Hey all! I'm Jay, I'm 22 and a recent college graduate. For a while now I've been considering a career with the Coast Guard and I feel like I'm a the point in my life where I am ready to get the ball rolling. Naturally I have a million questions and have spent hours searching the internet for information. I'm going to try calling my local recruiter on Monday to see if I can set up a meeting. My main concern is, will it be a very long process to get a ship date? I understand they have reduced the number of people they are taking now. Also, what is the best way to prepare for the ASVAB? I've got my heart 100% set on Health Services Technician. Is that particularly hard to get? Any advice on any of these topics is a huge help and I'm looking forward to chatting with you all.

Welcome aboard Jay. If you have already graduated college, you already know how to study. Get a guide or two from Barnes & Noble or any bookstore, there are some places on line to start... Then just study. Be prepared for a wait. However, when you get to talk to the recruiter, get a meeting with him, knock his socks off, make him want to sell the CG to you, not you to the CG. Dress well, speak well, be on time for meetings (early), have all necessary paperwork with you and ready to be handed over. Write a resume, get a letter of recommendation... you know the drill on the little things. Just sell yourself and make the recruiter think the CG needs you! You'll get there. Best of luck!

Macie,

Thanks for the advice! I'm definitely picking up one of those study guides. The rest of it sounds like I should approach it as a job interview, I like that approach.

Another question I have is what is the best way to initially contact the recruiter? E-mail or just call the office on Monday morning? Should the letter of recommendation be from an academic source or does that not matter?

This relates to something you posted in a different topic, but that would be amazing to get a tour of your son's boat! If he wouldn't mind, maybe we could set something up for the near future! Thanks!

It is a job interview...so no dead fish handshakes and look them in the eye!

I would try anyway to make that initial contact, voice mail, email, smoke signal, billboard on the T... they are busy and don't always return calls on the first one. So it might take a couple of calls and/or emails. Be persistent and show your interest. Recruiters genrally cover a large area with a small staff. Expect them to be almost always busy. Your letter(s) of recommendation can come from anyone, a former boss, an educator, a minister... someone that knows you and can really speak well of you.

As for catching up with Colin and touring the ship, we can work that out and I'll hand you off to him. :-) I'm in Texas, too far and nothing to tour in Ft Worth! LOL He will be more help.

J,

Did anyone every tell you, you like a tiny Jake Gyllenhal?

HAHA No I've heard I look like Seth Green before, but never Jake Gyllenhaal. But i'll take that as a compliment lol

How do you know if likes a tiny Jake Gyllenhal? I don't know if that is a fair statement!

Look at his pic... he looks like a tiny Jake Gyllenhal.... For all I know, in real life he looks like Zombie Steve McQueen.

Gears, re-read your sentence... you'll see why I was laughing at you... LOL

Jay, got it right but he doesn't know you well enough to pick on you, YET!

Re-read complete... I'm clearly missing something. His picture is very small... hence the "tiny" comment. But, that was on purpose.