Talking to a Recruiter
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Topic: Talking to a Recruiter
Posted By: rednekk98
Subject: Talking to a Recruiter
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 10:06am
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A little after 8:00 this morning my phone rings. I had been up for about 15 minutes(stupid dog barking) and was just about back to sleep, at the second ring I decide to roll out of bed and don pants, then race downstairs to get the phone in the event it was something important. As soon as he said "Hello this is Sgt. Checko.." I figured my sister was at the police station or something, I was relieved when he said he was from the Marine Corps and calling to talk to me. Appearently I requested some information on the Marine Corps, which means on one of those post highschool plans surveys at school, I checked the USMC box in the military section of it. I got the usual battery of questions, I've been called by recruiters before but they prett much left me alone and just offered to send some information, probably because I was just a junior(think I may have had a few calls sophomore year too). Once he figured out I wasn't a drug addict, criminal, medicated for ADD or any other sort of disorder, or had replacement joints or had broken any bones, and wasn't 5' 2" and 280lbs, he immediatly wanted to meet with me and talk face to face. The nearest recruiting station is about a 40min drive away, I figured what the hell I'll set up a time to talk with him.
I've really got to scramble and look at colleges, plus take the SATs and all that stuff, and well, I have no freaking clue what I'd be going to college to study. I've been toying with the idea of going into a branch of the service to give myself a few years to develope some interests, plus help pay for college. I'd really like to DO something, and going to college immediatly after highschool doing liberal arts or whatever seems boring as hell. I'd really like to experiance the world a bit more before I go to school and put myself seriously in debt for a goal I'm not exactly clear on. And considering the times, I'm afraid I'd regret not doing this a few years down the line. I certainly am not dead set on it, but it's an option I've looked at. So with this in my mind, plus the fact that I was half asleep, I decided to talk to have a talk with the guy. I was prepared to drive out there, but he wanted to drive right out here tomorrow morning. Since I'm not sure when I'm working tomorrow, I told him I'd have to take a raincheck. I figured he'd buzz off until I called him. Nope. What about Wednesday? Hmmm, I'm not working then, what the heck eh? So he's coming up here to talk to me Wednesday at noon, and forewarned me that he will be calling in the morning to remind me. I thanked him for the warning since I'd otherwise not bother getting out of bed to get the phone. Now for why I bothered posting this. I've heard enough horror storys of unscrupulous recruiters and enough these stories are from former recruiters, so I'm a bit worried. I'd like to know how to calibrate my BS detectors for this. For anyone who's gone through this, what's he going to be trying to get out of this meeting?(besides a recruit) Is he going to pretty much gauge how interested I am and possible schedule a few tests? Are there any obvious things I should look for that would let me know he's making unrealistic offers? As for why I'm talking to a USMC recruiter instead of any other branch(I might talk to the Army later for comparison) well, the former Marines I know or have talked to are still nuts about the Corps. A lot of guys who were in the Army seem, well, less enthusiastic. A few have actually told me to join the Corps if I go into a branch. My neighbor, a former Marine, and my pistol instructor, seems to have benifitted from it enough. Up until 9/11 he was going to a lot of former USSR countries for the state department, mainly working with government radio stations and helping to start up new stations and stuff like that. I guess he must have made some connections when he was in. His son used to be a recruiter as well, and told me to talk to him before I sign anything with a recruiter and warned me about the way some recruiters can be. So anyway, any words of warning or advice? Thanks |
Replies:
Posted By: tippy_182
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 10:11am
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My good friend signed up for the Army, through a recruiter. Well,
you know how you put your first and second options that you want to
do. Well they signed him up for something completely
different. He called the recruiter back and yelled and screamed
and they got him changed around. Just my one recruiter
story...........
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Posted By: Trogdor2
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 10:15am
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One of my friends just went into the Marines to play Trumpet (He's
really good...). He left for Basic Training 3 weeks ago...
