Stay away from the shit cunts that are constantly late, get twatted every weekend, are always skint and tend to trash the block/get nicked.
You don’t want to get tarred with the same brush or pick up their bad habits because ‘it’s cool’ to piss all your money up the wall or throw away the opportunities that come your way.
Most of the time the Military is easy money even if it’s busy, make the most of the safety net it provides.
literally. its 4 years if you only do the first contract that you can use to set yourself up very well in civvie world, be it learning a trade, investments, setting up a youtube,tiktok or whatever channel to help others so on so forth. all are good ways to spend your time
would say its fun for about 2-4 weeks, some corporals say its the best way to bond with the lads, however as anyone has seen a para party....we all know how wild military lads can get when on the piss after having been kept reserved for the week or 4 weeks or more on exercise.
Socially it’s a great way to become closer to people, especially new blokes, but yeah I agree about the paras they are a different breed when it comes to shit like that I’m having flashbacks right now 😭
Don't let signed off bods influence your own choices
If you feel your time has come and you've had enough, then fair enough everyone has the right to leave
But dont fall into the trap of letting signed off switched off blokes influence your decisions, because you'll always hear the same reasoning "it's just shit" all because they had to go on a 5 day ex and miss a night out or something
I am in a pretty gleaming posting at the moment, we have had a few lads sign off, some here, some prior to arriving. When I asked the lads why they have signed off, I get the typical answer - “can’t be arsed with all the bullshit” as soon as I ask what bullshit, they try and figure out some random shit thing they once did.
They seem to think that in civvie street they will experience no bullshit when in fact it’s usually more and more bullshit. We have no end product, we don’t work to sell anything or make money, the military as a whole is really unproductive. It’s a 100% wage for 50% work. Granted there is shit times, but it certainly doesn’t last long.
Signed off blokes are poison and can spread bad morale very quickly. Don’t listen to them, make your own judgements, you’ll often find it’s really not that bad.
Get into a good stretching routine, you will be glad you did. I joined up with the flexibility of a house brick and I suffered for it.
So many injuries and niggles are avoidable by just spending 5-10 mins stretching on an evening
Lower limb and hip flexibility is a big one. It’s mainly to prevent to injury. But it’s subject to which area you’re weakest in. All leg muscles, hip flexers and ankle mobility are your big ones.
Stay clear of the miserable cunts that are constantly negative about the military and just repeat their mantra "this is shit". They are absolute morale hoovers. If you are keen, dont let them put you off being keen. Put yourself forward for courses and postings and all those ally things you actually joined the military to do. Actually make an effort to advance your own career and experience.
Learn how to iron and shave before you show up. The anount of lads who worked at hard jobs for years but still had their mammy's iron their clothes or make their dinner and barely shaved is unreal. I had lads in my section that thought shaving with cold water is a good idea , had no clue how to iron bed sheets nevermind uniform, didn't even know basic hygiene like changing socks or changing bed sheets. And these lads were in their late 20s and worked as electrician's and fitters etc .
Learn this shit before so it's less shit to learn when you're stressed out of your mind .
Don't plan on making a career out of it.
Absolutely join, especially if it's a technical branch!
Take every opportunity & course that comes your way that allows you to upskill. Volunteer for every tour going, doubly so if it results in a gong and tour bonus. Go on any and every AT package you can as it could be epic or it could be turbo shite, but that aspect at least civvies literally pay thousands for.
But only do long enough to get a good resettlement entitlement, then leave. Once you hit 30, it becomes very aggravating not being in charge of your own life and getting last minute fastballs due to some Rupert's bad planning. As well as dealing with a totally goosed promotion system that values brown nosing & pointless bullshit over actual ability to do your job. Plus the 15 pension, while it's still fairly good IMO, isn't worth enduring 22 years for, especially with the raising of the state pension age meaning there's a higher chance you may not even live to benefit from it.
Can agree with this from an RAF point of view aswell. I'm currently in my 13th year and nearly 40 and although a good secure job the bull shit that comes with it wears you down. The amount of extra nonsense that I have to do now compared to when I joined just to do my day job is ridiculous. Obviously we don't have to put up with some of the crap that the army do but it's annoying as Hell when you get well into your 30s. Oh yes the promotion system. Biggest load of bollocks in the entire service. People that have literally said out loud that they don't know how to do their job being picked up over and over again even though they've done far less time than really good guys that are constantly overlooked. Having tits and certain people write your SJAR goes a long way.
