Looking to enlist as either a 42A or 36B. Is there anyone that was doing either of those jobs and can provide input?

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 04 Feb 2018 13:34:41 -0500

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 4 at 2018 4:57 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 04 Feb 2018 16:57:28 -0500

I am a 42A in the Army Reserve since 2014 after serving over 14.5 years on Active Duty. I learned a lot as a Human Resource Specialist while serving in many capacities as well as different levels of command. Every unit has a 42A that processes Personnel actions for the unit. If your heart is in HR/Admin and helping Soldiers, 42A is the way to go and wish you the best of luck in your future Army endeavors.

Response by PV2 Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 8 at 2018 9:27 AM

PV2 Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 09:27:43 -0500

Just putting this out here. I’m a 42A and at my AIT graduation the AG full bird Colonel told us 36Bs will be obsolete

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 8 at 2018 1:09 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 13:09:47 -0500

I am a 42A and I love every minute of it. If you are a people person and love assisting people, you will do well. There are also many opportunities to receive a variety of training for some additional skill sets. I’ve been active duty now for a total of 18yrs and o wouldn’t change it for anything ❤️

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 9 at 2018 5:43 AM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 05:43:38 -0500

I carry both MOS and if I had to pick one it would 100% no questions asked be 42A

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 15 at 2018 12:52 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 12:52:46 -0500

I was a 36B for 18 years. Technically still am but sitting in an MP slot and go to school this month. I have deployed three times as finance....2004, 2012-2013, and 2015-20016. I'm National Guard and have never been active so I can't really speak for them, however, on my deployments I have been told that in garrison they do mainly training and other additional duties. We have banks state-side so the need for finance personnel in that aspect is obsolete. On the guard/reserve side we have the full-timers that do MilPay (processing orders, etc). We also have GFEBS now, which is more RM functions. On deployments we do banking/disbursing mainly and have a small MilPay section that handles pay issues.

As far as how often we deploy, the National Guard finance unit in PA is the only one in the whole state. As of today, we have 16 total deployments for the unit, since 2003. We are the most deployed unit in the state and probably one of the top deployed units overall. Anyone with a bit of military experience will tell you...if you want to deploy, go finance or 42A!

Response by SPC Christopher Tacker made Feb 15 at 2018 7:21 PM

SPC Christopher Tacker — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 19:21:11 -0500

Don’t enlist 42A points are ridiculously high for promotion

Response by SGM Debra Bradshaw made Mar 3 at 2018 4:47 AM

SGM Debra Bradshaw — Sat, 03 Mar 2018 04:47:34 -0500

If you are good at both then you might want to consider which one you would want to convert to civilian skills should you ever decide to get out/retire.