The whole "one weekend a month, two weeks a year" mentality is long gone in the Reserves. As you rank up, the more you are pulled into other tasks, responsibilities (reports, emails, fixing problems, conference calls, drill weekend planning, etc). Make sure you always submit at least non-paid drill requests so that your between-drill-weekend time gets accounted for. It may not sound like much, but those non paid drills add up and factor into your retirement pension. Ask for paid additional drills and then if not available, request non-paid drills. If your Command still won't approve non-paid drills (which would be surprising), then look for another Reserve job and ask those same questions when you are job/billet shopping.
When I took command of my old company in 2020, I basically worked full-time for the army for part-time pay. I was so fortunate my civilian employer at the time was a veteran and understood why I had to leave sometimes to put out fires.
The key to having a good reservist career is to be assigned to a good reserve unit. The unit you are assigned to is "EVERYTHING". If you are assigned to a crappy unit, you will end up hating being in the reserves.
I am a truck driver right now and doing very well financially. I’ve considered going reserve as a 88m. Not for money but for a challenge,physical fitness, serving the country among other reasons . Perhaps have a GI my son can use in the future. Extra pension would be nice at 60 when we retire from work
I came really close in 2018 to.joing active duty army and going for 88 mike. I was actually able to get my cdl in 2022. I actually want to join the air force national guard or the air force reserves.
Don’t. You’re going to be limited and unable to bid money making jobs because the military will get in the way. Also realize your pension in the Reserve/Guard is based on points. 1 point = 1 reserve period (e.g. drill, AFTP, RMP…reserve duty) or 1 active duty day. Your monthly retirement will be: (points accrued) / 7200 X 0.5 X your monthly active duty pay for your rank & years. Example E-7 20 year reservist: 3400 pts/ 7200= 0.472 0.472 x 0.5 = 0.236 0.235 x $5757.90 = $1359.50/mo Sure it’s something but you’d be better hustling and putting the time time working more and investing it in the S&P 500 in your SEP IRA
@@randomjunk9934 Ok, don't you see how you advised him solely from a financial perspective? That's the wrong way to look at serving in the U.S. military. Any branch. Waterboy would also get paid for training in his industry, certifications, and benefits such as medical and education. Now, what the recruiters usually suck at relaying to new recruits is the unique experiences and camaraderie a soldier experiences with others working through tough assignments. The build character assignments. That's what I miss from my Air Force career. The friends for life I still have. I just don't see them as much now. Your formulas are accurate based on the points and for a theoretical E-7 20 year reservist. What you failed to mention is the GI Bill which is easily worth over $100K for tuition and stipends. Transferable to dependents after a set period. Depending on how much consecutive duty, let's say over 30 days when active duty benefits activate, then full time military benefits kick in. Other benefits include lower cost home loans, life insurance, disability comp, retirement (pension). I mean these benefits are just ridiculously awesome. Extremely hard to find a civilian/private sector employer that would cover most of these benefits at the ENTRY level. Most of these benefits are well entrenched into the military culture and contract - aka extremely hard, taking acts of Congress and the Pentagon, to sweep away. Private sector can totally drop your benefits with little notice. They do it all the time no matter how much loyalty you give. Having said all this, a person shouldn't consider joining like the Army LT. said just for some benefits. Looking to take, take, take, but not wanting to give and grind. You will be a poor fit. Not being open minded to tough and new experiences, cultures, working with many types of people.
Im a teenager and this is the best explanation ive ever had. I plan on going to trade school first and then getting a career in a trade to pair with the guard.
The Reserves is quite different than active duty, in some ways not as good as others. Almost anyone that comes over from active duty is an asset to the Reserves to say the least.
I really appreciate this video. I was recently given a tentative job offer with the State Department, but I'm also looking into joining the Army Reserves because, like you, I've always wanted to do some kind of military service. I really hope if I actually end up joining the Reserves, I can complete the training while also being able to be in line for this job with the State Department. You really gave some great insight in this video, I'll take my verification test for the Reserves tomorrow and you helped put my mind at ease.
