End of the Year Reflections
I see light at the end of the tunnel! And I believe it is daylight and not the headlight of an oncoming train. My poor kids look at me when I come in the door and say "who are you?"
OK, I am nearing the end of our recruiting year. I have a lot of leads, very few of them are qualified but hey I am SUPER RECRUITER I will find a way to put these people in boots! Right? Wrong.
I am pretty good at what I do. I am a technician by civilian trade. I love to fix things. I always have. When I was a kid I was taking things apart trying to figure out how they worked. I also would try and fix broken things and occassionally I would! Like the time I found the loose wire in the iron in the trash. My mom was thrilled.
OK, so I look at my applicants like that. What's broke? How do we fix it? The goal is getting them trough MEPS and into the Guard. But is it?
I worked really hard getting a few people in and most of them turned out to be a bad bet.
I had the fellow that dropped out of Marine Corps Boot Camp 10 years ago. This time he shipped to Army Basic and didn't make it through the first week before he was being sent home.
Another really really wanted to serve. That is until his parents bought him a brand new truck and threatened to cut off the money for college and take away the truck if he shipped. Nice.
So upon reflection I think I am going to focus on QUALITY and not quantity this year. Don't get me wrong, there about 30 others I am very proud I helped to enlist and serve. However I am going to be just a little more picky.
OK, I am nearing the end of our recruiting year. I have a lot of leads, very few of them are qualified but hey I am SUPER RECRUITER I will find a way to put these people in boots! Right? Wrong.
I am pretty good at what I do. I am a technician by civilian trade. I love to fix things. I always have. When I was a kid I was taking things apart trying to figure out how they worked. I also would try and fix broken things and occassionally I would! Like the time I found the loose wire in the iron in the trash. My mom was thrilled.
OK, so I look at my applicants like that. What's broke? How do we fix it? The goal is getting them trough MEPS and into the Guard. But is it?
I worked really hard getting a few people in and most of them turned out to be a bad bet.
I had the fellow that dropped out of Marine Corps Boot Camp 10 years ago. This time he shipped to Army Basic and didn't make it through the first week before he was being sent home.
Another really really wanted to serve. That is until his parents bought him a brand new truck and threatened to cut off the money for college and take away the truck if he shipped. Nice.
So upon reflection I think I am going to focus on QUALITY and not quantity this year. Don't get me wrong, there about 30 others I am very proud I helped to enlist and serve. However I am going to be just a little more picky.
posted by SGT Lori at 20:27
5 Comments:
I used to feel really sorry for recruiters when I was in the Marines during the 1970's and 1980's. It is a very high pressure job.
A good plan. One of these days one of the recruits you put in may be your driver or gunner. Or mine... :-)
Back when I was a recruiter (you know, it never gets old saying that!) I had a readiness NCO say that I should focus on more quality recruits. He and I would get in very big arguements about the whole thing - then one day I was finally able to get him to see my side of things.
If you look at our job description (can't remember which reg it's in but I remember bookmarking it at PEC and it came in handy) it clearly states that our job is to process qualified applicants. Qualified mentally, physically, and morally. That's it in a nutshell. Our job is not to be the moral compass of the Army National Guard. Who are we to judge really? We're not taught that at PEC. We're not the one who determines what the qualifications are. We just know the qualifications and process qualified applicants - it's not up to us to decide who is going to be a good soldier and who isn't. The beautiful thing about the Army is that they assigned that job to somebody else! We determine qualifications, then MEPS sees if they're really qualified. Then when they go to BCT it's the drill sergeant's job to decide if they're going to be a good soldier or not.
In the end, you can find one reason or another to say somebody isn't a good enough quality to enlist - soon you'll be pulling your hair out saying "I can't find anybody to enlist!"
I was proud every time I enlisted somebody. Sure there were a few that I thought - "man, this kid is a piece of work! I'm glad they're not going into my unit!" And sometimes I was right - the kid turned out to be a shit-bag. But sometimes I was dead wrong and they turned out to be a great soldier. And that's why it's not our job to judge.
That's my two cents. Not saying what you're doing is right or wrong. What'd you make for mission this year? 32?
Ugh!! Gardsman...you are right. I will have to find tht reg. I need to be able to quote it chapter and verse.
I put 35 people into the Guard this year.
edit... correction, I put in 32 people. I am sandbagging 3 for next year.
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