Posted on Mar 24, 2014
I'm curious - What do you wish you had known/someone had told you at the beginning of your career?
4.79K
78
35
6
6
0
Let's see if we can reduce the amount of mistakes people have to make for themselves....
The things that immediately come to mind for me:
1. Take advice, consider it, make a decision. Just because you asked for advice doesn't mean you need to follow it.
2. The proper response to a crappy assignment is to zip your lip and do it to the best of your ability.
3. "Just because you don't take an interest in politics, don't assume that politics don't take an interest in you."
Posted in these groups: 
Mentorship
Career Advice
Mentorship Career Advice
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 23
11
11
0
I wish someone had told me the Infantry had to walk everywhere while carrying heavy weights. If I had only researched...
What I wish I had known:
1. No one will know how many miles you ran to get that 300, but your knees and ankles will remind you daily once you hit 40.
2. Do not waste time crafting a "perfect" answer when "good enough" will suffice. Some information early is better than all information too late. Know when to provide "excellent" and when to provide "good enough". See item 1.
3. NCOs are magical creatures. Inform them early of your plans and involve them in the planning. They will make your plan better and appreciate being part of the process rather than a solution to YOUR process.
4. Mandatory training is quite often an oxymoron in one sense or another.
5. If I had known earlier on that hydration and PT belts could cure everything I would have had a much healthier childhood.
6. You cannot solve every problem, or work every solution in a given day. Know your limits. Write down your successes daily. Accept your limits, and organize your efforts for the next day.
7. No problem is so complex that it cannot be solved by a series of repetitive PowerPoint presentations.
8. You will never run a 40 meter dash in PTs as fast as you did in battle rattle under fire.
9. Just because YOU are an Infantryman who can shower in 30 seconds using half a bar of soap and sleep on concrete and subsist on a handful of power bars does NOT mean that your spouse will do so. Spouses have a different MOS and they outrank you.
10. Families get wise to "Family Fun Days" that attempt to integrate mandatory Soldier briefings. Pick one: Family fun day OR mandatory Soldier PowerPoint day. Never the twain shall meet.
What I wish I had known:
1. No one will know how many miles you ran to get that 300, but your knees and ankles will remind you daily once you hit 40.
2. Do not waste time crafting a "perfect" answer when "good enough" will suffice. Some information early is better than all information too late. Know when to provide "excellent" and when to provide "good enough". See item 1.
3. NCOs are magical creatures. Inform them early of your plans and involve them in the planning. They will make your plan better and appreciate being part of the process rather than a solution to YOUR process.
4. Mandatory training is quite often an oxymoron in one sense or another.
5. If I had known earlier on that hydration and PT belts could cure everything I would have had a much healthier childhood.
6. You cannot solve every problem, or work every solution in a given day. Know your limits. Write down your successes daily. Accept your limits, and organize your efforts for the next day.
7. No problem is so complex that it cannot be solved by a series of repetitive PowerPoint presentations.
8. You will never run a 40 meter dash in PTs as fast as you did in battle rattle under fire.
9. Just because YOU are an Infantryman who can shower in 30 seconds using half a bar of soap and sleep on concrete and subsist on a handful of power bars does NOT mean that your spouse will do so. Spouses have a different MOS and they outrank you.
10. Families get wise to "Family Fun Days" that attempt to integrate mandatory Soldier briefings. Pick one: Family fun day OR mandatory Soldier PowerPoint day. Never the twain shall meet.
(11)
(0)
7
7
0
Off the top of my head, two things I wish I were told right off the bat, and I tell my new Soldiers who come to me out of AIT:
1) No one will care about your career more than you.
2) You will learn just as much (if not more) from terrible leaders as you will from great ones. Study them both very carefully.
1) No one will care about your career more than you.
2) You will learn just as much (if not more) from terrible leaders as you will from great ones. Study them both very carefully.
(7)
(0)
COL Vincent Stoneking
Excellent observations - both. I was told the first one and learned the second along the way.
(0)
(0)
MSG(P) Michael Warrick
That I would learn just as much (if not more) from terrible leaders as you will from great ones. Study them both very carefully!!
(0)
(0)
3
3
0
1. Take more risks in every aspect of your career from assignments to schools, don't just stay in your comfort zone.
2. Playing the game means doing a lot of stuff you don't like to get what you want.
3. Being good at several things gets you more opportunities than being great at a few things.
2. Playing the game means doing a lot of stuff you don't like to get what you want.
3. Being good at several things gets you more opportunities than being great at a few things.
(3)
(0)
SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
I wish somebody would have told me, how much DUTY, HONOR AND COUNRTY, is worth. I would have said, its priceless.....SMDH... Serving your nation is the Noblest job, in my opinion you can ever do!! Hand Down.
(4)
(0)
SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
I wish somebody would have told me, how much DUTY, HONOR AND COUNRTY, is worth. I would have said, its priceless.....SMDH... Serving your nation is the Noblest job, in my opinion you can ever do!! Hand Down.
(0)
(0)
SFC Dr. Joseph Finck, BS, MA, DSS
SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
You are so right. Duty, Honor, Country, and especially serving for our brothers and sisters in arms. The knowledge that as we developed as leaders we had the ability to impact a Soldier who would replace us as a leader and that impact continues and continues and continues.
Service, service, service. The most honorable of all professions with the most honorable of all people.
SFC Joseph M. Finck USA (Ret)
You are so right. Duty, Honor, Country, and especially serving for our brothers and sisters in arms. The knowledge that as we developed as leaders we had the ability to impact a Soldier who would replace us as a leader and that impact continues and continues and continues.
Service, service, service. The most honorable of all professions with the most honorable of all people.
SFC Joseph M. Finck USA (Ret)
(1)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google