That's great to hear, and with a federal job there is almost always more leniency and understanding from both employers compared to private sector opportunities, irrespective of USERRA
This video addresses the exact issues that I've been wanting to talk to current reservists about (unfortunately I don't know anyone in the reserves). As a software engineer with a strong career trajectory in my current job, I've been concerned about jeopardizing my career advancement by taking on such a large and unrelated commitment. I am a bit skeptical about the "1 weekend per month" advertised schedule because I find it hard to believe that one can maintain true proficiency with such small exposure to a complex job. Your discussion of context switching confirmed for me that the reserves really is a larger commitment than advertised. I have some thinking to do to decide if being an officer in the reserves is a path I want to go down, and I worry that foregoing the opportunity to serve will leave me regretting that decision in the future. Thank you for this video discussion :)
Great video, you’ve given me a lot to think about. I just got out of active duty AF in 2022 got a job I thought would be a great stepping stone for my career at a fortune 100 company and right when my son was due we got hit with lay offs. I survived but I had to take a demotion, and I feel stagnant in my career plus the job market is so jacked up it's hard to jump to a new opportunity. Was thinking of the reserves mostly for financial reasons (extra money plus benefits) but you're reminding me of a lot of the things I saw in my active career and I was very naive to think they’d just go away on the reserve side.
I'm also a PM in tech and considering the reserves. I love the first hand experience and context you provide regarding the challenges and impact to my FT career.
Great video my guy! I am really struggling on getting the questions I need answered. The biggest concern is I’m afraid my work will find a way to “fire” me before I go off to basic even though I’m devoted to them and have a great relationship with them. The reason the fear comes of that is I would imagine I would not be working my civilian for 6 months because I would be at basic, officer training, and tech school (whatever my job will be preferably intelligence). Obviously to maintain my good standing I would need to provide full transparency of how long I would be gone. Is there a time you recommend that I approach them? Is there anything you recommend to make my fear go away? Any advisement would help! Also thank you for your service!
Thanks for the comment. First off, employers can always find a way to let someone go considering the private sector is "at-will" employment. That being said, I would be fully transparent with your employer about your military training requirements and honestly if it's a place worth working, they will support your service, and in some instances there are benefits employers get from the federal government for hiring veterans anyway. Without further context, it's hard to say when a good time to bring up this sort of thing would be, but I would not be afraid to share with them your intent if this is what you want to do. After all, there is always the opportunity you could get an even better civilian job, and you should choose to do what you feel like you won't regret in 20 years.
Can you tell us more about what your branch is and how they very in the reserves? Are there more flexible branches you’d recommend for someone looking to go into the reserves and still balance that civilian career
I realize this is very late response but I am going through my comments and thought it'd be useful to answer these questions in case anyone might still find it useful. There are certainly branches that are more flexible in terms of their time commitment, but there are no hard and fast rules about it and these always change. That being said, from my experience, the further from combat arms you are, the less likely (at least initially) you are to be slated for a rotation or require you to conduct extended periods of training outside of the normal drill schedule. Think branches like Cyber, Signal, Finance, etc. Of course the Reserves doesn't have combat arms but the branches that are combat support, not combat service support, will generally be more demanding, generally speaking. If we're being real though, you will probably get deployed when you don't want to deploy, or whenever it is most seemingly inconvenient for you. Murphy's law.
Thank you! I want to join the Army Reserves to become an Army Medic or Army nurse, but I also don't want to be fully committed. So, I want to be a reversit. This clears up some things for me. So, thank you!
As someone who wants to join ROTC, Thank you for this video. I have a question In BOLC, is it treated like basic training where they are screaming at you even though you have gone through ROTC?
I'm currently in my command time and since I'm lacking two AGR positions for my Company, I've easily lost over $35k each year doing orders, and helping my unit to ensure it's successful.
This is great info. I keep being told to commison for the pay quality of life etc. but i really want to do CA and i have to be at least a 1LT for that as an officer .Not sure if im better off just enlisting as a 38B since it will interfere less with my full time job ?
The military does not offer any differential, regardless of your civilian job. That being said, most employers will have some sort of compensation package for deployed soldiers in the Reserve and Guard whether it is extended benefits or outright salary differential (my company offers differential during Title 10 deployment orders). OCS or other Army training schools would not warrant any differential pay as that is not considered Title 10 or involuntary deployment orders.
There isn't really a "regular drill month" depending on the type of unit you're in. You could be doing ranges, going to the field, or just doing PHA, and as I discussed, the type of position you're in will also dictate how much time you spend planning for that training.