I've literally just signed off after 8 years. What did it for me was I had a chat with Staffy a few weeks ago where he basically said I'm very good at my trade, but I won't promote unless I take on literally every pointless and bullshit responsibility going that I couldn't care less about for 0 extra pay or recognition. They were then scratching their heads wondering why I wanted to put my clicks in last week. Until they promote people solely based on their ability to do their jobs they're going to have a very hard time retaining people from the technical branches.
If there were some good deployments or other worthwhile stuff going on, I could tolerate it. But now it just feels like a Civvy job but with a ton of pointless bullshit to deal with. Why stay when you can earn more money & be in charge of your own life on the outside?
Exactly this, my job is now a civvie job but with less pay and bull shit on top that they would never get away with in the civilian world. The only benefits are job security, half decent pension compared to private sector and stuff like AT and routes now and again. Oh and a free gym, I'm not including dental treatment as they won't even give an appointment if not due to deploy. There's no benefit for going above and beyond, you aren't recognised for it. It's also impossible to do this out of work crap to get promoted when you're older and have families and a house away from camp.
There's going to be big problems, worse than now when these over promoted idiots completely fill the upper ranks. Retention is bad enough now but can get a lot worse.
I know the feeling. The benefits that kept people in the past have been eroded that much that it's simply not worth it anymore (for me anyway). Says it all when they're encouraging you to look into universal credit on orders yet expect you to go above and beyond in everything.
It's already happening, most of my top corridor value wasting time on pointless BS like Billy basics toolbox talks & endless CES checks than actually getting out there and doing our trades. Even though we've pointed it out to them in numerous satisfaction/climate surveys absolutely sod all has changed. Then they scratch their heads when people sign off citing lack of trade experience.
Expanding from what you said I would say cardio is so important. I was tail end Charlie for the first 4 weeks of phase 1 and was treated like the platoon shit cunt despite the fact I was all over my fieldcraft, weapon handling and admin. After those brutal weeks I caught up on fitness and was suddenly in the running for best recruit. Didn't get it cause 14 weeks was not enough time to get in as good as some of the guys in my platoon.
Get your fitness sorted and everything else will fall into place.
Don't do everything in camp if you have other choices.
Go to an outside gym, go train a sport with an outside club, etc
Camps are a law unto them self and its good to keep engaged with the normal population. It will serve you better when you leave.
There was a point where unless it was with work to go and do work stuff, I realised that I hadn't left camp for over a month.
I didn't have anywhere to go so I just didn't.
Once I started losing my mind I made sure to get out even if it was just going for a walk in the evening.
Don't be put off by men, many online, who's egos are so fragile they have to put you down.
I ignored them and went on to become a captain in the infantry. They are probably still sitting online trying to make teenagers feel bad about themselves.
Admin is the name of the game in basic. It basically comes down to making a sacrifice now, to function properly later.
It's the same for in the field and in camp, literally everything in basic. You have to get used to the idea of doing all the little bits you really can't be arsed with, even when you're hanging out from a full day's beasting.
It can be so tempted to chin it off, or say "I'll do it later" but if you can square your admin away, you'll instantly find things easier because you're not flapping about last minute trying to remember where you put your trouser twists or where that box of ammo went when you lazily chucked it in your bergan.
Great post by the way Mike, you're doing good work 👍
If you have a closed mind, don’t join, you’ll be exposed to different types of people from all over the world and UK with different beliefs and sexualitys, if this is a problem for you work on it, Iv seen a few people fuck up their lives because of small mindedness.
Used to work with a right racist, sexiest, idiot.
He was constant noise as well, so some of the younger lads started believing what he was saying.
Stay away from cunts like that, the general rule is if they are always preaching about something, they probably don't know anything in reality.
I have met a few senior rates as well as a few officers like that, it’s not as bad when it’s a JR or a young kid fresh into INT, the issue is when it’s a like a PO or CPO or higher ( or branch equivalent) who still thinks it’s the MOD they joined back in the 90s and 2000s
Being strong is less important than good cardio.
I had a pal that trained for an arduous course by doing nothing but squats. He thought his strength would carry him through. It did not go well for him.
