Advice For joining 11B?

Get in shape before you get to basic as others have said. Try to go Airborne if you get the chance it opens some doors for units with higher training budgets and more class slots

Beef up your Poaceae beautification skills

First, accept responsibility if you were anyway involved. Don’t blame others for your failures. Most Important Attribute: Physical Fitness is key in the infantry.
Most important actions: be where you’re supposed to be, when you’re supposed to be there, wearing what you are supposed to wear.
Most important words: Yes, Sergeant.. moving.
Most important attitude: I will never quit, ever.
Finally, volunteer for everything. Eventually your NCOs will pick you for choice duties and give shit duties to slackers.

Change your MOS

Learn to catch a cat-nap whenever you can. I continue doing so many years later!
Conserve your energy while fully participating to the best of your ability.

First OSUT is not the place to be noticed. Keep your head down, mouth shut, and ears open; If you do not understand something ask a DI, not a friend.

Everyone has a come to Jesus moment in OSUT, there is going to be a time when you are going to have to decide to a quit or do I keep going, if you want to be a good soldier you MUST NEVER QUIT, ever. This is the moment you become a soldier.

You should always move with a purpose, being late is a mistake period. "On time" is late, and early is on time. This is a skill that will last your entire life, called time management, learn it as soon as you can.

Find some people you have stuff in common with be it cars, religion, etc; Military life can be lonely if you don't have friends.

NCO's and Officers are not your friends, you have a peer group stay within it.

Remember OSUT is long and hard, but regular everyday military life is much better, it is not easier, but it is better.

I can not emphasize this enough, being in the military is a privilege, you don't want to do anything to take that privilege away. Do not drink if you are not 21, do not be late, go AWOL, etc. And most important, do not think you are underpaid.

As an Infantryman you can end up at just about any post, but let us pick Georgia, Fort Benning, home of the infantry as a good example of how life might be.

Fort Benning is in Columbus, Georgia. Median income in Columbus Georgia is 41k, this is per household, which has two earners, the median individual income, for a male, is 30k annually, or 15 dollars an hour. Median rent is 793 dollars a month in Georgia, and median home price is 170k, on a 30 year fixed mortgage with 2.75% loan you would pay 694 dollars a month in mortgage plus PMI and Property taxes, as a civilian, as a veteran no PMI if you use the VA loan.

700 dollars s about 25% of ones income at 30k a year.

A buck private coming out of Infantry OSUT in the Army should make 1,785.00 a month, or 21.5k a year (with no mortgage or rent as you will live int he barracks). You will also not pay utilities like electricity, gas, water, and trash. It is also possible to get promoted to E-2 while in OSUT, so that is 2k a month base pay, and if you do the work now, you can go in as an E-3 which is 2100.00 a month.

You will also not have to pay for food, and if granted the ability to mess separately you will be paid an additional 300 dollars a month; If authorized to rent out in town you will be given another 1200 a month give or take for rent.

The military is not now, nor have they ever been, underpaid and all the guys who talk shit about getting off active duty and making "real money" do not understand money and how it actually works.

Finally, learn your three general orders now:

1. I will guard everything within the limits of my post and quit my post only when properly relieved.
2. I will obey my special orders and perform all of my duties in a military manner.
3. I will report violations of my special orders, emergencies and anything not covered in my instructions to the commander of the relief.

And the Infantryman's creed.

I am the Infantry.
I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace.
I am the heart of the fight... wherever, whenever.
I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies.
I am the Queen of Battle.
I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier
in the world.
In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous,
armed with a fierce will to win.
Never will I fail my country’s trust.
Always I fight on...through the foe, to the objective, to triumph
overall.
If necessary, I will fight to my death.
By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of
freedom.
I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to
superior odds,
For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight.
I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred
duty.
I am relentless.
I am always there, now and forever.
I AM THE INFANTRY!
FOLLOW ME!

Have you already signed a contract?

11B was the biggest mistake of my life. They eat their young. Treat everybody like shit. They don't trust any of their own people. They treat everybody as if they are untrustworthy. They treat everybody as is they are retarded. They treat their people like children. All despite the fact that the people they are treating horribly are in fact there because they want to be there.

Other than the obvious and practical "don't"?

Keep your powder dry & your head down