Antecareer Crisis: Military Recruiting and the Youthful Job Applicant

Abstract

Generally, young job applicants have not been adequately prepared by either family or school to make wise occupations decisions. Further, today's occupations structure has an increasingly broad array of job alternatives that must be considered. "Antecareer crisis" denotes the dilemma that confronts the person seeking entry into his or her first full-time work experience: it is a crisis of unpreparedness. Help in the sense of vocational guidance is needed by our youth to resolve the antecareer crisis and effect a smoother entry into the adult world of work. Nowhere is this more true than during entry into the very special occupation milieu of the armed services. However, although the Department of Defense is the largest vocational training establishment in the world and depends inordinately upon youthful workers, the military recruiting services have not adequately addressed the problem.