I'm in the US military(Navy, to be specific) and I will just make the following points, based on my experience.
1. Money tends to be less then civilian jobs but there tend to be other benefits to make up for it(to some extent).
2. You will likely be deployed, depending on your job in the military. You may be out of the country for up to a year at a time. Even when not out of the country, you will still have to relocate on a regular basis and may have to work crazy hours with no overtime.
3. Your freedom will be extremely restricted while in basic training. There will be virtually no contact with the world outside for a couple weeks/months. When I enlisted, I was told by a chief(Navy E-7), quite frankly "You're going to a concentration camp for 2 months". He was quite right. It wasn't as bad, though, as it looked in the movies(Full Metal Jacket). After that, you're freedom will be somewhat less restricted depending upon job and command, and probably ease up after a few months.
4. Discipline and structure tend to be big, but again, vary on where you are at, what you do, who your boss is and what kind of person you are. Some people like it and some people hate it. You will rarely hear "That is an order"(if you do, it's a bad thing), but you do have to do everything your boss tells you to do(granted, that's true at pretty much any job. In the military they just have more ways to punish you if you refuse or do particularly poorly). If you can't stand being told what to do and where to go, then don't consider it.
5. Along with that, after a while, it basically becomes like another job. If not deployed, you come to work and go home at more or less set times. Do your job well and don't be a shithead and unless your boss is a total dick, you'll probably be left to do your job without being told how to do every single thing. Normally, if you're willing to improve yourself, people will help you do so. While you can be punished heavily, what I've seen is that your boss would rather tell you what you did wrong, and how to fix it, before moving to more drastic measures(unless you did something really, really wrong that you should know damn well not to do, in which case it goes directly to the UCMJ).
4. This adds up to: Military life tends to be hard on family life. I've seen a lot of people's relationships with their SO's go to shit due to their job pressures. Your spouse will be able to come with you in country, but not into a combat zone or on deployment. Communication will probably be tenous, at best, on deployment.
I actually consider myself fortunate that I wasn't married when I joined up 2 years ago, because I'm sure I'd be divorced right now if I were.
5. Yes, the military main job is to kill people and break things, but not everyone actually goes out and does this up close. There are a wide variety of jobs that have civilian counterparts. At least in the US Army, the numbers I've heard is up to 27 support personnel for each actual person in combat. For other branchs, this ratio is higher(though for the Navy, one could argue that everyone is both support and front line at the same time). And there are a lot of useful skills that can be learned, depending on job.
Granted, you have to be physically/mentally able to handle this job. In the US military, everyone is given a test called the ASVAAB which is used to determine what jobs you qualify for, with higher scores required for more specialized and technical jobs. Front line combat jobs(infantry) tends to be at the bottom of the range. Of course, even if you qualify for a higher skilled job, you can still pick a lower skilled one if you really want to do that. You can ask to be a supply clerk even if you scored well enough to be considered for EOD(Explosive Ordance Disposal AKA defuse bombs). Wether you enjoy your job is most important.
My job will never require me to pick up a gun and teaches me certain specialized and hard to obtain skills. There are other occupational dangers, but enemy gunfire is near the bottom of the list of ways I'm likely to be killed. There's no chance in hell I'll ever be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan(on the other hand, the gulf is very likely). There's a lot of stress and long hours, however, that goes along with that.
5. That said: I don't know much about the Canadian military(other then it apparently is not divided into branches like most other countries), but it's probably similar. If you want to spend time with your family, don't bother enlisting. If you really want to serve, then look into it, but ask a lot of questions(and not just recruiters) and look at jobs that you might like. As I've said, I've met people who stayed in until they were forced out because they liked it so much(my Parents both served 20 years. Both say they didn't regret it. Hell, my mom had to retire at 20 due to her rank. She would have remained in if they had let her). And I've met a lot of people who just hate it(95% of my co-workers in my department).
If you read none of the above, a quick review:
-You can serve for a full career and never pick up a gun, except maybe in basic training. Pick a job that is non-combat if you want to join.
-Military life is stressful and hard on family life. That has got to be faced and resolved with your SO before thinking about joining.
-Military life is not for everyone. There are a lot of people I'd tell not to join, but on the other hand, one can enjoy their time and get a lot out of it. I'm trying to milk my time for all it's worth, so when I finally do become a civilian(in 6 years or more), I can say "I've done what I wanted to do and got what I could out of it. I'm ready to move on".
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