The Military Recruiter Wears Many Hats?

Answer 1

The military recruiter wears many hats: all at once he or she is expected to be a super-salesperson, a career counselor and a surrogate mother or father figure. The military recruiter probably wears other hats as well. The fact is, being a military recruiter is not easy because recruitment is not an easy endeavor. Yes, the military recruiter wears many hats but the biggest and most important is that he or she is representing a specific branch of the Armed Forces and acting as human calling card at the same time.

Think about it: if a potential recruit walks into a military recruiting office and sees a recruiter sitting behind a cluttered desk with a wrinkled uniform and a tired look on his or her face what subliminal message is being sent out? Not a very positive one! The candidate will probably turn around and walk out the recruiter’s office and find another branch of service to join. So if the military recruiter wears many hats then add another one to the list: that of sharp and orderly professional.

By its very nature, being a military recruiter is very competitive. It’s a “special duty assignment” within each branch of the Armed Forces that must be applied for. Recruiters attend a school to get trained in the art of military recruitment, and then once out in the field the military recruiter must hit daily, weekly and monthly quotas in order to keep a steady stream of recruits entering into military service. And by the way, “failure” is not an option to a military recruiter.

Because the military recruiter wears many hats, he or she must also play the role of door-to-door salesperson. Gone are the days (if in fact they ever existed) when a recruiter could lounge idly behind a desk and wait for potential recruits to come waltzing through the recruiting office door. Rather, the recruiter needs to aggressively integrate into the local community: at the local high school, at the gym or the supermarket. Where ever potential recruits may be, that is where the recruiter must be as well.

The military recruiter’s goal is to find qualified candidates who exceed the minimum standards established by the Armed Forces. In fact, more and more recruits than ever before already have some college or even a college degree in many instances. To that end, the military recruiter frequents college campuses as well.