Bad first impressions

[Robz400]

I'm very keen to get involved with the TA and have a unit about a mile from my house.

I was invited to visit them this week and went along looking forward to getting started but have left very disappointed. They seemed very disorganised and it seemed as though they were not the least bit interested in anything about me or why I wanted to join. I was given some forms and shown where the bar is and that was basically it.

Are TA units at all selective about who they let in or do they not care? If they don't then how are good standards acheived?

I have a royal marine reserve unit around 45 mins drive away and am now thinking maybe thats a better route.....


Have I just met a bad recruitment guy or is this typical of the TA??






ps sorry for a negative first post!!!

[jm745]

You don't live near Birmingham do you Rob? Just wondering because I live right by a TA unit and not far from a Royal Marine Reserve unit.

My mate's thinking about the TA, I was thinking of RMR, not sure yet though. Don't know much about TA recruitment staff as I've never really spoke to one but sounds like he just weren't in the mood to talk.

This guy from the Army came to my college and me and my mate spent most of our lunch time just listening to him, not in a bad way, it was really inciteful.

Joe

[Robz400]

No im not anywhere near birmingham. i was also suprised by the appearance of a few guys there. i was expecting everyone to be pretty fit but many were shall we say heavy!

the physical training is a major factor for me and i wonder if its not as important as i thought?

[anglo-saxon]

Robz400: It's probably not wise to read too much into it at this stage. Without you having much of an idea of what goes on at the local unit at any one time, what may appear to you as standing around and not doing much may actually be necessary milling about due to necessary platoon admin or some such. Having said that, they might also just be a bunch of fat knackers worth avoiding.

Pound-for-pound, though, for my money you'd do better checking out the RMR. Aim high with bags of determination. If you make it, great! If not, there's always the TA unit down the road waiting for you.

"...better to have tried and failed", etc.

[London Boy]

Rob, I second what A-S said. You may have just seen some admin types hanging around. For all you know parts of the Company might have been out on exercise or out on a run.

Also, I've known and worked with police officers from all sorts of TA units, and the only ones who impressed me attitude and phys fitness wise were those in the RMR. The two guys I knew from 10 Para were gobby fat gits. I even met one over here in Sweden, he wasn't fat, but he was a gobby git.

[Sarastro]

Rob, yes TA units vary in quality. Some only have pretty switched on & fit guys (such as 4 PARA), some are glorified drinking clubs. All of them, however, have a mix of over the hill and young speedfreak types, as you'll find in the regs too - ie armourers always tend to be fat cnuts in every base I've ever been to.

Other major difference between TA & RMR is that RMR select prior to recruits course. As you said, TA units seem to let anyone in (for recruits), but the good units will weed out the knobbers during that recruits course. 5 out of 30+ starters passed my 4 PARA cadre, and for the last half of the cadre there were only 10 of us left. And that was high - recent cadres have had 1-3 passing, and my company had the highest pass rate in the battalion.

Pick a decent inf unit and you'll get plenty of phys in, don't worry about that. Also remember that the TA is voluntary, so you get out of it what you put in - if the 'heavy' blokes just want free fryups on the weekends, then they'll end up as fat knackers. But don't be too dismissive - one of the training corporals I knew was a bit hefty, but he was over 50, passed the sniper cadre previously, and could still move through woods more quietly than all the young fit ones (though not as fast!). Experience counts for a lot

[Hands on]

As said above you might of caught the unit on a bad day, I have a few fat knackers In my unit most of them are coming to the end Of there careers and are there for admin, recruitment and general behind the scenes work.
Although I do have to say that using these people for recruitment does give a bad impression on the unit, but the rest of the lads are to busy getting In the proper training.
With the current amount of operational tours the TA are doing now days there Is not much room for being unprofessionel, the regiment I am In work, train and deploy along with are regular counter parts so we can't get away with being to slack, and this Is the way I believe It to be In most of the units now days.
It might be a good idea to post your questions I the TA forum over on arrse as there Is a lot more reservist from all three services on It.

Good luck.

[Chas]

Initially I served in the RMFVR now RMR prior to RM entry. They were very switched on. Many years later I joined part of a superlative TA unit.
I suggest you have another look just to make sure. Possibly you received a bad impression due to the TA being otherwise engaged at that time.
If your opinion remains the same definitely go Royal. Certainly the RMR is now infinitely better than in my day so you can consider that it has progressed from good to excellent.

[Robz400]

Thanks for your replies all very helpful. ill go back next week with my forms and see what happens!

Your point about weeding out the knobbers in training makes sense and having looked the pass rate seems about 70%.

Im gonna have a look at the rmr aswell as im capable of the fitness requirements now so may as well go for the bigger challange! Plus it being further away means more time out of the house!!!

[RA_Tom]

I'm very keen to get involved with the TA and have a unit about a mile from my house.

I was invited to visit them this week and went along looking forward to getting started but have left very disappointed. They seemed very disorganised and it seemed as though they were not the least bit interested in anything about me or why I wanted to join. I was given some forms and shown where the bar is and that was basically it.

Are TA units at all selective about who they let in or do they not care? If they don't then how are good standards acheived?

I have a royal marine reserve unit around 45 mins drive away and am now thinking maybe thats a better route.....


Have I just met a bad recruitment guy or is this typical of the TA??






ps sorry for a negative first post!!!

Hello,

TA units vary, some are a bit lackadaisical about recruits because many don't get past the paperwork phase. If they are over strength then maybe the impetus is not there. However, it is well worth looking at all your local reserve units, before committing to one, all will have opportunities for you to go in and look round.

All TA units have a high rate of attrition with recruits, 3 of us from about 30 completed our recruits phase, with 1 person dropping out on the final recruits course. Medicals with bin some, some get fed up of Phys, paperwork, some are loony walts many different things, by turning up again you will hopefully have more kudos, but it shouldnt be like that!!!

As an example I drive past two TA centres and the RMR to get to my unit because they got me fired up when I visited, a unit with good morale is infectious.

What unit was this? Signals, Infantry etc? Just out of interest!

As another example, my unit provides a dedicated recruiting intake who get potential recruits started on medicals and paperwork, with an ex regular to answer questions and mentor the group while they are part of the 'holding battery' before they are attested and can join the unit proper.

Have a look at the RMR, but check out other TA units see who gets your enthusiasm going. Ask where they are going for camp this year, what adventurous training do they do? How many from the unit have/are on deployments. What was the best weekend they went on this year? Stuff like that. A lot depends on the regular army staff that work at every TA unit, if they are good then the unit is usually awesome, if they are a bit cynical about the TA and having a jolly then that can be seen too.

Tom

[Chas]

RA_Tom,

Good, informative post, Sir.

[Robz400]

Tom,

Many thanks for you reply.

Your point about if they're over subscribed makes sense as the recruitment guy mentioned they were at 103% capacity.

I understand what people have said about retention being a problem and could imagine recruitment staff getting pretty pissed off interveiwing 30 people only to have 3 finish, but it is also their job to sell and not act like they're doing me a favour!

I'm off to rmr on Wednesday and and have already seen another infantry unit who seemed much better.

So i'll know by Wednesday next week who to join