I worked as a Navy recruiter for the past two years, after several sea deployments on an aircraft carrier.
Pros:
-Got to go home every night(In the military, this is a plus).
-Working hours aren't bad, most of the time. 9 am to 6 pm. Fridays were often 9 am to 3 pm.
-Most of the time didn't work weekends(unlike the ship).
-Got to meet a lot of interesting people.
-Got to drive a government car around for work purposes.
-Got to help some people who really needed/wanted to join. I?ve gotten 17 year old high school students into the Navy as nuclear engineers, translators and EOD, to name a few, and were quite happy to have the opportunity straight out of high school.
-Finally have time to finish my BS using Tuition Assistance before I leave the military, meaning I have the full GI Bill to use for whatever I want.
-People occasionally tell you how awesome and appreciated you are for serving (or buy you stuff). We get to wear our uniforms out in town, and there?s very little military in our area.
Cons:
-Recruiting is a numbers game. Your station must meet monthly goal each month and life sucks if you don't. Recruiters might have a monthly goal as well and that includes special goals(# of females, # of nuclear engineers, # of reservists).Depending on who runs your station, life can be annoying to hellish.
-The job is often the worst aspects of sales and HR combined. Telemarketing every day is an expected way to find applicants, even if it almost never produces anything but frustration. Even after you enlist/contract someone, they can still walk away at any time prior to shipping to boot camp(and there?s nothing you can do about it other than try to convince them not to). If they do, you need to find a replacement the same month(enlisting someone and losing someone is the same, as far as numbers go, as not enlisting anyone).
-Enlisting people into the military is difficult because a majority of Americans aren?t qualified under the current standards(and the standards are only getting tighter). People can also disqualify themselves from the military by saying they?ve been depressed in front of the doctor, or stop their enlistment while we run around trying to find med docs or court records because they ?remembered? something that happened 10 years ago?in front of the doctor or the processing agent. Then it?s often an entire day wasted.
-You can waste lot of time on someone who seems perfect, is super willing to enlist, who will then back at last moment, leaving you pissed off and exhausted. I?ve worked with people for months trying to get them enlisted and the moment we got the go, they backed out. Sometimes they don't even have the guts to tell you "Sorry, I changed my mind." Sometimes they just stop returning your phone calls, your e-mails and will never be at home when you stop by.
-Some people are just assholes in general. I can?t tell you how many people scheduled appointments with me and my coworkers and then blow us off?often for no reason. I?ve had people call me, schedule a meeting, not show up, do it again, and when I asked about meeting him, would say ?I?m in Seattle(I work 3 hours south of that?) . This being after the guy said ?I?ll be there in 15 minutes? to me on the phone. I?ve also had plenty of people who couldn?t be bothered to give me a straight ?No? but instead would duck my phone calls or make up stupid stories.
-People occasionally ***** you out over the phone for trying to ?steal their children?. If they had any idea how difficult it is to get someone into the military, how many forms have to be signed(not to mention that the parents have to sign too if they are 17), etc??
-To follow up with the last one, Most of my bosses would not accept ?Couldn?t contact? as a valid reason to stop calling someone. I?d eventually just lie and make up something like ?Moved out of state? or ?joined army? or ?on meds? as a reason never to call them again. Technically I wasn?t allowed to accept ?I?m not interested? from anyone but them, but if the parent answered and said ?No?, that was more than good enough for me.
-A typical day of enlisting someone started around 4 in the morning, because all physical exams begin at 6 am and end around late afternoon, when swear ins usually happen. Even then I still didn?t usually go home until around 6 or so in the evening. Normally I?d have to drive people to and from the processing center, and play errand boy if anything(and it usually would) go wrong.
-For the first year on the job, I had a boss who was bipolar, a terrible boss and would force us to work Saturdays once a month?.for no real reason. ?Because we aren?t doing good enough? It never actually accomplished anything, other than making us hate him. One night he held us at work till 9 pm(closing is at 6 pm) to scream at us about how we sucked at our jobs and should be fired. If I hadn?t been exhausted, I likely would have told him off about how I?d love to be fired(not that it would have helped. He just would have screamed more). Oh, and he loved the speech from "Glen Glengarry Ross" because it felt it was "motivating".
-For almost the entire time I recruited, our officer was understaffed, and 50% staff for most of that time. When the workload doesn?t change but you have 2 people working(of the 4 you are supposed to have), it gets exhausting after a while. Considering we cover almost an entire county, that?s a lot of area to cover.
I?d hear people occasionally tell me that ?Recruiting is Easy.? I have an incredible urge to punch them in the throat, and then kick them in the crotch repeatedly(and I?m not a violent person, to give some context). I was already leaning towards getting out of the Navy once my contract ended and recruiting made me decide that not only will I get out of the navy, I will never work sales/recruiting ever again.