------------- Something unknown is doing we don't know what. That is what our knowledge amounts to. - Sir Arthur Eddington |
Posted By: rednekk98
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 10:17am
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tippy_182 wrote:Posted By: The American
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 10:23am
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I've never heard of a recruiter coming to someones house, let alone just all out of the blue and start talking about joining the military. Are you sure he isn't some sick guy that wants to kill you lol Well anyways I say take a look at what they have to offer, and see what suits you best, and go from there, I've always considered doing something like that. ------------- 
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Posted By: ItsJustMe
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 10:23am
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Its kinda sad. ------------- <Replaced gigantormous sig with strike, good trade.> |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 10:24am
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Ward them off until you've made a decision My brothers Navy recruiter was a skeevy little jerk who told my brother he couldnt get the 2 year program he wanted, and tricked him into an 8 year program. When you decide to talk to them, tell them WHAT you want, with no "I think" or "maybe" they'll exploit anything they can to get you to sign anything. I have alot of respect for the armed service, and am in the process of selecting my own branch when I get out of college, BUt recruiters are right up there with used car salesmen and lawyers. Be careful of them. ------------- ? |
Posted By: Hades
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 10:27am
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Caller Id. ------------- 
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Posted By: MetallicaESPa5
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 10:31am
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haha. i have a neighbor thats a recruiter... ------------- 
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Posted By: Bauerp0weR 18
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 10:33am
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I had surgery on my thumb joint this summer to reconstruct it because it was deteriating, does that mean I can't join the marines/army, etc? ------------- Black Smart Parts Ion Halo B Check-It Unimount macroline 68/45 Pure Energy tank |
.Posted By: TippmannBro
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 10:33am
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A recruiter saw me driving around one day and he reconized me, so he followed me home. When I got out of the car he was propped up on my tailgate saying "Hi, would you like to be in the Army?" So we went inside and talked for a half hour, and most of what he said was wrong, so be careful and check things out thoroughly. ------------- WAR EAGLE!!! |
Posted By: ItsJustMe
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 10:39am
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------------- <Replaced gigantormous sig with strike, good trade.> |
Posted By: rednekk98
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 10:40am
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Posted By: Pyro-TFA
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 10:44am
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Ive met with Army, Navy, and Air Force recruiters, they all said the same thing, after x months you become a veteran of the military, you get free medical and dental coverage, 30 days paid vacation after x amount of time as long as we arent in a war, and such like that, then they say come on down to the station and take the ASVAB, then you score in the 83 percentile and they never leave you alone until you kill them, die, make up a story that you lost a leg or only have one kidney, or tell them your a convicted felon, then they run a background chek see that youve lied and start calling you at all hours of the night so they can meet their numbers. The Navy Recruiter called me at 11:30pm needless to say I would have torn his head off if I could Reach through the phone, And he never called again.
^ that probably wasnt any help at all |
Posted By: TheSpookyKids87
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 11:29am
| The Marines are trying to contact me as well, they called my house at around 11PM, when I was already sleeping, so I didn't answer the phone. They never called after that though. |
Posted By: TippmannBro
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 11:47am
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Recruiters will tell you what you want to hear, they
sometimes leave out the details. I want to be in either the Air Force or Army, and I have talked to both recruiters. They will give you the basic details, but they cant guarantee that you will get the job you want in the military. As for the Marines, they are psycho when it comes to recruiting. They called me at 7:00 in the morning one time-I told them to never call back. Talk to someone else who is already in the military to get the full story. ------------- WAR EAGLE!!! |
Posted By: chronzak
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 11:58am
| i get about 2 calls a week from recruiters asking for my brother, i just hang up on them now |
Posted By: stick_boy_2002
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 11:59am
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recruiters arent calling me yet. but i just started my junior year today so im sure thell start calling me sometime. ------------- 
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Posted By: WUNgUN
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 12:25pm
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Recruiters are the most persistent "sales people" you will ever find, do you blame them. Doing well recruiting will only benefit the recruiter when he returns to the Fleet or keep him away from it. Good luck, I have an Army NG recruiter who calls me all the time because I guess they are pretty desperate locally for prior-enlisted Officer Candidates. He is a nice guy who knows he can't blow smoke up my tail, so he isn't too pushy, plus he's only in the Army NG, he knows I'll hurt him!