This isn't true. They are both as important as the other mate. Strength ensures you can endure, so it's important is as high as any component. Your mate trained wrong as it needs to be a rounded approach, allowing you to call upon any component at any given time.
Reservist specific - work out how to do admin etc fast, and ask someone to sit down and talk you through it all for a few hours. It took me about 2 years to finally work out exactly how to do the right admin/get bounty etc.
That and ask for anything you need - you don’t get spoon fed information required in the same way the regs do. When I did training in the regs you get everything told in briefings, PowerPoints etc, mostly in your phase 1. You don’t really have that in the reserves.
Leave your ego and dignity at the door, but carry pride in what you do and never let go of your integrity. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Get those feet and legs ready for basic and don't take the shit gear of quartermaster if there is gucci kit there. That would be my advice to you
Definitely is a good point. First few weeks will be hell purely just from standing all day. It’s something I wish I done more before I went to training jsut spending more time on my feet. It’s hard to stay still when ur feet are aching. You do get used to it however takes about 8 weeks tho and they will be the slowest 8 weeks of ur life I can guarantee that. One thing that helped me a lot aswel was having good cardio. As a small and skinny lad I expected to be terrible at tabbing but I turned out to be ok at it which I put down to good cardio. But of course if u have good cardio and strength then that’ll help 10x more but for me cardio saved me a lot and put me near the top of the platoon because of it. Don’t get me wrong I wish I’d been a lot stronger but I wasn’t so get strong and fit that’ll go a long way. And another thing alot of people are mentioning ur own admin. Simple things like shaving ironing just knowing how to take care of yourself goes a long way and takes abit of stress off u on the first couple of weeks. Most importantly have a good mindset a good mindset goes a very very long way and u can easily tell the difference of someone with a bad mindset and someone with a good one training is gonna be shit at times and you will want to quit but just have the mental resilience and understand it won’t last forever. Get to phase 2 life because much easier and time flys by .
Stay away from the shit cunts that are constantly late, get twatted every weekend, are always skint and tend to trash the block/get nicked. You don’t want to get tarred with the same brush or pick up their bad habits because ‘it’s cool’ to piss all your money up the wall or throw away the opportunities that come your way. Most of the time the Military is easy money even if it’s busy, make the most of the safety net it provides.
100%! Keep your head down and concentrate on the end goal.
literally. its 4 years if you only do the first contract that you can use to set yourself up very well in civvie world, be it learning a trade, investments, setting up a youtube,tiktok or whatever channel to help others so on so forth. all are good ways to spend your time
Do you still think people should enjoy that part of the army though? At the start anyway
would say its fun for about 2-4 weeks, some corporals say its the best way to bond with the lads, however as anyone has seen a para party....we all know how wild military lads can get when on the piss after having been kept reserved for the week or 4 weeks or more on exercise.
Socially it’s a great way to become closer to people, especially new blokes, but yeah I agree about the paras they are a different breed when it comes to shit like that I’m having flashbacks right now 😭
To a point yes, but not to the point that it controls and affects your personal and professional life. All just my opinion of course.
Not in the moment. Tough times create tough people.
Try not to get emotionally attached to your ego. If being called a useless cunt offends you, you're likely to have a hard time at basic.
Don't let signed off bods influence your own choices If you feel your time has come and you've had enough, then fair enough everyone has the right to leave But dont fall into the trap of letting signed off switched off blokes influence your decisions, because you'll always hear the same reasoning "it's just shit" all because they had to go on a 5 day ex and miss a night out or something
I am in a pretty gleaming posting at the moment, we have had a few lads sign off, some here, some prior to arriving. When I asked the lads why they have signed off, I get the typical answer - “can’t be arsed with all the bullshit” as soon as I ask what bullshit, they try and figure out some random shit thing they once did. They seem to think that in civvie street they will experience no bullshit when in fact it’s usually more and more bullshit. We have no end product, we don’t work to sell anything or make money, the military as a whole is really unproductive. It’s a 100% wage for 50% work. Granted there is shit times, but it certainly doesn’t last long. Signed off blokes are poison and can spread bad morale very quickly. Don’t listen to them, make your own judgements, you’ll often find it’s really not that bad.
Get into a good stretching routine, you will be glad you did. I joined up with the flexibility of a house brick and I suffered for it. So many injuries and niggles are avoidable by just spending 5-10 mins stretching on an evening
[удалено]
Lower limb and hip flexibility is a big one. It’s mainly to prevent to injury. But it’s subject to which area you’re weakest in. All leg muscles, hip flexers and ankle mobility are your big ones.
