I went to the army career centre in King’s cross today. I wanted to know what I’d be missing If I only did the research that I’ve done online and not considered seeing what else is available. For some reason, I think that perhaps not going through the ‘official’ sit-down with someone and chat route that perhaps might miss something useful. It’s usually a good idea to have more options and information at your disposal usually anyway.

So, I set off and after a short train trip from Moorgate and a little walk I arrived. It made a difference – so I’m glad I did it. Sometimes you can form a very good idea of whats important and what not but what official places decide to bring up or don’t bring up. And at the face of it, I did all the talking reflecting on the research that I had sone on the subject matter. That tells me that I couldn’t have done a better job and is quite likely that most of the important thing (according to them were covered by me).

But what I did give me was atmosphere and space to unwind my thinking that I’d started to accumulate while researching roles online etc.

I will say this, however, the process generally hasn’t been very interactive until this point and even at this point, the interactivity only really countered for setting my mind at ease and proving all the conclusions that I’d assumed to be correct in my own mind up until that point:

You really need to know what you want to do to start off and that basically is what the careers centre is going to tell you. I’d already set my mind on the Royal Signals and I’ve already been informally attached to a Signals ARU locally. I’m in fact, going to see them now.

So, the little rendezvous with the guy from army careers allowed me to almost get a view into what I’m going to expect later this evening.

The process of getting ‘attached’ to the unit doesn’t seem like a big thing, its more like once you’ve had all the online checks done, they have to send you somewhere and well I guess, this is that somewhere.

One interesting tidbit that I gained from the guy today was to ask what was available for me at the ARU and what roles would be suitable. I’m hoping that we can ascertain this fairly quickly and start the process of getting me integrated and onboard. Interestingly enough when asked If I wanted to be an officer or a soldier and I responded with Officer – no questions were asked. Perhaps that for tonight?

I did get a glimpse into the world of signals because the soldier who was talking to me at the careers centre told me how he interacts with signal operators on the field and what basically they do. That was useful, that made a practical impact on my day-to-day idea of what signals meant to the army. However, this, I’m not sure if specific to what an officer does though I hope it will be similar. It will be interesting to see what being an officer entails – what really is there to lose being an officer.

For the most part, I’m hoping that my skillset is technical enough that me having to learn how to become one is all that is needed and the technicalities are sideline because I’m fairly technical to start with. Perhaps the technical training will not be hard but the officer training will be – because it's not as new to me as technical stuff.

Told my dad that I was going to meet up with Signal and despite his dislike for the Army having regretted being in it himself, told me to go for it! I guess I was always going to do it because I’m my own person first and foremost but the support is very useful.

So, I went to the local Royal Signals reserve unit last night and spoke to the guys there – the recruiting guy and the unit officer (to get info about officer life) and it was fairly informative. Turns out a signalling role is not for me.

What I realised what that when you join as a reserve signal soldier, you’ve basically got a year of dealing with inexperienced 18-year-old running around, drinking in pubs whenever possible, comparing each other’s sexual life and stupid initiations and doing boring stuff in the like cleaning garages in the beginning. Its basically like being in boarding school all over again – though from what I can see, it's more disciplined in boarding school. It’s not as useful as I think a year of learning quality stuff could be spent like being at university. They couldn’t tell me as much as they did about officer training as soldiering is what they did there. They specifically did medical combat technician, hr specialist, chef and signal operator roles.

Other things like the fact that they meet up only once a week and except for a few weekends (while doing the training) it’s a very spacious routine. I was hoping for a little more productivity. The other problem is how long everything would take to get to phase 2 training which is where you specialize in your trade after you have finished basic training – phase 1. If you try to do all that with drips and drabs via 1 day a week and a few weekends and a couple of 2-week camps – it’s a whole year. That’s a very extended experience of dealing with dealing with 18-year olds, cleaning garages and being told what to do. Perhaps the time it takes and the opportunity to do it in this way is perfect for someone like me in hindsight,

Sure, you’ll learn the basics but you’ll have to deal with all those 18-year old. Also, it feels so informal and even a touch unprofessional. The officer was loud and mouthy and didn’t really have anything favourable to say about joining as an officer in as much as its got a lot of ‘officer type’ stuff in it like managing and leading. His recommendation is that I stick it out for a year and then decide to be an officer if I want. On the surface that sounds sensible but I’m nearly convinced that I’ll regret wasting that year.

As for doing signal type work, it's not as technical as I thought, it's like a bloke carrying around a radio – you don’t fix things, you just use them and throw them around. That’s basically what I gathered and it's not that technical. My day job is light years ahead more technical. As a side note, it was nice to see Citrix being used to run their computers however they had nothing nice to say about computers or the system that they use for recruitment. Apparently according to them, its pretty useless. That's not Citrix, that the applications Citrix provides remote access to mind you.

So, on the whole, being a soldier in the army reserve is a very very casual experience. I’m not a casual person, I want to learn I want to grow – this place seems like a nice place to grow old and wilt like autumn foliage.

As my goal is something a bit more professional than an existence as a reserve signal soldier, where I’d learn something new and actually progress instead of regress, my sights have to be readjusted.

The options are going into specialist units where applications are like a job interview and is for professionally qualified people like me. The other option or going into being an officer.

 My initial reaction is now to set myself up on being an officer in the British army and then perhaps specialize, to gain leadership and life skills to manage people or go directly into a specialist route which according to the officer at the ARU is basically you being exploited for your technical abilities! (still better than what I saw in here). Both I suspect are more professional, however even being an officer might just put me in charge of managing the social scene of a bunch of 18-year olds which I’m not sure is what I want.

I still want to be in a reserve capacity, of course, as I’m studying towards my MSc but with the added benefits of professionalism and capability. Specialist routes are the only option open specifically to reservists who qualify.

What I do think that life it too short to waste your time doing something that could be better spent doing something more towards what you’re already inclined to do. Being a reserve soldier particularly in the signals seems like a monumental waste of time, especially if you consider how much progress can be made in a year studying at university for example learning really useful stuff without the puking, swearing bravado 18-year olds…

Furthermore, I’m a firm believer that if you do a good job, knuckle down and put work hard, you can get what you deserve no matter where you. The army in my mind is no exception but you need to do yourself a favour (many favours!) and set yourself up for success, doing the things that provide a meaningful existence to the time you commit. It's about deciding the right thing to do in the army, matching your temperament, attitude and expectations in line with what you’ll get in the army that’ll compliment them is perhaps the most important thing about army recruitment, perhaps even life.

Being in the signals as a reserve soldier is not a good decision for me. Successful exercise!