We got through only 4 interviews today, so we only have 2 left to do tomorrow, which is fine by me. But we'll probably start on our 2nd go around. I did mine today and apparently I didn't do to bad, but then again who knows really until we get to RECEX. We did take our class photo today after lunch. First we did our whole class and then we did the individual small groups, both a formal and informal one. You can order prints, they come as 8x10's and the first cost $10 and all after that cost $8. Other than that nothing much happened.
 

Ok, so yeah, LONG day. We only did the Army Interview. We only got through 3 today, and probably only that tomorrow too. So we'll only be able to get through the class once this week, because Friday we go get fitted for the ASU and get us 2 sets of ACU's and to think we have to do 3 each. So next week is also dedicated to doing the Army Interview, along with our face to face prospecting (P3) in Charleston. The Army Interview doesn't seem that hard when you actually see it done out in full and not taught in sections. The order of things, APPLEMDT (the prequals) and SOLDIER (how you sell the army) is the only thing you really have to remember by heart.

Since I brought it up I'll touch on APPLEMDT and SOLDIER real quick. APPLE MDT is how you remember all the prequal questions. Each letter stands for a category; Age, Prior service, Physical, Law violations, Education, Marital status, Dependants, and Test. In those categories are just a series of questions. If you google "APPLEMDT" it should give you a link to USAREC Manual 3-01 (recruiter handbook) and goes into a little more detail. SOLDIER is how you sell the Army. It stands for; Service to country, Occupation, Leadership, Diversity, Income, Excitement, Respect. Each of those categories is up to you on how you present them, basically you try to fit their goals to each thing. It don't take long, the longest category will probably be Income, since everyone is about money and the other benefits that they will get. You actually get a CD that has a little program that does this all for you. You just click a few buttons and it will bring up a list of small videos and documents to explain each thing and give you something to talk about, so 90% of the Army Interview is actually done for you.

Don't worry about wrapping your head around it now or worry about how you'll do on it. When I first heard someone try to explain it I was lost in the sauce, but seeing it in person made me realize it all. You also have a "evidence book" that follows along with SOLDIER and you don't have much work to do on it. They'll practically give you the powerp

 
Ok, so today started the Army Interview. None of us have actually gone through one yet, the instructor went through all the steps and did a real fast one, but will go through a whole one in real time tomorrow. So it was another day of power point and BS'in.

It was however day 1 of our live phone calls. There is 24 phones in a room, with a lil cubicle per phone/computer. So we had two shifts, each an hour long. Basically, you sit at a phone, they give you a list of names, number, and addresses and you go down that list calling them. For instance, today we had college students from Valdosta, GA. I called like 16 people and only actually got ahold of 3 people. Most were not there so you leave a message, and others had wrong numbers. I think out of our whole class we only got 1 lead. What made it so hard was most the people we ended up talking to all had at least one Masters Degree and had a sweet ass job, so you couldn't sell them water in a desert. At first I was nervous as hell and I could tell by how shaky my voice was, but eventually I got into the flow of things and it was ok, and of the people I talked to they were pretty nice. Some people did get hung up on, but overall everyone had some good stories to tell. You don't get graded on it, and the instructor don't really pay attention to what your saying or even really deal with you unless you have someone interested, then you just get their info, verify their address, ask some qualification questions, and then have the instructor come verify that everything you wrote down was true and infact they wanted to talk to a recruiter. Since we don't have access to the actual recruiters calendars we just had to tell them in 3 to 5 days their recruiter would call them and set up the interview. It was only an hour and depending on who you got ahold of controlled how many phone calls you got to make, some made more than 20, others did about 6. But it's everyday except Friday.
 
Yet again another boring weekend. Nothing to report here.
 
Today was the end of the phone calls week. Well, at least for instruction purposes anyway. We had the 4 people that got a No Go do another one just for good measure. Other than that we did nothing, started going into the Army interview which we'll jump into head first next week. We also found out that we'll be going to Charleston, SC to do some real prospecting. We'll have out whole class of 27 broken into three groups, one will go to the mall, one to a high school and one to a college. I'm guessing that will serve as our training on face to face prospecting. Don't know when that will be though. Next friday we will get fitted for out ASU's though, so that should be fun.
 

Another day of phone calls. Not too bad, we had 4 people get No Go's so they gotta do one more. You really only need 2 Go's to be considered good enough, but the instructor wants the people who got a No Go to do another one just for good measure. But it is amazing how much more the small groups are laid back. All we did was phone calls today. We have 9 people in my small group and thats including me and each phone call is no more 10 minutes long, so thats a total of 90 minutes worth of phone calls in a 7 hr day. So to say the least we take a lot of breaks and just BS in class.

