Hello all, and thanks to all those members who have replied in this thread.
Well, I must say, McTaff's detailed tips for potential recruits, although very welcome (and I truly mean that), does become a little disconcerting when reading other replies that the process to actual enlistment can take months to complete.
I took six whole years from first phone call to commision. Don't let it worry you, it's getting faster and faster - but definitely several months due to screening and police records to be accessed, appointments for medicals, it all eats up time with the processing in between. I had laser eye surgery which accounted for 18 months of that, but there were some stuff ups and so on during my application.
Most of the other blokes that went in the same time as me took under six months from walking to marching.
I have always wanted to join the infantry since way back as a little critter and am
hoping to be able to initiate enlistment proceedings some time next year. I am very unfit at the moment and am currently facing an uphill battle to reach Army standards of fitness as well as shed excess weight (office jobs you see
), but I am committed to rectifying these issues.
Work hard on your fitness. Make sure you can exceed minimum requirements by a fair margin, as it will help you when you get to recruit school. Your age won't bother them; I undertook initial training with two chaps who were well into their forties and although they struggled, they made it.
Remember you need to prove you can keep up with these hardy little 19 year old footy players. Do not let it put you off, just remember that as long as you can hump a pack as long as they can (a week), and do pushups and situps and run around the oval/quarterdeck/blocks the required number of times in the alloted period, you'll be fine. Don't ever quit, because if the two older chaps I went through with can do it, then you can.
Tips for fitness:
-Train yourself in Cardio firstly, so you can run anywhere up to 10k without falling apart.
-Next is core strength, because you'll find yourself with your face in the dirt more times than you'd like - the medicine ball pushups were something I wished I'd known about before I joined.
--Use two medicine balls as your hand holds, with your feet elevated higher than your hands by about a twelve inches.
--Once you can balance on two balls and do pushups easily, use a third medicine ball under your toes so you have three under you.
-Up/downs are a go. Pushup to star-jump to pushup.. etc etc. Master both the Eight Point and Six Point variety.
-Lastly concentrate on lunges.
I'd recommend a personal trainer for three months to whip you into shape; tell them you want to concentrate on these as a primary focus.
REMEMBER: you can initiate the application process whenever you like, fit or not. You don't do your fitness test until very late in the piece, but you do have to pass a medical. So as long as you have a healthy heartbeat, and fall within the BMI, you're good to go.
I was under the impression that the recruiting process takes at the most 8 weeks (give or take a few). Seeing some of these replies that the selection process can take even up to months has halted my enthusiam to a certain degree. Are there currently any initiatives to speed up the recruitment process?
As a matter of fact, yes. Before your first appointment, make sure you have (some or all of which may be required):
-All educational records, from high school onwards.
-Birth certificate.
-All passports you have in your possession
-Details of all surgery you've ever had.
-All x-rays you've ever had.
-All legal actions you've been involved in, civil or criminal (whether witness, expert or the subject of)
-All financial documents (tax, bank statements, receipts for big ticket items like houses and cars)
-Change of name documents, etc etc
They may only want a couple of the above, but make sure you've got everything you can in case they decide they want a look at them. Sometimes the hold up on your end of a couple of days can lose you an appointment for a couple of weeks.
I made sure I phoned every Tuesday and Thursday for updates whenever I hadn't got an appointment. When I did, I called once weekly and asked if they needed me to fill an earlier appointment, or needed additional info. I cut off a good six months doing that, as they usually didn't have any news, but sometimes they remembered my name and I was the first person they'd call when they had an opening.
Make sure you have a good phone manner and are very polite to the folk looking after you. They'll do their best if you do.
I understand that the ADF does not want any nutters on board since it is a professional institution (otherwise we may just as well opt for conscription :-D), but I am weary of undertaking a commitment as a gamble only to lose out in the race (please take this in a nice tone
).
- - (redirected paragraph) - -
I'm 32 y.o., have completed two tertiary qualifications from two tertiary institutions (one of those to the Masters degree but which is proving to be a barrier to employment - nothing controversial, but it is a put off to some) have worked in two proper, professional positions but am currently unemployed.
Don't get me wrong here, but you're seriously making me question what you want to do. Infantry may be the place for you, but someone with two tertiary qualifications (a Masters to boot!) is Officer material. They'll want you for that.
What is your qualifications in? Why would it put people off? There aren't too many degrees that will
disqualify anyone from any officer position. Engineer spots are hard to fill, and even someone with a BA can find themselves thrust into some pretty amazing positions in the military.
