Originally Posted by woodandy3

i know a few that went into the prison service!

I know a few that went to prison!

I'm still serving but I'm also a qualified teacher, project manager, I have had some of the best managerial experience imagined and can generally turn my hand to almost anything because that is what the Infantry has taught me - self sufficiency, motivation and the ability to strive for success.

I think for someone who left school with next to nothing I haven't done badly. The reason for this is I've bothered my arrse to do something about my education and got the Army to do something about it too, as well as pay for it. I've also got the Army to pay for a degree level course which I'm studying at the moment.

The good thing about the Army is, if you have the ability and motivation to improve yourself they will help you.

It's very easy to sit on your backside and do nothing but it won't get you anywhere, I wish I'd done something about it earlier.

Surely if you are 27, you will already have some skills and a career history that you can fall back on should you leave after six years?

I joined at 22, after working in sales, and that's what I went back to when I left.

The job market is not the same as it was for our parents generation, where you get stuck in one career stream. So a change of scene in the infantry, would not necessarily stop you going back to what you did before.

The infantry gave me the self confidence to move on, transfer to another corps, learn new skills and I now have my own business.

I am also still proud of having been an infantryman first and foremost!

:D

Rodney2q

The Infantry has helped me firmly establish myself in my new career as the Town Drunk.

I can consume vast quantities of cheap alcohol, sleep in the gutter without discomfort and I don't panic when I wake up in a cell with no memory of how I arrived there. I am a superb scrounger, talented tea leaf and when it comes to random fisticuffs with complete strangers I usually emerge victorious. Magistrates who don't already know me, tend towards leniency when I stand to attention in the dock and address them as 'Sir'.

Seriously though: If you serve in the Infantry you will (have the opportunity to) emerge determined, flexible and unshockable. You will be able to pick yourself back up when life knocks you down, and you'll stay calm in situations that would give other people immediate heart attacks. You will develop a mindset where the job gets done regardless of difficulties and lack of resources. If you have the strength of character to lead and win the respect of a section of Infantry soldiers, you will never lack for confidence and authority wherever you go in life.

Don't believe the stereotypes of thick ex Infantry soldiers working for minimum wage as security guards, factory hands or warehouse staff - plenty do - but there is no inevitability to it.

Nor is the only other option to join the Police or Prison Service - many choose it because they think it will be similar in cerrtain respects to a job they have already enjoyed.

I've done all kinds of interesting and exciting jobs since I left - I also did a few dismal soul destroying ones as well - Civvy Street is a learning curve just like anything else.

Originally Posted by Vimeiro

Surely if you are 27, you will already have some skills and a career history that you can fall back on should you leave after six years?

I joined at 22, after working in sales, and that's what I went back to when I left.

The job market is not the same as it was for our parents generation, where you get stuck in one career stream. So a change of scene in the infantry, would not necessarily stop you going back to what you did before.

No mate, I dont want to go back to a factory, have you tried one??...brain dead work.

Sales?..double glazing, gas & electric....again, shite jobs.

So when your back home you can enrol on a course? How many days per week can you get away for that?

Originally Posted by carlbcfc

Im having a nightmare picking my 1, 2, 3 at the moment. I know 1, but struggling for the rest due to lack of options right now.

Whats your 1st choice?

Originally Posted by carlbcfc

My first choice is Comms System Operator. If Infantry is 10 for contact, where would Comms be?

I know Afghanistan is dangerous for all at the moment but if you understand what I mean.

You can be a signaller in the infantry, right up where the action is. You get NVQs for each step of your trade training and I know a few that joined BT on the back of it. You can also get management NVQs, as with each step up the ranks you manage more and more.

Infantry signalling tends to be more mobile and the skills required are different from the more static Royal Sigs. As an infantry signaller you have to be on the top of your game, esp on ops, as everyone around you depends on comms for just about everything from ammo & casevacs to water & rat packs.

Originally Posted by carlbcfc

Originally Posted by Vimeiro

Surely if you are 27, you will already have some skills and a career history that you can fall back on should you leave after six years?

I joined at 22, after working in sales, and that's what I went back to when I left.

The job market is not the same as it was for our parents generation, where you get stuck in one career stream. So a change of scene in the infantry, would not necessarily stop you going back to what you did before.

No mate, I dont want to go back to a factory, have you tried one??...brain dead work.

Sales?..double glazing, gas & electric....again, shite jobs.

So when your back home you can enrol on a course? How many days per week can you get away for that?

Yes I have done factory work, and cover as a bin man. Both jobs, I know I wouldn't want to go back too, which is why I studied to take on a 'better' job.

Being in the infantry will not hold you back, you will find stereotypes, but in the varied roles within a battalion there are many jobs that require a brain, and not just the signals platoon.

My point is, joining the Army can be like being assimilated by the Borg, but you need to treat it to some extent like just another job that puts bread on the table, with good days and bad, but reading between the lines of your post, I think that's how you see it.

Cheers for the advice.

This where I will end up if I go infantry being from Birmingham?

3 Mercian

My grandad was in the Sherwoods but they are 2 Mecian and do not recruit in Brum it says.

...edited..i meant 2