Questions on the forces

Im pretty unhappy with my career at the moment. The direction I am taking just doesn't motivate me. I need some clear direction and to have instilled in me some self-discipline. I will be 23 in March.

I have identified the forces as being able to offer me such options. I have good A levels and am part way through a degree. I believe I would be able to join as an officer for some positions, assuming I met other criteria (mental, physical ect).
I dont know which service I want to join but I am leaning away from the Navy (I just dont want to be couped up on a ship). I am tempted towards the Royal Marines but I would need to know what my career prospects are after my minimum service term if I didnt want to turn it into my final career.

It is important for me to know that if I leave at 25 or 45 - I have some options for me.

I will definetly speak to a forces career adviser soon but I have some wider questions on the topics of morality and general forces life.

Politics, rights and wrongs aside; how do you people in the forces, training for it or considering it, find peace within your self knowing you might die, or have to kill anouther? Do you believe in the politics and thus there is no issue as such for you on making those sacrifices? Do you simply try not to think about it - is it just your day job? Please tell me and try not to be led by my perspective.

Please do not turn this into a politics thread on the morality of war / foriegn interventions ect. I consider the current world situation as both very wrong but very complex. To summise in a sentence; I feel we have to make the best of it. Thats not to say I dont think mistakes have, are and will continue to be made.

What level entry into the forces are you looking at Commisioned or un-comissioned I know that the career propects for a Commissioned Officer when they leave are very good I'm not sure the same could be said for a rank and file squaddy unless you get some specific skills as part of the role you choose.

I've come very close to joining the forces on two occasions and still want to allthough age is no longer on my side!

Commissioned, an officer. I have edited my first post to include that vital piece of information I over looked...

Quick reply to one of your questions as I'm just nipping out. Regarding future prospects after leaving the forces, if you go for infantry, and only do that, your prospects after military life can be slim, because you will be trained in weapons operation, but not a whole deal loads, not what employers are looking for anyway. If you went the trade route, such as a job in the Royal Signals, or the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, your prospects can open up a great deal. I personally am working towards rejoining the Royal Signals, as a Combat Systems Engineer(I think that's what It will be called anyway, it's being renamed at the moment heh) meaning I will be highly trained in Fixing & maintaining radio & digital communications systems. If you like the idea of the Royal Marines, or any infantry group, you can always go the trade route, and look at doing the all arms commando course, meaning you will be given royal marine training, but you will still be part of your trade group.

It's difficult to talk about this on forums and such, because there are SO many options available to you. Best bet is to do what you're doing, and go speak to a recruiter yourself, find out what you want, have a go on the armyjobs.mod.uk website, try that Pathfinder questionnaire, see what that gives you.

Good luck with what ever you choose to do .

Thank you Ghosteh. I took the Pathfinder questionnaire and came out as a red.

Whats the basic pay like these days in the forces ?

Ghosteh said:

Quick reply to one of your questions as I'm just nipping out. Regarding future prospects after leaving the forces, if you go for infantry, and only do that, your prospects after military life can be slim, because you will be trained in weapons operation, but not a whole deal loads, not what employers are looking for anyway. If you went the trade route, such as a job in the Royal Signals, or the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, your prospects can open up a great deal. I personally am working towards rejoining the Royal Signals, as a Combat Systems Engineer(I think that's what It will be called anyway, it's being renamed at the moment heh) meaning I will be highly trained in Fixing & maintaining radio & digital communications systems. If you like the idea of the Royal Marines, or any infantry group, you can always go the trade route, and look at doing the all arms commando course, meaning you will be given royal marine training, but you will still be part of your trade group.

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I think my dad did something very similar to that, although he was in the RAF (im guessing you were Army?) He went in straight after school, didn't bother with college, but got himself a trade as an engineer. He worked on ground radio comms (never touched aircraft), and during his time was posted to Falklands (not during the war) and Gibraltar. He left in 1992 (year i was born) and has done a few jobs since, some being Fujitsu and Glaxo Smith Kline, but since we have moved, he is now contracted, and commutes to London every day, (company car) and works on the Met police radio comms, similar to what he did in the RAF.

I think he certainly enjoyed his time in the RAF, and it was an experience, but depending on what you want to do, and which force you go into, can depend on the opportunities afterwards. I'm sure having A levels and a Degree will help.

Tuffty

I still think about joining the RMC officer course pretty much daily. One of these days I'll get tired of a comfortable life in a nice town on a good salary and do it.

Whats holding you back platypus?

One question you must really ask yourself is: would you be prepared to go to war and as you say kill another or die. Even if this is not a war you support yourself. Are you prepared to follow lawful orders even though they go against your own politics. If the answer is no then forget it and I do really mean that. If you can say yes then it is worth looking into further. I'll be honest and say people who see this as a good way to gain qualifications or as a day job only infuriate me. I am not saying you are one of these people, it's just an observation I made on some people who were in the forces.

