You’ve joined the military, and you’re excited to get your career started after boot camp. You’ll want to make the most of your career to ensure you’re setting yourself up for future success. While building a successful military career can be challenging, there are ways to live up to the expectations and requirements of your uniform.

Why Should You Try to Do Well in the Military?

Doing your best for the length of your contract or up until retirement has numerous positive outcomes for our service members. A career in the military offers plenty of experience and training to assist veterans entering the civilian workforce. The better you do in the military, the more positive your post-military outcome is likely to be. Some of the life skills you can gain through the military include:

●Resiliency

●Leadership

●Discipline

●Responsibility

●Adaptability

●Maturity

You’ll also develop skills specific to the job you work in the military, which can help you find a career in the civilian world. These skills will serve you well throughout your career and life. Focusing on doing your best in the military will help you make the most of these skills while also providing invaluable connections with others you can leverage later in life.

Our Tips for Thriving in the Military

Ideally, you’ll want to be as successful as possible in the military to set yourself up for success in the future. We’ve compiled some of the best tips for thriving in your military career to help you be the best you can be:

1. Pay Attention

Once you leave basic training, you’ll enter a new world and likely won’t know what you’re doing. When you’re learning the ropes of your new job and being told what to do, make sure you pay close attention. What you learn at the start will be the crucial foundation for the rest of your career.

While you may go in knowing the basics, the military will require more from you. The Armed Forces want you to be an expert, so you should hang on to every detail your superior is telling you. You’ll stand out against your fellow enlistees and even your peers who have been there longer than you if you know more about what you’re doing, which will help when you go in front of the promotion board.

2. Educate Yourself

“Free” promotions stop at E-4. From that point forward, you’ll need to convince your superiors you’re worthy of a promotion and put in the work. To grow in the military, you’ll need the knowledge necessary to be successful in higher positions of power.

You can find and enroll in military correspondence and applicable civilian college courses to help you increase your chances for success in your specific job. You can even complete certifications that prove you have the necessary skills and relevant knowledge to be efficient and successful in your career.

Keep in mind that you’ll need to take the initiative to educate yourself—it won’t be spoonfed to you. Everyone else will be busy following orders and leading units, so you’ll need to seek out further education and training yourself. Taking this initiative is an excellent way to put yourself ahead and make yourself stand out.

3. Stay Motivated and Confident

Times can get tough in the military, but it’s important to stay motivated. Even when you experience hardship or challenges during your career, showing up and putting in the effort will go a long way in impressing your superiors. If you show that you know what you’re doing and do it consistently, you’ll show your superiors that you’re determined to do your best.

Being motivated and staying committed to your work will help you build confidence, which is the key to success in a military career. If you want to have a good position in the military, you’ll need to seem confident in your skills and abilities and that you can adapt to changes. Doing your work well and confidently is a great way to show off your skills to your superior, putting you in a better position for a promotion.

4. Follow Orders

No matter what branch you’re in, you’ll have to comply with orders. Following orders is a regular part of the military, and you’ll have to do so throughout the extent of your career. While newly enlisted service members may be unaccustomed to taking orders constantly, we encourage them to follow them consistently. Your superiors have more experience, and you can learn a lot of valuable information from them that could serve you well in the future when you’re looking for a specific job or promotion. Following instructions and listening to your superiors can take you a long way in your military career.

5. Stay Informed

When you aren’t informed, you’ll have a lot of unnecessary challenges when trying to build a successful military career. Staying knowledgeable of changes in your unit and other relevant information during your time in the military will help you make the best decisions possible to benefit your career. For example, an officer needs to stay informed so they can appropriately direct their actions, or they could be doing more harm to their unit than good. During your career, you should know what’s going on in your job and unit. Talk to people, train consistently, and stay up to date on weaponry and technological advancements that might affect your work.

6. Don’t Offer Excuses

In most cases, the military doesn’t consider personal circumstances. When your superior is talking to you or reprimanding you, you should never try to make excuses unless you’re asked directly. Stick to “yes, sir” and “yes, ma’am” rather than trying to argue. Your responsibility is to follow your superior’s orders and commands versus trying to excuse your behaviors. The more you make excuses, the more you could be hindering your own success.

7. Keep Your Affairs in Order

Once you join the military, you become a representative of your command, meaning your actions will either reflect well or poorly on your leadership, depending on what you do. While you’re in the military, do your best to stay out of excessive debt. You should also avoid fighting with locals, drinking and driving, having checks bounce at your local PX, or anything else that could make your command look bad.

If you’re married and have a family, what they do will also be a representation of you and therefore your command. Your family shouldn’t be getting arrested, getting into fights, driving you further into debt, or any other thing that could reflect badly on you and your superiors. Have an honest discussion with your spouse and let them know how their actions could affect your career, and seek counseling if it’s necessary to break some bad habits or behaviors.

Prepare for Career Success With Tactical Gear From MLC

As you’re preparing to have a great military career, you need to have the right loadout of tactical gear to assist you. Military Luggage Company stocks a wide selection of military gear for various operations, including assault packs, rucksacks, garment bags, duffles, admin accessories, and more. You can use our products for field operations, deployments, casual use, or travel.

Our stock of bags, packs, and cases comes in various colors and camos to accommodate the needs of each branch. Choose from options in black, coyote, Multicam OCP, olive drab, and more. Shop our impressive selection of military gear to help you in your career, or contact us today with your questions.