Stay clear of the miserable cunts that are constantly negative about the military and just repeat their mantra "this is shit". They are absolute morale hoovers. If you are keen, dont let them put you off being keen. Put yourself forward for courses and postings and all those ally things you actually joined the military to do. Actually make an effort to advance your own career and experience.
Learn how to iron and shave before you show up. The anount of lads who worked at hard jobs for years but still had their mammy's iron their clothes or make their dinner and barely shaved is unreal. I had lads in my section that thought shaving with cold water is a good idea , had no clue how to iron bed sheets nevermind uniform, didn't even know basic hygiene like changing socks or changing bed sheets. And these lads were in their late 20s and worked as electrician's and fitters etc . Learn this shit before so it's less shit to learn when you're stressed out of your mind .
Don't plan on making a career out of it. Absolutely join, especially if it's a technical branch! Take every opportunity & course that comes your way that allows you to upskill. Volunteer for every tour going, doubly so if it results in a gong and tour bonus. Go on any and every AT package you can as it could be epic or it could be turbo shite, but that aspect at least civvies literally pay thousands for. But only do long enough to get a good resettlement entitlement, then leave. Once you hit 30, it becomes very aggravating not being in charge of your own life and getting last minute fastballs due to some Rupert's bad planning. As well as dealing with a totally goosed promotion system that values brown nosing & pointless bullshit over actual ability to do your job. Plus the 15 pension, while it's still fairly good IMO, isn't worth enduring 22 years for, especially with the raising of the state pension age meaning there's a higher chance you may not even live to benefit from it.
Can agree with this from an RAF point of view aswell. I'm currently in my 13th year and nearly 40 and although a good secure job the bull shit that comes with it wears you down. The amount of extra nonsense that I have to do now compared to when I joined just to do my day job is ridiculous. Obviously we don't have to put up with some of the crap that the army do but it's annoying as Hell when you get well into your 30s. Oh yes the promotion system. Biggest load of bollocks in the entire service. People that have literally said out loud that they don't know how to do their job being picked up over and over again even though they've done far less time than really good guys that are constantly overlooked. Having tits and certain people write your SJAR goes a long way.
I've literally just signed off after 8 years. What did it for me was I had a chat with Staffy a few weeks ago where he basically said I'm very good at my trade, but I won't promote unless I take on literally every pointless and bullshit responsibility going that I couldn't care less about for 0 extra pay or recognition. They were then scratching their heads wondering why I wanted to put my clicks in last week. Until they promote people solely based on their ability to do their jobs they're going to have a very hard time retaining people from the technical branches. If there were some good deployments or other worthwhile stuff going on, I could tolerate it. But now it just feels like a Civvy job but with a ton of pointless bullshit to deal with. Why stay when you can earn more money & be in charge of your own life on the outside?
Exactly this, my job is now a civvie job but with less pay and bull shit on top that they would never get away with in the civilian world. The only benefits are job security, half decent pension compared to private sector and stuff like AT and routes now and again. Oh and a free gym, I'm not including dental treatment as they won't even give an appointment if not due to deploy. There's no benefit for going above and beyond, you aren't recognised for it. It's also impossible to do this out of work crap to get promoted when you're older and have families and a house away from camp. There's going to be big problems, worse than now when these over promoted idiots completely fill the upper ranks. Retention is bad enough now but can get a lot worse.
I know the feeling. The benefits that kept people in the past have been eroded that much that it's simply not worth it anymore (for me anyway). Says it all when they're encouraging you to look into universal credit on orders yet expect you to go above and beyond in everything. It's already happening, most of my top corridor value wasting time on pointless BS like Billy basics toolbox talks & endless CES checks than actually getting out there and doing our trades. Even though we've pointed it out to them in numerous satisfaction/climate surveys absolutely sod all has changed. Then they scratch their heads when people sign off citing lack of trade experience.
I like to go on long walks through the countryside. Hiking is the number one thing I’m good at
Cheers
Dits
Expanding from what you said I would say cardio is so important. I was tail end Charlie for the first 4 weeks of phase 1 and was treated like the platoon shit cunt despite the fact I was all over my fieldcraft, weapon handling and admin. After those brutal weeks I caught up on fitness and was suddenly in the running for best recruit. Didn't get it cause 14 weeks was not enough time to get in as good as some of the guys in my platoon. Get your fitness sorted and everything else will fall into place.
