What Military Recruiters Don't Tell You

Military recruiters are just like any hard-working citizen who is trying to make a living, and like with many other jobs, there are incentives for performance. In this case, this performance is measured by the number of recruits he can entice into joining the service. Unfortunately, the downside to this is that there is information that recruiters withhold in order to manipulate a potential recruit's perception of the military. Discovering this ahead of time can save you from making a life-altering decision in a hurry without all the necessary information.

Training

The first part of joining any branch of the military is basic training. Many recruiters can make basic training sound easy, when in reality it is very extremely difficult and breaks down recruits mentally and physically in order to create an obedient and capable soldier. Also, those who do join and decide that they do not like the training cannot quit and walk away. as they are legally bound by a contract with a term of four or more years.

Bonuses

The biggest bonus that the military tries to advertise is that they pay for a soldier's college education. The problem with this is threefold. First, soliders are typically unable to take full advantage of the GI Bill educational grant during their time of service due to their military obligations, including deployment. Second, the grant is time limited. GI Bill funds are limited to use ten years after a serviceman's date of discharge. Finally, recruits who do not complete their tour of duty, due to medical problems, for example, do not receive educational grants. Also, some branches offer a large signing bonus for signing a longer contract for a specific MOS without explaining that this means one cannot change jobs in the military for that amount of time.

Deployment

The first question a new recruit may have is about the likelihood of getting deployed overseas. Military recruiters often try to cover up the bad places servicemen are sent by overemphasizing the better places, such as Germany or Japan. They may tell new recruits about how deployment gives you the opportunity to see the world, but they do not tell you that you may never get to see the world if you are sent into a war zone and killed on your first deployment.

While there are many perks to joining the military, there are also tons of disadvantages to joining. Military recruiters are not always completely honest about what happens when you join the military, since that would mean less people would sign up. Potential recruits should always grill recruiters very thoroughly before signing a contract that can undoubtedly change their lives forever.

Recruits who do not complete tours of duty do not receive educational grants

by Elisabeth Murray, Jobs writer