If it becomes too overwhelming or they become too pushy, just tell them to stop calling our you'll never join! ------------- [IMG]http://hometown.aol.com/hlwrangler/myhomepage/revised5_copy.jpg"> ""...the Marines we have there now could crush the city and be done with business in four days."--LtGen Conway on Fallujah |
Posted By: rednekk98
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 10:03pm
| About the ASVAB, can you take it multiple times to better your score like the SATs? It'd suck to have my potential MOS's limited because I was a bit off my game when I took the test. |
Posted By: HondaXR
Date Posted: 23 August 2004 at 10:17pm
Yea i had surgery on my pointer finger and i cant use it at all from now on....... Shucks.....looks like I cant join the army......Dang......lol ------------- SL68II Pro/Am 68 Carbine |
Posted By: rednekk98
Date Posted: 25 August 2004 at 5:16pm
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Sgt. Checo called at 8:20 this morning, told me he'd be here at noon. He shows up with some other guy at 11:30, interrupting my sandwich(I shoulda figured they'd be anything but late, but I had no idea how long this would take, and I got really hungry just all of a sudden). Not wanting to get BSed, which he repeatedly told me he wasn't going to do, I listened more than I talked, not giving him anything he would try to get leverage on me with until I thought I had a decent bead on him as a person, he seemed to be doing the same to me. I let him go on for a while, showed enough interest to keep him from really trying too hard to get my attention and took a little test. It was a little 60 question thing that basically showed him if I was mentally competant enough for them to consider. Half of it was verbal skills(aced it) the other half was relativly basic word problems(didn't try too hard, got 5 wrong which if I'd taken a bit more time could easily have done). They seemed impressed enough with the score anyways.
So the recruiter stepped outside to talk with his commander on the phone, giving me a chance to talk with his assistant. He turned out to be quite a caricter. He didn't seem as sharp as the other one, but being a lower rank he was considerably less formal, which was nice. He took some time off after highschool and before college, took a few classes and still had no idea what he was going to do, so he joined the Marines at age 21, wishing he hadn't wasted so much time. Then September 11th happened while he was in boot camp. He was infantry(1st Marine or something) and went to Iraq twice, at the very start of the invasion, and ended up in Falluja last April, which explained the cringing when the cat knocked something over in the next room, and again when his cellphone rang. I asked him where he'd been stationed, he was stationed in California, and appearently tried out surfing and loved it. In his own words "Man, some <anal openings> ay surfing is <fornicating><female organ><fecal matter>, but you get so much<female organ> out of it in CA. They're into that<fecal matter> hardcore." Almost immediatly after this, his cellphone rang and he cringed noticable, slightly worrying me. Now keeping his preceeding speech in mind, it was his girlfriend. He spent the remainder of the time playing with our dog and kittens, going outside to smoke, talking on the phone with his g/f, and talking with me when the recruiter was outside on the phone. Basically, he's glad he's had the experiance, which matches what every other Marine and former Marine has told me. So when the recruiter got back in from talking with his commander, we started talking about what I wanted to get out of the Corps, should I join, available MOS that had seemed interesting enough to me(intel field looks good, but goddammit infantry is tempting). We talked a little bit about a kid in my class who he's also recruiting and is in the DEP, which he was kind of pushing me towards. Of course, I won't be making any kind of final decision soon, but I'm going to take maybe two weeks or so to research a bit, talk with my parents(my dad being one of those long haired left wing radicals who's half convinced John Ashcroft has a camera hidden in his toilet) and a few other people(the kid in the delayed entry program, my grandfather, my neighbor just to name a few) and I'll have a few more detailed questions for him by then. He warned that he will be calling this weekend just to check in. I realize he's a salseman, just like a used car salesman, but I think I i did a decent job of limiting his opportinities to start in with a bunch of macho BS, which I'm sure some kids love to hear and made some headway. One thing I liked about his style was that it seemed like the way a good teacher will teach a lesson. This is alreadt starting to sound a ton better than going to college with no real goals as to what I want to get out of it, working my way into debt the whole time, and living with my parents for another four years.  Does anyone have any experiance with the delayed entry progam? Will it really make bootcamp less of a culture shock? How much of an advantage does it really give you? Thanks again.
