corrente

I could almost feel sorry for Army and Guard and Reserve recruiters, the same way I take pity at times for telemarketers and spammers and the like. Sometimes people get desperate and take awful jobs to survive. But then I read shit like this....

(via Columbia SC State)

Army recruiters are changing their pitch.

Instead of selling benefits and jobs, they are trying to become mentors and counselors to prospects.

“We call it the Army interview,” said Lt. Col. David Dougherty, commander of the Columbia Recruiting Battalion.

Army studies show young people prefer a personal relationship with recruiters. The studies also show young people are more interested in being part of a team, want to serve others and have a deep streak of patriotism.

The new approach is being tried as the Army struggles to find enough recruits.

For the first six months of fiscal year 2005, which began Oct. 1, the [South Carolina] battalion signed 1,113 recruits to contracts, 45 more than during the first half of 2004.

Huh? They got half again as many kids suckered in and they're still under quota? How can this be?

However, the Army greatly increased its goal for South Carolina — a traditionally strong recruiting area — for this year. As a result of that higher number, the Columbia battalion missed its goal for the first half of this year — 1,599 contracts — by 30 percent.

Oh. Now I see. See intro graph about "sometimes feeling sorry for recruiters." Now back to our story....

... with an improving economy, some prospects have more options than they had three or four years ago. Then, joining the military seemed like the best path to a steady paycheck, benefits and college money.

In the mentor approach, a recruiter walks a prospect through options for the future and tries to show how the military might help in achieving those goals, Dougherty said.

The mentor approach also helps break the ice with parents, relatives, teachers, coaches, ministers and others who talk to a prospect about the decision to join the military.

Dougherty thinks the new approach is showing some benefits.

Yeah, yeah, sure, right. "Benefits" for who, exactly? would be my question. Oh, and Col. Bubba? You come near my kid with this shit and it ain't gonna be ice that gets broken, if you get my drift.