opportunities to serve.
For example, my brother is in the Air Force. He does IT. When we were in high school, I called him a super nerd. He’s wicked good at playing video games and he understands technology in a way that I never will. When he decided college wasn’t for him, he pursued military options. The Air Force gave him what he wanted; a non-physically centered job, in some kind of technology. A job where he could work a pretty regularly set schedule and maybe get deployed to a not-so-scary place to fix their computers. That’s exactly what he got. It’s a perfect fit for him and it will probably end up being one of the best decisions he will ever make. The chances my brother would’ve been happy in the Army? Uhmmm like 0.000001%. The key is to find where you fit.
A good family friend of ours explains it well. He was an Air Force officer and in retirement was hired to be a Drill Sergeant for the Army. He served for two branches and had his fair share of interactions with the others.
His explanation for how to choose a branch goes like this:
While he was in the Air Force, he went to an Army base to do a joint training exercise. When he arrived at the Army base, the Army command said there were old empty barracks that they could stay in if they wanted. The Navy was stuck on a ship somewhere. The Marines declined on account of the fact that they brought their tents to sleep in the field. The Army people lived there in those disgusting old barracks. My good old friend and his Air Force crew politely declined the invite because they had already booked a block of rooms down the street at the Holiday Inn.
So in simple terms, you get to choose. Who are you and where do you want to spend the night?
My husband decided that although he loves a good hotel stay now and again, he needed something more physically challenging and “badass”. So here we are, an Army family.
Helping your country the best you can
Since becoming a part of a military family, I have seen so many young people who get an idea in their head of what it means to serve. Maybe they had an Uncle who served in the Army. Or their best friend’s brother is in the Navy. I even see it with siblings, one brother joins the Marines so the younger feels urged to do the same. The truth is that many times, their idea of what it means to serve doesn’t benefit them or the branch they care to join. If you’re a technology wiz and you sign a contract for Army Infantry, are you really helping your country the best you can?
It’s too often that talents go unused and people end up in the wrong job because they don’t take the time to look at all of their options across all of the branches before they sign on the dotted line.
If you, or someone you love, is looking to join I urge you to try thinking through the process in these steps. Giving time to serve your country is a great undertaking, and I greatly appreciate all who do serve. But how awesome would we be as a country if we could do a better job of getting the right people into the right places? Your career will thrive and you might actually have a chance of loving your job. We all know that someone who loves their job does a hell of a lot better at work than someone who doesn’t want to be there.
Step 1:
Decide If You Want to Serve
I find it so interesting when I hear the words “thank you for your service”. These days it has a whole new meaning. Those words used to mean that I thanked someone for joining the military. Now they mean so much more.
While serving is a volunteer-based job, it is still a job, so you do make money. Albeit, it’s not a lot of money, but it’s money. So to hear of service members who complain about going to their 9-5 job can sometimes bother me. They get paid to go to work, just like every other member of America’s working class. The “service” part of the job comes when the 9-5 job ends. When they don’t make it home for dinner, when they stay up for 24 hour guard shifts, when they can’t go to that concert their wife wants to go to because they can’t travel more than an hour from base, when they don’t get leave to see their families for Christmas because someone has to “man the fort”.
Is serving right for you?
These extra duties define service. You don’t get paid overtime, you aren’t guaranteed a full night’s sleep, you go on little food because there just isn’t time, and you wake up at 5 am ready for PT whether you want to or not.
Only you can decide if you are willing to put in these extra hours without overtime pay or the glory of a job well done. There’s no plaque for doing what you’re told. Serving can often seem like a thankless job. And if you’re not ready to accept that, you’re not ready to serve.
When you’ve decided that you are ready to adopt the military lifestyle, then you can move on to deciding what job you should get.
Step 2:
Choose a Job (MOS, Field, etc.)
Most people would tell you at this point to pick a branch, but I disagree. Unless you have a die-hard need to be a part of one particular branch (or if your grandfather will disown you if you join the Navy) you should next focus on what job you want.
The first question to ask yourself is what are your strengths?
Don’t be afraid to step outside the box here…
Are you good at math? Reading? Mowing lawns?
Do you have a pension for IT stuff? Did you spend your younger years slapping parts of your grandparent’s old computers together to make a super cool gaming computer? If that’s even how that works, idk.
Take it even further outside of the box. Are you a super awesome skier? Did you win a state championship in fencing?
Are you a kickass Dad?
Anything you’re good at. Write it down.
When you’re done you’ll find that there are many you can group together.
Then you move on to making another list: things you like to do.
Anything at all that you like to do… cook? Clean? Do dishes? (yeah, no, me neither)
Do you like hiking, boating, rock climbing?
Do you enjoy being in charge of a group of people? Does filling out paperwork make time fly by? Is getting things organized your jam?
Then you can group together your likes.
The key to finding a successful job that you’ll love is looking at these two lists and seeing where they overlap. When you find something you’re good at, that you love to do, you will excel at your job.
Now that you have an idea of where your likes and strengths overlap, you can go talk to some recruiters about some job ideas.
*Note: This might be a good time to take the ASVAB. Many military jobs are based on eligibility from your composite score, or specific section scores, of the ASVAB test. Taking the exam before talking to a recruiter about job possibilities will narrow your options and make the search more reasonable.
Going to see a recruiter…
It can seem like a daunting task to establish a relationship with a recruiter, but building a mutual trust with this person is key to having a smooth transition into military life. So take your time, get to know them and their career. If you don’t trust them or their vibe just doesn’t match yours, then talk to someone else.
When you sit down to see what your job possibilities, take your lists of likes and strengths with you. The best way to find a job you enjoy is to pick one that includes some of your likes and requires your strengths.
It can be very easy to sit down and hear of a cool job, like being a paratrooper, and quickly forget that you get airsick easily and hate flying. If you choose a job because it “sounds cool” instead of aligning with your interests, there will come a day when you think “what the hell am I doing here”. Then you become one of those people that do the bare minimum work to not get in trouble and count down the days until their enlistment is up. Don’t be one of those people, just don’t do it.
Step 3: Pick a Branch
Now that you’ve seen each recruiter and the jobs they have to offer, you can use the job you want to narrow down your choice of branch. If the job you want is only offered in one branch, well you have your answer. If you need to choose between two or three, my suggestion is to reread the story above and decide where you want to sleep at night.
Another option is to ask your recruiter, or someone else you know, to put you in touch with a military member that currently has the job you want. You can ask them what their daily life is like, how many hours a week they work, what their PT schedule is like, and anything else you can think to ask.
Generally, these answers will help to guide you in the direction of the branch that is the best fit for you.
If all else fails….
If you’ve tried everything and still can’t come to a decision about choosing a branch, I urge you to remember that stereotypes are such things for a reason. Chances are that what you’ve heard about certain branches stems from some truth about their differences. Just take a good look in the mirror and decide who you want to be like.
When you have chosen your job and branch, you are ready to join!
There are many other considerations when it comes to joining the military that I have not mentioned here. I hope you find this guide a merely a starting point in your journey to joining the military. Doing your research and spending the time soul-searching before signing on the dotted line can seem like quite the work; but trust me when I say that it is worth it to explore all of your options before you get stuck in a position you hate.
Have any questions about joining the military? Comment below and I will respond or write a post to help guide you in your search.
God Bless,
A Real Life Army Wife