JMO RECRUITERS: THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY
Ah the Junior Military Officer (JMO) recruiter. A unique blend of hyper aggressive, questionable motives and smooth talking all rolled into one. You know when I first started this site I did a bit on my instagram on JMO recruiters. I was actually kinda scared when I posted the below image. Why? Cause my man Jim Lose (any resemblance is purely coincidental) is FUCKING EVERYWHERE. Dude like lives on my LinkedIn in permanent beach front property.
Why is this? Simple. My man is trying to get paid. Recruiters have an economic incentive to land you a job. Usually in the form of a commission or even retainer fee. As such, you should apply your due diligence and smooth talking of recruiter. Make sure you do the following
Get an understanding of their fee structure. They may be reluctant to tell you, but it’s important to “know your worth”
Is their a exclusivity clause? That means you sign an agreement where you only work with them
Understand that you will most likely need to move, maybe far away. These guys are national placers and are pretty efficient at taking you from Fort Drum to Iowa, Industry is everywhere in the United States, and they need people to grow in this economy. You would be surprised what you find out
Know that any really high salary probably involves sales, where you really kill what you eat. Make no mistake, they will support you for a little, but they want you to be able to hunt and kill targets. You can make a shit ton of money in sales, but its hard and you will be working all the time
Have an idea of what sort of roles they put people in. Are they program manager roles? leadership roles? Are they executive training programs? Some of these companies have these funny little names for their exec leadership development programs. GE used the term CAS (corporate audit staff) for a while.
What happens if you don’t find a job?
What sort of prep program is there?
Ask for references and talk to them
Get an idea of what sort of base salaries, benefits, time off etc, You would be surprised, some places offer way less time off than the military
Understand that you are gonna take a 20% haircut on your salary right away from taxes. You won’t have BAH to hide behind as a tax shield. Add in health insurance, which is a couple hundred dollars a month for a family, A high deductible etc. You’ll see why civilians don’t really give a fuck about your service. It’s hard out for a pimp!
I think it is really important to point out that these people, while many former military, do not always have your best interest in heart. They live off transaction fees. These are not your officers in your unit that care about (despite how much they piss you off). These guys are looking to move product (you) and they don’t really care if you like the job or not.
That being said. JMO recruiters are actually quite essential for the veteran labor market. Not every JMO is going to want to do an MBA or go back to school. Many need to go back to work for personal or family reasons. They are a lifeline for those with rapid unforeseen changes.
My one issue with recruiters is that I have seen fellow friends who had plenty of time to figure out other options, go to a JMO recruiter and end up in a job that kinda sucks. These jobs would often involve sales money quote roles, site level program management, or engineer roles. These are good jobs, but if you really want to climb the corporate ladder you need to get to office jobs. That sounds silly, but who would you think gets promoted faster in a military unit (if such a thing was even possible lmao). The people who work on the flightline or the guys who work with the Brigade Commander? It’s all about face time. My friends disliked their jobs so much so that they leave after a couple years and went to an MBA program. This puts them age and responsibility wise behind their peers. They would have been personally better if they just did an MBA.
My motto is that if sex, seafood or a job come too easy for you. Make sure you do some asking and figure out why, Don’t trust anyone. Don’t trust me. Get personal opinions from a bunch of different people and weigh them against each other. Take any outlandish salary or job claim skeptically. Just be curious.
You can always DM me on Instagram. I’ll give the straight opinion as I see it.