I come from a forces background (my father was in the Air Force for 40 years). I very nearly joined myself on more than one occasion. Unfortunately even though I have the aptitude the trades I was interested in were not available at the time. For me it was all or nothing.

Does any one know of any forums for military staff? So that I might read their discussions and get a deeper insight into forces life.

http://www.arrse.co.uk/ for the Army
http://www.rumration.co.uk/ For Navy/Marines

Dunno what the Air Force one is, but I don't really care for them lol.

http://www.e-goat.co.uk/ for the RAF

Thank you for those. Bump for advice relating to my original post.

If you're chewing over career prospects for joining up the clock's already ticking. For flightcrew with the airforce the cutoff on entry is 23 and a half or thereabouts. A 5-day selection at Cranwell's on the cards if you get through initial sift and Cranwell, as far as I recollect, is a joint services aircrew selection centre. To crack that nut you'd need to start reading upmarket newspapers to improve your literacy, knowledge of current affairs and worldly things. You'll be assessed for your decision making abilities and they'll be looking for 'command initiative'. If you get that far the trick will be to appear outstanding and positively enthusiastic about taking decisions quickly and based on logic. Playacting as Spock should do the business. As with all commissioned slots you'll need to be well-spoken, erudite, proactive and able to front up a board of like-minded serving officers who's sole interest is to figure out whether you meet their requirement. If they catch you out lying or making it up as you go along you'll end up on the bus home.

Your academic qualifications will be scrutinised and your literacy/numeracy etc put to the test. A key tip here is to have a list of achievements and ongoing objectives to keep 'em guessing. There'll be medicals to assess your state of health and any history of illness etc. Asthma, colour blindness, poor vision, hay fever will be against you. They'll be looking for evidence you're fit and active. Language skills are good.

If you can't figure out what 20 percent of 3/5ths of 180 is to the second decimal place in less than a minute you'd better start swotting. If you can't explain the difference between whether and weather and their and there and think that seperate is the way to spell separate, or can't explain the difference between weight and mass you need to wise up or the selection board will wise up for you.

That level of academia doesn't apply throughout military selection but it does with commission selection. Which isn't necessarily all it's cracked up to be, naturally.

Once in you have other options. Remustering is the term applied when you figure you made the wrong choice and want to change trades or services. You might start as an engineering apprentice and change to dental technician. You might want to cross-trade from weapons to admin.

Watch out and be prepared for all the BS that goes with basic training. Months of fitness training, firearms training, education classes, drill, chores, fatigues, yomps, bivouaccing, outdoor survival training, mandatory physical ed, inspections, discipline, cleaning, polishing, more cleaning, and, usually, more cleaning...

Don't forget the plus sides though - further ed for those that want it. Services clubs, trips, tours, voluntary bands, overseas exercises/deployments, some flexibility in posting preference. Cheap digs, discounted service housing, round-the-clock messing, discounted on-camp bars. Regular paychecks that match and often beat civvy street.

By the time you've been through training you'll usually have been transformed from the typical dweeb civvy to someone who's more team-minded and no longer pondering the sanctity of human life when the skank facing you is about to pull the trigger. You'll take for granted the extremely expensive military hardware that surrounds you on a day-to-day basis and realise that it's actually good times - 650 knots at a couple of hundred feet using night vision in a Typhoon's probably got the edge on snowboardin'.... At which point you realise the pain was worth it so you may as well enjoy it.

Plus there's always the backup plan: You can always leave. Realise just how borin' civvy street can be. Then apply to go back. Sorted...

These threads always drive me absolutely nuts, because I'm currently serving and I have to listen to a hundred people on this forum who have never spent a day in the army spout rubbish. I therefore haven't read any posts but the OPs. I may have a look later if I'm in a good mood

I distance myself from the politics, because
a) I don't know who to believe anyway.
b) It makes things easier in terms of looking at getting injured etc.
c) It stops arguements (most of us distance ourselves somewhat).

Thank you jaydee, thats was very insightful. Am I correct to believe your an RAF Pilot?

G'waan Cobra, you know you want to. Scratch that itch.

Well I have narrowed it down to applying to train as a Royal Marine Officer or as a Royal Navy Pilot or Warfare officer. I would be particularly interested in the latter, for opportunities to work in communications and intelligence.

A slight U-turn, but I am applying to train as a Royal Marines Officer. Again any forces people, particularly marines who can offer me some insight into forces life; step forward please.

PlatinumFX said:

A slight U-turn, but I am applying to train as a Royal Marines Officer. Again any forces people, particularly marines who can offer me some insight into forces life; step forward please.

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Random bump, how did this go?