I’ve been a lurker here for maybe half a year and I love reading through this sub to remind me to not go back to the civilian world and finish out doing 20 years, since the civilian sector seems shit in today economy.
My overall question though is, why not join the military??? Obviously you can’t join after a certain age and there are medical qualifications, but other than that you’re good. Don’t say “oh because I might go to combat and die”, then go into a military occupational specialty (mos) that is non combat related. Also your medical/ dental is free (not the greatest treatment for those yearly sicknesses) but you’ll be taken care of. You get tuition assistance(TA) which pays for your college while you’re in (got my associates, working on my bachelors), plus your spouse gets something similar to TA called MyCCA (or MyCAA) which pays for their college without using your G.I. Bill. You get money monthly towards food, money monthly towards your housing (if you’re married) and obviously your Pay based off your rank. The government matches you up to 5% for your retirement plan (similar to 401k)
To tie everything back up, since I just went over the benefits. I’ve been in for 6 years and it’s not bad at all. I work a 8-4 with a 1hr lunch break, weekends off. I’m taken care of, my wife is taken care of and soon (not really) once I hit 20 years I’ll have a paycheck monthly for life. Not only that but I get 30 days of PTO that I can take whenever.
P.S. I’m not a recruiter. Just a fellow redditor that finally decide to ask the big question.
Side note: I remember going to a shoe store and buying some shoes for my wife and when I was talking to the worker I asked “why not join the military”, since she brought up struggling in life similar to what I read about on this subreddit. She said, “because I don’t want to take orders and be told what to do”, I looked at her confused and said, “well I could tell you to take those shoes back and ask you to check different pairs and begin a cycle of checking sizes for various shoes” she didn’t like that comment.