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Posted By: munky!
Date Posted: 25 August 2004 at 5:42pm
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damn vulchers...
how much do they get if you sighn up? ------------- Forumers ageinst stuff that sucks |
Posted By: Project Irene
Date Posted: 25 August 2004 at 6:20pm
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^That pansy right there scored a 99 on the ASVAB (armed services vocational aptitude battery) and I scored a 94. Another dude in our class also got a 99 and another, 92. So as you can imagine, we all have our fair share of recruiter stories our senior year. |
Posted By: WUNgUN
Date Posted: 26 August 2004 at 12:31pm
Here's my .02 on DEP. Wait until you turn 18 (if you haven't already) to make your decision. Its a big decision to make. My Father, a former Marine himself, told my recruiter point blank that he didn't want to see his face or hear his voice until I turned 18, because he didn't want me to hate the Marine Corps and turn it into "You let me go." As far as its purpose, my 6-7 mos in the DEP really helped only because my recruiters were hard core! They made us PT twice a week (Wed PM/Sat AM) and a lot more than they were supposed to. We would run at least 3-4 miles each outing, I think they were only suppose to do 1.5. We did a monthly entire "Poolee" event and it was kinda BS, but it gave us a chance to meet and talk to all the other "Poolees" in the state (RI). The SNOIC of RI ran that. Above and beyond the PT, they really made us learn our basic knowledge, especially General Orders. It wasn't uncommon for my recruiter to call and when I answered ask, "What is your Seventh General Order", if I got them wrong or stumbled he would PT us to death. Now as far as MOSs go, thats up to you. Each one has their benefit and downfalls. Don't be tricked by the notion that a "pogue" job is easy, because they always end up being the most time consuming, ask any cook in the military! Good luck and feel free to PM me with any other questions... |
Posted By: rednekk98
Date Posted: 26 August 2004 at 7:45pm
| I had previously decided to wait until after I turn 18(end of October) to sign anything. Asking my parents to sign something like that would be more pressure than I'd want to put on them. PT is only once a week from what he said, I'm not sure how far they run, I actually hope they push further than they're really supposed to. He did explain that I'd learn how to properly respon to a question, or order to hopefully avoid the full wrath of the DI(which knowing my luck I'd be the guy he liked to pick on) which sounded really good to me. But yeah, I've got a few months to do some research, and get myself into a bit better shape. As for MOSs, are you pretty much definatly going to get the one you sign up for? What are the chances of say, signing as an aircraft mechanic and ending up as a rifleman? I suppose I'm going to have to try to stay out of the infantry only because my grandfather has repeatedly told me to do so. He has enough problems as it is, I don't want to give him ulcers worrying about me. |
Posted By: WUNgUN
Date Posted: 27 August 2004 at 9:25am
As far as MOSs go, what you actually sign the contract for is what you get. You can actually get out when they breach your contract. Never go in as an "open contract", from what I saw that generally guaranteed you'd be a cook or supply clerk! You actually list your top three choices, my luck was that I got the one I least wanted to do was my third choice, the others were supposedly "closed" for the time frame I was going to be in MOS School. Almost everyone in my family was a "grunt" and they all told me to think about the future. Up until his death, my Dad still suffered from aches, pains, and injuries he suffered from as an 0311. He "lateral moved" to a Combat Engineer in his second enlistment. My "Enlistment Buddy" was an 03 and loved it, it paved the way for his career. Even if you don't like your MOS once in, like one of my high school buddies, there is always MSG Duty (Embassy Duty) and spend 3 years in some pretty neat places. You have plenty of time, just talk to people. On this forum alone I am sure you can get some ideas what you may be interested in. Just remember all Marines (99%) deploy overseas or on a boat at one time or another during their enlistment! ------------- [IMG]http://hometown.aol.com/hlwrangler/myhomepage/revised5_copy.jpg"> ""...the Marines we have there now could crush the city and be done with business in four days."--LtGen Conway on Fallujah |
Posted By: RenegadeGopher
Date Posted: 27 August 2004 at 9:31am
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Don't join if you don't want to be sent over seas. Our current situation...I'd never do it.
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