Looking for a little advice

[Beefpatty]

I'm looking towards the army as a career, but I'm having a hard time choosing between reserves and reg. forces.

Just a little information about me;
I'm 20 years old, and 2 years out of high school, with no post-secondary education.  I have no previous involvement in any form of military and I'm basically looking for a career I can build on.  I don't mind being away from home  and being sent over seas doesn't sound bad at all.
I have always had an interest in the armed forces (infantry in particular) but now that I have decided to take a few steps towards the military, I'm not exactly sure if I should test the reserves first, or head straight into reg.

Any advice?

(Edit: I took out the question I had. I found the answer but I'm still looking for a little advice from people who had to make the same choice I have to make )

 

[George Wallace]

Well, if you find a good Reserve unit you can trial the waters there.  If you don't you can go Regular Force as many on these forums are doing.  Many of your questions can be answered in some of the threads that are running here.  There is a 'Search' Function at the top of the page that may be of assistance, if you can pick out key words of what you want to ask.  99.99999% of the questions have been asked and answered somewhere here.

 

[Spitfire]

im in the same boat man. only thing holding me back is do i go reserves first.

 

[Daidalous]

If you do go reserve , you must complete your basic training then your trades training before you are allowed to  Apply for the reg force.  Which means you pretty much have to do all your testing all over again,  Unless you are on class "B" time, when you go Reg,  you only get  1/4 of the time towards your rank and pension.  So pretty much if you spend  1 year in the reserve, when you switch over you might end up with only  4-5 months served, instead of a full year.  If you are looking for a part time job, go reservee.  If you want a full time job with a garentied pay check 2 times a month go Reg Force. 

 

[tykotyko]

hey, im a litle young but i was told by my recruiter that you should join the reserves to see how well you enjoy army life. then if you think it is for you then you should transfer to the regs. but thats waht he said, its all up to you 

 

[ThatsLife]

Thing is...if you rely on the reserves to give you a 'taste' of military life...it's sort of like...hmm...here's an example (from what I think it would be like...just from what i've read on these forums)

You're training to be a long distance runner for a 100 mile race...you run 2.4k one weekend a month.....when the racing day finally arrives, you'll find out that the 2.4.k one weekend a month wasn't even in the same ball game as the 100 mile race.

That's basically what I think using the reserves as an excuse to get a 'taste' of military life is like. The reserves are for people that have full time jobs/careers they don't want to leave, students that are going to highschool/post-secondary/secondary school but still want to be in the military on the side. If you truly want to be a soldier and you have the ability to go full-time, I say do it because you'll regret it if you don't. I was originally going to go Reserves, but the only reason I was going to go Reserves is because of my girlfriend..she pulled guilt trips on me, cried, punched me (she still does)..I knew I was making a mistake that I would regret later on in life. People on army.ca made me realize this and actually made me realize I have to balls to do it...so I transfered from Reserves to Regular, and 3 weeks later i'm heading off to Basic Training [BMQ] and I leave in 12 days!  ;D

I say do what you think is right...

 

[tykotyko]

You're training to be a long distance runner for a 100 mile race...you run 2.4k one weekend a month.....when the racing day finally arrives, you'll find out that the 2.4.k one weekend a month wasn't even in the same ball game as the 100 mile race.

id say its better to run a little bit than to not run at all before the race. if you know what i mean

 

[armyvern]

my girlfriend..she pulled guilt trips on me, cried, punched me (she still does)..

Please don't tell me you put up with this?? What if it was the other way around?? Where do you think you'd be right now?? I don't think this is acceptable from either side of the fence.