The people management skills you gain from the military are unmatched, considering your first position as a platoon leader puts you in charge of upwards of 30-40 soldiers and NCOs, and directly supervising and evaluating performance. At my civilian job, it would take me 10+ years before I get to that level of leadership.
Hi I am going to enlist on 4th december 23 as reserve. Because it’s now three weeks of kapooka , do they still do march out ? if not then are we ever gonna do march out after kapooka ?
"Less demanding" as in less time commitment outside of TPU drills and training yes but it also depends on the type of unit and whether or not the unit is getting ready to go down range.
You can almost always get a contract to go on ADOS to be on active duty orders. Generally it's easier to go from Reserves to Active Duty than the other way around
We think otherwise. You shouldn't leave your product manager job to be a full-time officer and you shouldn't the reserve job to be a PM fulltime either. The definition of a career has changed in our generation and you don't have ro soend the rest of your life in one line. Like in your last video, continue to gain double perspectives and experiences from both sides. You're still going to be a more well-rounded american than a person highly-qualified in either side. So think about that
The whole "one weekend a month, two weeks a year" mentality is long gone in the Reserves. As you rank up, the more you are pulled into other tasks, responsibilities (reports, emails, fixing problems, conference calls, drill weekend planning, etc). Make sure you always submit at least non-paid drill requests so that your between-drill-weekend time gets accounted for. It may not sound like much, but those non paid drills add up and factor into your retirement pension. Ask for paid additional drills and then if not available, request non-paid drills. If your Command still won't approve non-paid drills (which would be surprising), then look for another Reserve job and ask those same questions when you are job/billet shopping.
FACT!! Points No Pay can rack up real quick and make a huge bump in retirement.
When I took command of my old company in 2020, I basically worked full-time for the army for part-time pay. I was so fortunate my civilian employer at the time was a veteran and understood why I had to leave sometimes to put out fires.
The key to having a good reservist career is to be assigned to a good reserve unit. The unit you are assigned to is "EVERYTHING". If you are assigned to a crappy unit, you will end up hating being in the reserves.
I am a truck driver right now and doing very well financially. I’ve considered going reserve as a 88m. Not for money but for a challenge,physical fitness, serving the country among other reasons . Perhaps have a GI my son can use in the future. Extra pension would be nice at 60 when we retire from work
I came really close in 2018 to.joing active duty army and going for 88 mike. I was actually able to get my cdl in 2022. I actually want to join the air force national guard or the air force reserves.
Don’t. You’re going to be limited and unable to bid money making jobs because the military will get in the way.
Also realize your pension in the Reserve/Guard is based on points. 1 point = 1 reserve period (e.g. drill, AFTP, RMP…reserve duty) or 1 active duty day.
Your monthly retirement will be:
(points accrued) / 7200 X 0.5 X your monthly active duty pay for your rank & years.
Example E-7 20 year reservist:
3400 pts/ 7200= 0.472
0.472 x 0.5 = 0.236
0.235 x $5757.90 = $1359.50/mo
Sure it’s something but you’d be better hustling and putting the time time working more and investing it in the S&P 500 in your SEP IRA
@@randomjunk9934 Ok, don't you see how you advised him solely from a financial perspective? That's the wrong way to look at serving in the U.S. military. Any branch. Waterboy would also get paid for training in his industry, certifications, and benefits such as medical and education. Now, what the recruiters usually suck at relaying to new recruits is the unique experiences and camaraderie a soldier experiences with others working through tough assignments. The build character assignments. That's what I miss from my Air Force career. The friends for life I still have. I just don't see them as much now.
Your formulas are accurate based on the points and for a theoretical E-7 20 year reservist. What you failed to mention is the GI Bill which is easily worth over $100K for tuition and stipends. Transferable to dependents after a set period. Depending on how much consecutive duty, let's say over 30 days when active duty benefits activate, then full time military benefits kick in. Other benefits include lower cost home loans, life insurance, disability comp, retirement (pension). I mean these benefits are just ridiculously awesome. Extremely hard to find a civilian/private sector employer that would cover most of these benefits at the ENTRY level. Most of these benefits are well entrenched into the military culture and contract - aka extremely hard, taking acts of Congress and the Pentagon, to sweep away. Private sector can totally drop your benefits with little notice. They do it all the time no matter how much loyalty you give. Having said all this, a person shouldn't consider joining like the Army LT. said just for some benefits. Looking to take, take, take, but not wanting to give and grind. You will be a poor fit. Not being open minded to tough and new experiences, cultures, working with many types of people.
