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Should military recruitment be focused on maximizing recruits?

by sethrin 10y ago

gknoy 10y ago
In an all-volunteer military, I think (based on talking to friends who were in the services) the prevailing attitude is that they want to find people who genuinely want to be there. They don't want to waste taxpayer dollars on sending you to boot camp, etc, only to have you wash out because you can't cut it, or to have you be a Crappy Soldier because you don't believe in the mission 100%.
- linkregister 10y ago
  That said, do you expect Google or Facebook to hire recruiters who don't have sales or recruiting backgrounds? Plenty of software developers end up in their jobs after having been approached by recruiters, why does military recruiting have to be fundamentally different?
  - gohrt 10y ago
    Because programmer recruiters are searching for intelligent talented people, people who can walk out if they don't like the job. Military recruiting is capturing suckers, and signing them onto to multi-year contracts.
    - Nrsolis 10y ago
      That's a remarkably bigoted thing to say. Some of the most remarkable people I've ever met have served in the military. Far from being "suckers" they are people who felt a deep desire to serve the country in some capacity. I know at least two people personally who signed up in the Army immediately after 9/11 knowing full well that they would likely be sent to serve in wartime. One of them didn't come back. He was in his 20's. I'm going to suggest to you that you consider your audience much more carefully. I enlisted in the Navy and later graduated from Harvard with a degree in Computer Science. I can assure you that I didn't feel like I got suckered into anything.
    - jimbert 10y ago
      Military recruiters aren't looking for suckers. I think you are misrepresenting the kinds of people that enter the military.
    - linkregister 10y ago
      That isn't a representative description of most recruits. It sounds like your sample size is too small and not representative.
- RUG3Y 10y ago
  Recruiters literally don't care about this at all, the only thing they care about is making their numbers. Here's a story: recruiters in our command who failed to get any recruits in a given period were stood in front of the group in their dress blues and had powdered donuts thrown at them for "rolling a zero." Like most beauracratic organizations, failure to meet metrics is treated harshly, making the recruiter's goals less altruistic than you imagine.

Should military recruitment be focused on maximizing recruits?

by sethrin 10y ago

Should military recruitment be focused on maximizing recruits?

gknoy 10y ago

In an all-volunteer military, I think (based on talking to friends who were in the services) the prevailing attitude is that they want to find people who genuinely want to be there. They don't want to waste taxpayer dollars on sending you to boot camp, etc, only to have you wash out because you can't cut it, or to have you be a Crappy Soldier because you don't believe in the mission 100%.

linkregister 10y ago
That said, do you expect Google or Facebook to hire recruiters who don't have sales or recruiting backgrounds? Plenty of software developers end up in their jobs after having been approached by recruiters, why does military recruiting have to be fundamentally different?
- gohrt 10y ago
  Because programmer recruiters are searching for intelligent talented people, people who can walk out if they don't like the job. Military recruiting is capturing suckers, and signing them onto to multi-year contracts.
  - Nrsolis 10y ago
    That's a remarkably bigoted thing to say. Some of the most remarkable people I've ever met have served in the military. Far from being "suckers" they are people who felt a deep desire to serve the country in some capacity. I know at least two people personally who signed up in the Army immediately after 9/11 knowing full well that they would likely be sent to serve in wartime. One of them didn't come back. He was in his 20's. I'm going to suggest to you that you consider your audience much more carefully. I enlisted in the Navy and later graduated from Harvard with a degree in Computer Science. I can assure you that I didn't feel like I got suckered into anything.
  - jimbert 10y ago
    Military recruiters aren't looking for suckers. I think you are misrepresenting the kinds of people that enter the military.
  - linkregister 10y ago
    That isn't a representative description of most recruits. It sounds like your sample size is too small and not representative.
RUG3Y 10y ago
Recruiters literally don't care about this at all, the only thing they care about is making their numbers. Here's a story: recruiters in our command who failed to get any recruits in a given period were stood in front of the group in their dress blues and had powdered donuts thrown at them for "rolling a zero." Like most beauracratic organizations, failure to meet metrics is treated harshly, making the recruiter's goals less altruistic than you imagine.