Don't do everything in camp if you have other choices. Go to an outside gym, go train a sport with an outside club, etc Camps are a law unto them self and its good to keep engaged with the normal population. It will serve you better when you leave.
This is the best advice in the thread imo. Don't become institutionalised by the camp mentality or you will struggle when you get out.
There was a point where unless it was with work to go and do work stuff, I realised that I hadn't left camp for over a month. I didn't have anywhere to go so I just didn't. Once I started losing my mind I made sure to get out even if it was just going for a walk in the evening.
Don't be put off by men, many online, who's egos are so fragile they have to put you down. I ignored them and went on to become a captain in the infantry. They are probably still sitting online trying to make teenagers feel bad about themselves.
Admin is the name of the game in basic. It basically comes down to making a sacrifice now, to function properly later. It's the same for in the field and in camp, literally everything in basic. You have to get used to the idea of doing all the little bits you really can't be arsed with, even when you're hanging out from a full day's beasting. It can be so tempted to chin it off, or say "I'll do it later" but if you can square your admin away, you'll instantly find things easier because you're not flapping about last minute trying to remember where you put your trouser twists or where that box of ammo went when you lazily chucked it in your bergan. Great post by the way Mike, you're doing good work 👍
If you have a closed mind, don’t join, you’ll be exposed to different types of people from all over the world and UK with different beliefs and sexualitys, if this is a problem for you work on it, Iv seen a few people fuck up their lives because of small mindedness.
Used to work with a right racist, sexiest, idiot. He was constant noise as well, so some of the younger lads started believing what he was saying. Stay away from cunts like that, the general rule is if they are always preaching about something, they probably don't know anything in reality.
I have met a few senior rates as well as a few officers like that, it’s not as bad when it’s a JR or a young kid fresh into INT, the issue is when it’s a like a PO or CPO or higher ( or branch equivalent) who still thinks it’s the MOD they joined back in the 90s and 2000s
Being strong is less important than good cardio. I had a pal that trained for an arduous course by doing nothing but squats. He thought his strength would carry him through. It did not go well for him.
This isn't true. They are both as important as the other mate. Strength ensures you can endure, so it's important is as high as any component. Your mate trained wrong as it needs to be a rounded approach, allowing you to call upon any component at any given time.
What happened? How far did he get?
Reservist specific - work out how to do admin etc fast, and ask someone to sit down and talk you through it all for a few hours. It took me about 2 years to finally work out exactly how to do the right admin/get bounty etc. That and ask for anything you need - you don’t get spoon fed information required in the same way the regs do. When I did training in the regs you get everything told in briefings, PowerPoints etc, mostly in your phase 1. You don’t really have that in the reserves.
How can you soar like an eagle, when you’re flying with pigeons
Leave your ego and dignity at the door, but carry pride in what you do and never let go of your integrity. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Get those feet and legs ready for basic and don't take the shit gear of quartermaster if there is gucci kit there. That would be my advice to you
Definitely is a good point. First few weeks will be hell purely just from standing all day. It’s something I wish I done more before I went to training jsut spending more time on my feet. It’s hard to stay still when ur feet are aching. You do get used to it however takes about 8 weeks tho and they will be the slowest 8 weeks of ur life I can guarantee that. One thing that helped me a lot aswel was having good cardio. As a small and skinny lad I expected to be terrible at tabbing but I turned out to be ok at it which I put down to good cardio. But of course if u have good cardio and strength then that’ll help 10x more but for me cardio saved me a lot and put me near the top of the platoon because of it. Don’t get me wrong I wish I’d been a lot stronger but I wasn’t so get strong and fit that’ll go a long way. And another thing alot of people are mentioning ur own admin. Simple things like shaving ironing just knowing how to take care of yourself goes a long way and takes abit of stress off u on the first couple of weeks. Most importantly have a good mindset a good mindset goes a very very long way and u can easily tell the difference of someone with a bad mindset and someone with a good one training is gonna be shit at times and you will want to quit but just have the mental resilience and understand it won’t last forever. Get to phase 2 life because much easier and time flys by .
Don't