Im a teenager and this is the best explanation ive ever had. I plan on going to trade school first and then getting a career in a trade to pair with the guard.
Very helpful. I'm active, 7 years so far, and im trying to start over with in the reserves.
The Reserves is quite different than active duty, in some ways not as good as others. Almost anyone that comes over from active duty is an asset to the Reserves to say the least.
I really appreciate this video. I was recently given a tentative job offer with the State Department, but I'm also looking into joining the Army Reserves because, like you, I've always wanted to do some kind of military service. I really hope if I actually end up joining the Reserves, I can complete the training while also being able to be in line for this job with the State Department. You really gave some great insight in this video, I'll take my verification test for the Reserves tomorrow and you helped put my mind at ease.
That's great to hear, and with a federal job there is almost always more leniency and understanding from both employers compared to private sector opportunities, irrespective of USERRA
This video addresses the exact issues that I've been wanting to talk to current reservists about (unfortunately I don't know anyone in the reserves). As a software engineer with a strong career trajectory in my current job, I've been concerned about jeopardizing my career advancement by taking on such a large and unrelated commitment. I am a bit skeptical about the "1 weekend per month" advertised schedule because I find it hard to believe that one can maintain true proficiency with such small exposure to a complex job. Your discussion of context switching confirmed for me that the reserves really is a larger commitment than advertised. I have some thinking to do to decide if being an officer in the reserves is a path I want to go down, and I worry that foregoing the opportunity to serve will leave me regretting that decision in the future. Thank you for this video discussion :)
Thank you for your service sir
15:38 15:38 15:38
hooah
Thanks bro for letting us know
yessir
Cool video, thank you for your service!
Great video, you’ve given me a lot to think about. I just got out of active duty AF in 2022 got a job I thought would be a great stepping stone for my career at a fortune 100 company and right when my son was due we got hit with lay offs. I survived but I had to take a demotion, and I feel stagnant in my career plus the job market is so jacked up it's hard to jump to a new opportunity. Was thinking of the reserves mostly for financial reasons (extra money plus benefits) but you're reminding me of a lot of the things I saw in my active career and I was very naive to think they’d just go away on the reserve side.
I am glad I joined and hard various career in the service.
just join the Army Reserve my M.O.S.92 golf. I appreciate you explaining this very vital information!!!🙏🙏🙏
I go to boot camp on June 13th.
Did you choose culinary or did it choose you?
I'm also a PM in tech and considering the reserves. I love the first hand experience and context you provide regarding the challenges and impact to my FT career.
Glad it was useful, that is good to hear
Great video my guy! I am really struggling on getting the questions I need answered. The biggest concern is I’m afraid my work will find a way to “fire” me before I go off to basic even though I’m devoted to them and have a great relationship with them. The reason the fear comes of that is I would imagine I would not be working my civilian for 6 months because I would be at basic, officer training, and tech school (whatever my job will be preferably intelligence). Obviously to maintain my good standing I would need to provide full transparency of how long I would be gone. Is there a time you recommend that I approach them? Is there anything you recommend to make my fear go away? Any advisement would help! Also thank you for your service!
Thanks for the comment. First off, employers can always find a way to let someone go considering the private sector is "at-will" employment. That being said, I would be fully transparent with your employer about your military training requirements and honestly if it's a place worth working, they will support your service, and in some instances there are benefits employers get from the federal government for hiring veterans anyway. Without further context, it's hard to say when a good time to bring up this sort of thing would be, but I would not be afraid to share with them your intent if this is what you want to do. After all, there is always the opportunity you could get an even better civilian job, and you should choose to do what you feel like you won't regret in 20 years.
Can you tell us more about what your branch is and how they very in the reserves? Are there more flexible branches you’d recommend for someone looking to go into the reserves and still balance that civilian career
I realize this is very late response but I am going through my comments and thought it'd be useful to answer these questions in case anyone might still find it useful.
There are certainly branches that are more flexible in terms of their time commitment, but there are no hard and fast rules about it and these always change. That being said, from my experience, the further from combat arms you are, the less likely (at least initially) you are to be slated for a rotation or require you to conduct extended periods of training outside of the normal drill schedule. Think branches like Cyber, Signal, Finance, etc. Of course the Reserves doesn't have combat arms but the branches that are combat support, not combat service support, will generally be more demanding, generally speaking. If we're being real though, you will probably get deployed when you don't want to deploy, or whenever it is most seemingly inconvenient for you. Murphy's law.
