Requesting advice on joining our Army.

[Grunting Grunt]

Hello everyone. Thanks for taking the time to read my post here.

For a good long while now, I've been considering joining the Army. I believe in standing up for what is right in our country, protecting the freedom and peace we have at any cost, protecting innocent civilians, and all of that other cliche stuff. My questions are pertaining to how I should go about this process, and, for lack of a better term, "Git 'er done". Or whether I even should.

I'm your average 20 year old guy, despite the fact I do not know what I want in my life for a career. I have a few clues to what I might enjoy (military), but that's pretty much it. I can't think of any civilian career I'd want to study, but I sure as heck don't want to hang around call centres and other office-related jobs for the rest of my life. I want to see places, make somewhat of a difference for people, and learn many, many things.

Discipline has been another factor I've been looking at. Throughout my life, I've always gone out of my way to take the easy road, and I believe that has gotten me nowhere. I want to be able to have the ability to say "Hey! I'm going to rough this out no matter what is thrown at me", and the resolve to stand up and do what I have to do. For this, I believe that the military is great, considering it is all about discipline and doing what you're told.

Back to the career-choosing side of things. Since I have no inkling as to what I want to do with my life, it seems signing up for the Regular Forces for at least the minimum term would be a great chance for me to push myself to my limits, to see how far I can go. Along with that, I'll hopefully learn many things during my service that I could apply to a civilian setting, or even enjoy the military life and become a career soldier.

As it stands, it seems like a good idea to me. Go in for an Armoured crewman position, learn how to crew and maintain heavy vehicles, and possibly use that mechanical know-how for a repair & maintenance elsewhere in the civilian world, or just use it for the good of our military. However I've been told that I'm crazy for thinking of signing up for Regular Forces without knowing what it's like, but I just don't like the idea of being in the Reserves. With something like the military, I believe it's something you should dive headlong into with all of your heart, being there for everything you possibly can. Maybe that's just my messed up thinking, though.

All in all, is it a wise decision for me to join? I figure nothing major is going to happen with me in the next 4 years otherwise, so it might not be a bad idea to stick my foot in the door and experience life as a soldier.

Once again, many thanks for reading this.

 

[PMedMoe]

No one here can make such a personal and life-changing decision for you.  Visit a CFRC and talk to the recruiters for more information.  You may also want to search online for job aptitude test, which can tell you what type of occupation you might be suited for.

Mods, might I suggest moving this to the Personal Stories sub-forum?

 

[Luke O]

Only you can make the decision.

I had pretty much the same situation as you.  And I decided to give it a try.

 

[Grunting Grunt]

Yeah, I figured it'd be one of those "Only you can unlock the secret, my son" type of questions. Thanks for the replies!

Luke O, how do you feel about your decision to join? Any positive/negatives experiences?

 

[SeanNewman]

One thing you may have already seen if you've been to a recruiting centre is that in a lot of cases the CF is full of certain positions, so that is going to do a lot of the decision making for you.

IE, if you really wanted to be in X trade but it was full, either you would not join or have to choose something else.

The best advice I can give if you're not really sure specifically what job you want, why have a long sit down with the recruiting centre and ask them what jobs the CF is really short on and begging for people?  That would be an extreme gesture of how committed you are to serving your country.

I'm not saying you should do anything you don't want to do, but they way just bring up a job that you hadn't thought about before that ends up sounding really cool to you.

 

[Sapplicant]

As was said before, only you can decide what's right for you. That being said, you definitely want to go into it showing that you want to be there with every ounce of your being, not just shuffling your shoes and giving the impression that you might not actually want to be there. Talk to a recruiter, find out what's available, and if you know anyone who is in the army, or has been in, talk to them and get their take on the army life, see if it's something you definitely want to dive headlong into.

Just make sure that whatever occupation you choose is one you KNOW you'll be happy doing for the full length of the initial contract. You wouldn't want to sign up to do something that will only make you hate life and want to poison your RSM's dinner. I will say this, however, your reasons for joining are definitely good, especially the discipline. Can never have too much of that. Definitely want to have a lot of pride in what you do as well, even in civilian life... Just my  :2c:

 

[Biggoals2bdone]

Don't know what kind of impact this will have on you, but my good friend went in to the recruiting centre today, to get back in the military, and apparently all the NCM trades are closed until next fiscal year,except subsidized education programs.

 

[readytogo]

No one can tell you its a good idea (i know i asked the same question a few months ago!!!)  somewhere in the back of your mind you know what path you want to take, best advice I can give is to take the path you want now.  You will regret it later in life if you dont.

:2c:
RTG