re: New military recruit jobs when signing up?

quote:

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i want to kind of defend recruiters here a little...
... if a recruiter is outright lying, then frick him. but 99% of "my recruiter lied to me" stories are really "i was too dumb to do my own research or ask the right questions".

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That's largely fair.

I mean, it sounds like Darth had a legit liar / bad actor... whether that guy was just pissed because a certain slot meant a better bonus or some other reason. But every profession (lawyers, mechanics, doctors, salesmen, etc) has their share of honorable and less than honorable people.

Salesmen (including recruiters) often feel pressure from quotas that make them cut corners and frame things in ways that seem dishonest-- accentuating pros and minimizing cons-- in order to get a signature. When things work out well for the recruit, no harm no foul. When there's buyer's remorse... like the guy who thinks he's getting avionics but is basically a gas station attendant, the recruiter is the bad guy (sometimes fairly / sometimes not). The nature of the gig is regrettably such that sometimes recruiters will take advantage of some recruits who aren't savvy enough to advocate for themselves.

Fwiw, I wasn't a recruiter, but did a brief stint for approx a month as a recruiter's assistant after USMC bootcamp & MCT. I worked for the same Sgt who recruited me, who I liked well enough and was honest enough with me. So, I know they aren't all bad. And I have an appreciation for what they do: my boss had me cold calling all day sometimes and helping out with some of kids who were borderline qualifiers (like you described elsewhere) which were a potential waste of time for him. For me, there was no pressure and I mostly enjoyed it as a break. For him, he was generally cool, but I could sense a bit of impatience at times-- a function of pressure / quotas I'm sure.