Thank you! I want to join the Army Reserves to become an Army Medic or Army nurse, but I also don't want to be fully committed. So, I want to be a reversit. This clears up some things for me. So, thank you!
As someone who wants to join ROTC, Thank you for this video. I have a question
In BOLC, is it treated like basic training where they are screaming at you even though you have gone through ROTC?
It’s not like that at all. You’re treated like a human being at BOLC lol
Great video!
Thank you!
Explain the benefits of having a time limit on social media applications???? 🙏
I'm currently in my command time and since I'm lacking two AGR positions for my Company, I've easily lost over $35k each year doing orders, and helping my unit to ensure it's successful.
can you make a video of the reality of TA you can get for college? Thankyou so much!!!
This is great info. I keep being told to commison for the pay quality of life etc. but i really want to do CA and i have to be at least a 1LT for that as an officer .Not sure if im better off just enlisting as a 38B since it will interfere less with my full time job ?
People don’t know but is freaking hard
We appreciate you
When your on active status does the military match your civilian pay ? Also what about in OCS ?
The military does not offer any differential, regardless of your civilian job. That being said, most employers will have some sort of compensation package for deployed soldiers in the Reserve and Guard whether it is extended benefits or outright salary differential (my company offers differential during Title 10 deployment orders). OCS or other Army training schools would not warrant any differential pay as that is not considered Title 10 or involuntary deployment orders.
What amount on average would you say you spend per week on Army duties during a regular drill month?
There isn't really a "regular drill month" depending on the type of unit you're in. You could be doing ranges, going to the field, or just doing PHA, and as I discussed, the type of position you're in will also dictate how much time you spend planning for that training.
Did you pick up any skills from the Reserve that helps on the civilian side?
The people management skills you gain from the military are unmatched, considering your first position as a platoon leader puts you in charge of upwards of 30-40 soldiers and NCOs, and directly supervising and evaluating performance. At my civilian job, it would take me 10+ years before I get to that level of leadership.
Hi I am going to enlist on 4th december 23 as reserve. Because it’s now three weeks of kapooka , do they still do march out ? if not then are we ever gonna do march out after kapooka ?
hey my guy! keep going : )
Wanted to join the Army Reserve so bad but unfortunately the multiple recruiters I’ve talked to won’t let me join due to my hearing disability
try the national guard
Don’t tell them about it, go to another recruiting office and don’t tell them anything
Can i do this if i had bipolar in the past? Or will they know@@mohammedibrahim4394
@@TheDoctorXCIX if you have it on your medical file showing you have hearing problems then you might need a waiver
Just a question... Is it possible to be in the army reserves while living abroad- as in live abroad commute regularly to your home unit for training?
I'm not sure how realistic that is, but I'd strongly recommend against doing that from my experience traveling across the country for drill weekends.
Yes it is. What's your MOS? The Army has reserve units in Europe.
@@tennisguruLOL I'm joining artillery
You're an officer, but do you think reserves as an E-4 would be less demanding for someone with a civilian career?
"Less demanding" as in less time commitment outside of TPU drills and training yes but it also depends on the type of unit and whether or not the unit is getting ready to go down range.
Yes it is. It's not really that demanding unless you are on a Command team. Join us! lol
Whats the longest and shortes time you can be deployed?
You need to submit RMA's sir.
Sir, you have the same Unit Badge as mine
Is that possible to transfer to active duty after serving 1 yr in the Army Reserve?
You can almost always get a contract to go on ADOS to be on active duty orders. Generally it's easier to go from Reserves to Active Duty than the other way around
Are you allowed to see your family during AIT?
Yes sir
hooah
How much is the pay as E-3
We think otherwise.
You shouldn't leave your product manager job to be a full-time officer and you shouldn't the reserve job to be a PM fulltime either.
The definition of a career has changed in our generation and you don't have ro soend the rest of your life in one line.
Like in your last video, continue to gain double perspectives and experiences from both sides. You're still going to be a more well-rounded american than a person highly-qualified in either side.
So think about that
What is your MOS? and rank?
Why are you wearing a combat flag, sir
It should looks like you are in your home. Why are you wearing a deployment flag?