Spirited discussion

Yesterday the company recruiter trainer came to the station to try and offer some help. As it stands we're 0-10 combined RA/AR. To make it better there isn't really anything joining. Most of us don't have funnels, and those who do have seen them dry up quick.

The RT prompted something of a discussion between himself, SSG George, and yours truely. The topic was P4, Internet Prospecting.

I know I've been missing the boat on the 'net. I've done some work in cyber space that has led to some production and even a contract. It's easy and it works, and I haven't done a lot of work on it to my detriment. I'm going to see what I can do to change that.

However, it's also my belief that we're restricted from using one of the more useful tools of the internet.

Every kid today has some form of instant messenger. Between AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and whatever else they have a continous presence online. A presence online where they're in the mood to talk. We recruiters are not allowed tap into that.

It seems there is an Army policy against using instant messengaing service. I suppose maybe that's a useful policy for the mainstream Army, where you don't want people to "waste" their time chatting online when they should be working. However, for recruiters, it's a way to tap into our freaking market. It's our JOB to talk to these kids any way possible. I'm curious how cold IMing some kid is less productive than cold-calling.

It just seems to me that a smart recruiter could develop an online presence, and use it to their advantage. Not something like me where I just use this as a forum to whine, but more of a recruiting-centric website devoted to the local area.

Here in the Phoenix area everyone wants to be a firefighter. I swear, it's like a grade school class when you ask grown men what they want to be out here. "I wanna be a policeman!", "I wanna be a astronaut!" (because children don't know the difference between "a" and "an"), "I wanna be a firefighter!". Everyone wants to fight fires, and everyone thinks they have the in to do so. You see, firefighting in Phoenix is very competitive. Lots of people want to do it, very few people get to. All the same people chase the scant few positions available in local departments, and when they're not taking Fire Science classes at The World's Best Community College, they're serving on the auxillary fire departments, which as near as I can tell is just a dude running around with a garden hose.

In the Recruiting website I'd design it would be all fire fighter all the time. For the local departments, and maybe this applies nationwide, military service is a "net good" for the fire departments. On the entry exams given military service is worth an additional five points. Since most of the applicants taking the exams average in the high 80s, low 90s, and the cut off scores tend to be in the high 90s, adding five points can amek-or-break you. I doubt these kids know that, and it's hard to get that information out one crackhead at a time.

My website would explain how fire departments consider prior military as a good thing. I'd show how so many jobs in the Army can mesh with a career in fire fighting. I'd have that one Army commercial of the guy who just got out riding in a fire truck on his first run. I'd show how 74D, 31B, 68W, 92F, and whatever MOS I can connect to some aspect of firefighting will help a young man or woman fulfill their dream of being a firefighter in Phoenix. Then I'd do whatever it took so that someone Googling "Firefighter" and "Peoria" would find SFC B as the top listing.

Anyway, Top's calling for DPR, and I need to go. Filet my theory, show me where it's wrong, and then send me a name and number of someone willing and able to join the Army next week. I needs it!