Hi all! I know this forum doesn't seem to be used for the purpose it states and it is mostly people asking question about joining and such, but I am going to try my luck anyhow! My Husband took recruiting duty out of Oregon and we transfer in October.. Probably not the best decision, but it's a done deal and we are trying to make the best of it... One thing so far that I have noticed is that there is certainly not a wealth of information out there about this job.. If there is, I can't find it. Can anyone point me in the right direction? The home page for our station has a family support link, but most of the information it provides is pretty general.. I would love to know how bad it REALLY is... I mean I hear sometimes they work 12 hour days, but often times now he is working 12 hour days AND has to stand duty, so maybe it depends what your used too??? Anyway, I would love to find people who have experienced this to know what to expect... Also, the office we are based out of has not updated their web site in about a year.. Still lists it's "hot picks" as ones that have been filled for some time.. We are having the darndest time getting ahold of anyone there, or getting an email returned.. We still do not have a sponsor or know where we will be working out of in spite of the fact that my husband got and did his welcome aboard package months ago.. Is this normal? How long after getting sponsored did you get an office? How much trouble was it is to get the office you wanted? Anyway, thank you if anyone can help me!!! Jackie
Jackie, If your husband has not recieved is actual recruiting station location he needs to call the Recruiting District and speak with the Chief Recruiter. The CR is in charge of all the enlisted recruiting in the NRD and assigns the recruiters to NRSs.
Life at the station in readers digest version. Your husband will work for a RINC (recruiter in charge), who works for the Zone Supervisor (think division chief), who works for the CR (division officer), who works for the EPO (department head), XO, CO.
Average "goal" for each recruiter is about 2 per month, making up losses as you go, although the goal is actually set higher than the individual recruiter so a "bad" month (0 or less) won't kill him anymore, unless it becomes a trend.
None of the recruiter I worked with came in before 9 am so he will get to sleep in. Depending on the station is what usually results in longer hours. By this I am referring to taking applicants to MEPS or for testing. If he is farther away from MEPS and has to drive them for processing it can result in very long days.
If you have other specific questions come over to the Navy discussion boards as I don't get over this way. ALso we have several current recruiters who post over there.
A lot of what your life will be like on recruiter duty depends on the zone supervisor. Theyreally make or break the situation. In the 2 1/2 years we have been on recruiter duty we have had two really good zone sups and two really crappy ones. Matter of fact, one of the crappy ones was so bad, all of the spouses were complaining to the ombudsmen about him. He would make the recruiters work until 8 pm every night, every Sat. for 6-8 hours, all while he was at home enjoying his family. He would belittle the recruiters, often in front of other recruiters and even on an open two way in front of their families. We wanted to throw a party when he was replaced!
I do not know how many times I have been woken up at 4am because a DEPer got into some trouble and needed to call my DH. Or--the drunk guy who found my DH's business card and decided at 3 am he wanted to join the Navy.
I had an open mind going into recruiter duty. I will be very glad when it ends.
Your husbands ability to make his assigned activity for each day will dictate his liberty. What I mean be assigned activity is setting appointments/achieving quakified interviews/ and people joining. In a perfect world your husband will want to front load his weeks to work longer Mon, Tues, Wed. Thursday and Friday should be used to make up activity from earlier in the week. Also, by enlisting people early in the month before the 50% mark usually earns people special liberty, but that is up to each district. Bottom line if your husband is bust's his butt and makes and exceeds his goal each month he wil be taken care of.
Thank you all so much for the input! I have to say, we are both pretty optimistic even with all the horror stories! One thing I was wondering, and keep in mind we still have not even started, is we have heard you can terminate shore duty and go back to sea... Is this true for recruiting? Or is this not allowed or damaging to his career since it's special kind of duty? I'm just curious... Thank you!
