joining the RDF (Relief Defence Forces) or the Defence Forces

My son is 18 and sitting leaving cert next year. He wants to join the army.

Recruiting is now underway for the Relief Defence Forces and he is going to apply.

As far as I know recruiting for the Army is February next year.

If he did get into the Relief Defence Forces would this mean he would have a better chance of getting into the army or would it mean that he would be tied into the RDF. As far as I know he would be expected to stay with RDFfor three years.

How hard would it be to get into the army do many apply and on average how many would normally be recruited.

Also if he applied in February how long would it normally take to start, he will still need to sit leaving cert in June. Would interview process take weeks, months or years.

Appreciate feedback.

Re: joining the RDF or the Defence Forces

Has he any interest in joining the Gardai, they are far better paid, their working conditions are better and they have a fairly solid pension at the end. He only has to put in 30 years service before retiring. How good can that be!

Re: joining the RDF or the Defence Forces

Been a while since I went through the process so anything I would say would probably be well out of date but what I would recommend is giving the local barracks a shout, they can be surprisingly helpful (from experience). I'm sure if he gave them a shout they'd be more than happy to have a chat with him and explain the best way to go about it, no harm either hearing it from the horse's mouth about what army life is really like (the good & the bad).

Re: joining the RDF or the Defence Forces

If you are a member of the Garda Reserve it gives you a definite advantage when being interviewed for the full time Garda,

I imagine the same is for the Army reserve. It also gives your son the opportunity to sample Army life without a permanent commitment. If he doesn't like it he can apply for discharge.

Any skills he picks up as a part time soldier e.g discipline, organisation, planning, teamwork are good attributes to put on a C.V.

It may give him the opprtunity to matue and see that while he likes the Reserve duties he may not be interested in a full time Army career.

The Defence Forces as a career has become very professional and varied. It is worth giving serious consdieration to

Re: joining the RDF or the Defence Forces

Thanks for the replies. I rang local barracks and was told there is no indication at the moment for recruiting next year as yet and this years applicants have not being called up yet.
He will be applying for guards also, he will be applying for everything possible and happy with whatever but I think he would prefer the army.
But it looks like recession has effected these secure jobs too. There will be cutbacks across the board.

Re: joining the RDF or the Defence Forces

Maybe some usefull info on this thread on boards.ie:

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