Next week we get to call real people. I guess it's people in an area where the recruiting station isn't doing so well, so to help them out we get to call their people to try to make appointments for them. I guess it can't hurt them much ya know. I asked my instructor if they were going to be sitting over us listening to how we are doing it or letting us kinda go on our own, but she just kinda laughed and said I'll let you see for yourself. So I don't know if I should be scared or not,

 
Well today was day two of our phone calls. And that is all we did. It does get boring listening to everyone go through it. It's still a little nerve racking doing it even though you've heard the rest of you small group go through it. You sit there and think about what you would say and picture it on how it's going to go, but when you get up there you go blank. Your actually calling your peers, even though it's not on a real phone. But sometimes the SGL will want to act as the applicant and that is a night mare. I was the lucky one who she decided to pick on me. She laid it on hard. At some points in there I had no idea what to even say. While it was hard and I thought I did like crap I still managed to hit most points that your supposed to, and it was good learning because thats how it may really be. As students we just say minimal things while we are the applicant and follow the script almost to a "T" but she throws some wrenches in there, so it's all good.

On a side note you CAN fail the final week, RECEX, and be recycled. There was one student from a class doing their RECEX and he got No Go'ed twice and got recycled to week 5, only 2 weeks back, but still that sucks. They say as long as you stay motivated and hit the points they want you to then your good.

And thats about it for today. Probably the same thing tomorrow.
 
We started our "phone calls" today. It wasn't too bad, we all got GO's, but then the instructor told us everyone gets GO's on their first time since they can't hold it against you if your not sure what to do exactly, plus you got your cheat sheet. Tomorrow we do our second "phone call" and we can't have our cheat sheets in front of us, or any notes for that matter. It was a little nerve racking, but it's just your small group there and the instructor just sits back and listens to you talk to your "applicant" which is another student reading off of some sort of script, it's not word for word just some broad things to say when when the "recruiter" is talking to you, so there is a lot of ad libbing, which can be bad if you have a funny guy in your class. But after this first time and seeing how the others do at it, I don't feel so nervous now.

After lunch we finished up those who had to still make a call and then we went into social networking. More or less it's setting up your professional FACEBOOK. They have a slide show and rules to go with it. The instructor will take you through the whole thing. It also HAS to be linked to your AKO email address and if your facebook is linked to that one now they will make you change it. So if it is and your coming here and plan on making it to week 4 do it now to make it easier on you while your here. I don't know how often we'll actually use our own Recruiter Facebook page, but they make you have one. Oh well. And thats all we did today.
 
Telephone calls are this week. We aren't actually using a telephone though I don't think. Today we just went over the layout of a call. It's pretty simple, it should only take about 5 minutes or so when you get it down. Basically you start off telling who you are and who you're representing, find out what they want to do after school and kinda hint on some Army programs that could help them out. Also, you learn how to get over obstacles they throw at you, for example, I don't want to be yelled at. The whole purpose is just to get a face to face interview with them, keeping in mind that an interview doesn't mean enlistment.

It sounds simple enough, but the Army in all it's genius wants it in a certain format of course. Why wouldn't they let you just talk up the Army, they have to make sure you do this and that and say this or that. So thats the hardest part, hitting all the points they want you to.

All together you'll "make" 5 phone calls, 3 in class and 2 for homework. This part of the class you need to work with the people in your small group. First, they are the ones that your "calling" and second, you have to do your homework with them. The homework involves getting together and "calling" the other one while working off the scenario that was given to you by the instructor. This week seems like it's more lax than the first 3 weeks. That may be because it's only about phone calls so there isn't too much you can get into the book about, it's all about hands on stuff.

Oh, by the end of the week you need to have your "Army Story" book done because next week is the Army interview which all comes out of that book for the most part. It sounds like it will be a little harder because this is when you actually "sell" the Army to them, not just get the interested in hearing about it. It obviously takes a little longer and requires more talking. It's all Go/No Go from here on out for the most part.
 
Weekend #3 is now done and over with. It was pretty relaxing. All I did was work on my "Army Story" book, which is pretty boring and time consuming, but its a necessary evil here. I just need a few more things that I couldn't get online for it and I'll be done. So not very much to post today. I will however touch on a few things that has been asked.

For the E-7's coming through this course, be prepared to be the class leader or the class 1SG as the instructors like to call it. You'll be sitting in the back of the class room so that way the instructors can talk to you and pull you to the side without interrupting the class. It's not like any other schools where your out in front of formations, it's pretty much admin stuff. All paperwork from the students go through you and the instructors give you all the info to put out. And yes, you'll probably have a room mate, pretty gay but it happens.

Apparently they actually dedicate a whole day to getting your ASU, I think it's on a Friday or week 4 I believe. They take you down to clothing and sales and get you all sized up. Then after that, you go down by the replacement battalion and get hooked up with 2 more pairs of ACU's. So at least you get a couple free uniforms outta the whole deal.

You'll also be taking a class photo while your here. There will be 2 actually. A serious one and a not so serious one. I don't know what they do with them besides hang them on the wall here at the school house.