What's the WORST career advice you have gotten or heard someone else get? It happens...

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

That made me create ArmyReenlistment.com...the Army never had a dedicated retention page (still doesn't...I do haha)

CSM (Join to see), that I could not be Drill Sergeant, it surprised him after I got selected and did two years on the trail at C/2-47 IN, Charlie Rock, Panther Battalion (Fort Benning, Georgia 2006-2008). It pissed him off so more, I have never heard or seen him again in almost 10 years. Always believe in yourself and not the nay-sayers who don't believe in you.

Worst advise ever received in over 12 years of srevice was "You're a f**king Soldier in the United States Army. Your job is to follow my f**king orders when I give them and not ask any f**king questions!" This was in front of twenty some odd civilians and about five SPC and below. I was a SSG at the time and so was he. The order in question. Get the colonels vehicle moved because the parking lot was getting repainted. My offending question you ask? Where would the Colonel prefer it to go, location x or location y? How dare I wonder. This is yet another reason I started my recent question and poll. I am highly skilled, can MAYBE fit two more schools on my ERB and am working on my Master's but not allowed to use common sense and now even on orders to an assignment where not one of my specialties that the Army paid a crap ton of money for is going to be utilized. Ok. Sorry. Rant over.

Mine was a person who was not a very good officer. It was, "Its not personal its business." He would utter this anytime he felt he had to convey something unpopular and did not have the fortitude to stand up to his superior's bad orders and decisions. First off we are not a business, we are a service that requires sacrifice, commitment, and character. We do not have a bottom line, stock price, or profit margin that we chase. We provide national security voluntarily under the most extreme circumstances so that that the other 99% of the US can live free. Second, it is always personal. Everything the military does, and we as leaders, is personal. When you raise your right hand and vow to protect the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic with true faith and allegiance to the same, with the understanding that could mean at the cost of your life, that is personal. Our "business", or the correct term our service, is a personal matter at its core and that was something this commander did not understand and tried this trite advise to try and not be the bad guy.

I always loved computers from my pre-teen days (still remember the Program 101 fondly) and in my junior year my high school guidance counselor told me to stay away from computer science as a major when I went to college.

"The field is going to be so flooded by the time you get your degree, you'll never be able to get a job".

Actually listened to him which is why I ended up with a minor in physical chemistry and mathematics (before I switched in the latter half of my Sophomore year to CompSci).

You can go for a full time masters if you want, but the guys who come back, they are not quite as sharp as they once were....actual career advice from a newly retired LTC (DA Civilian) to me as a Company Commander returning from a combat deployment on whether to Go take an ACS slot or not.

We had a CSM that got us together during NCOPD at my new unit and told us that Drill Sergeant, Instructor, or WTU platoon sergeant is great for your career. However, he told us that recruiting was a waste of time, and he looked very poorly upon recruiters for promotion. That said, I had just come from recruiting, then he disappeared right about the time of the SFC board. I was pretty sure I was hosed, but that's the board I got picked up on, and he was sitting on it. I guess my time as a recruiter didn't hurt me so bad after all.

The worst I have heard..... When I was an E5 I was told if I did not learn to kiss ass I would never see E6. Well sadly that person was eventually kicked out and I am still in and an E7.

I once heard a CSM tell a SSG the reason he didn't make SFC was because he was stationed at Fort Campbell and never been to Air Assault School.

Our battalion was de-activating at Ft. Bragg, so I was on the phone to Branch looking for an assignment. A former 1SG from our Bn was assigned as one of the managers there. His advise was to come up there and take his position, it would be a shoe in for me to SGM. My big ass mouth engaged before my slow ass brain (as usual) and I said, "Bernie, then why the hell are retiring as a MSG instead of SGM...Thanks!" Hung up the damn phone!