The Army

[Drop Test b3nxj]

Hi, Thought this might be the best place to ask.

Seeing as there have been so many redundancies recently, odds are that at least some of you have been affected.

Im 25, have a fair size mortgage, fiancee and our first baby due in 4 weeks.
With jobs in the area i work becoming very rare, if i were to loose my job i'd try to do what ever i can to keep our roof.
but i feel a little bit old, when looking at the jobs in the army website they seem to mostly aimed at teenagers or you need a degree,
one good thing is the pay you for the 14 weeks of basic training.

What i would like to know is, rather than putting yourself on the rock n roll, how many have considered a job in the army? or maybe you've already joined? How have you found it? and how did it affect your family?

Thanks in advance
Ben

[Talksteer]

Drop Test b3nxj said:

Hi, Thought this might be the best place to ask.

Seeing as there have been so many redundancies recently, odds are that at least some of you have been affected.

Im 25, have a fair size mortgage, fiancee and our first baby due in 4 weeks.
With jobs in the area i work becoming very rare, if i were to loose my job i'd try to do what ever i can to keep our roof.
but i feel a little bit old, when looking at the jobs in the army website they seem to mostly aimed at teenagers or you need a degree,
one good thing is the pay you for the 14 weeks of basic training.

What i would like to know is, rather than putting yourself on the rock n roll, how many have considered a job in the army? or maybe you've already joined? How have you found it? and how did it affect your family?

Thanks in advance
Ben

I used to be in the Toy Army but this post isn't particularly from experience. I would suggest that aged 25 with a mortgage you would probably find that forces pay rates would be fairly poor for your situation. Starting pay during training for an non-graduate officer cadet is only 14k, though this rises to 23K on commissioning. Starting pay for a private in training is ~13K going up to 16k when you finish.

As far as the recession goes while we do hear about job losses remember even in the worst recessions only ~1-15 are unemployed at any one time. I would only suggest a career in the forces if you really like the idea not because you are worried about being able to find/keep a job in civilian life.

Joining the forces is likely to involve you having to move out of your area anyway so if you are worried about a lac of jobs in your area consider moving where there are more opportunities.