2023 CAF Recruiting Ad

[daftandbarmy]

When did you get the info that it was delayed until Sept? Last thing RCAF CWO said was summer.

And it’s not intended to replace the beret. It can, but it isn’t “thou shalt wear a ball cap instead of a beret”.

 

[Quirky]

When did you get the info that it was delayed until Sept? Last thing RCAF CWO said was summer.

And it’s not intended to replace the beret. It can, but it isn’t “thou shalt wear a ball cap instead of a beret”.

“Summer” can also include sept? We were told sept. Don’t care either way, my headdress is either a toque or bike helmet.

 

[Dana381]

I know nothing about being enlisted but Covid and the GOC's response to it would leave me not really wanting to risk my life for the politicians that behaved so very badly. I love the Canada I grew up in but I do not love the Canada Trudeau is trying to build. I'm sure retention and recruitment are affected by his actions as I know I'm not the only one feeling this way.

 

[btrudy]

 

[rmc_wannabe]

I know nothing about being enlisted but Covid and the GOC's response to it would leave me not really wanting to risk my life for the politicians that behaved so very badly. I love the Canada I grew up in but I do not love the Canada Trudeau is trying to build. I'm sure retention and recruitment are affected by his actions as I know I'm not the only one feeling this way.

 

[Quirky]

I know nothing about being enlisted but Covid and the GOC's response to it would leave me not really wanting to risk my life for the politicians that behaved so very badly.

Trudeau is the least likely to send CAF members in harms way. He'd rather let the carbon evil military collapse and put up more electric charging stations and wind farms.

 

[childs56]

Precisely the opposite, and that it needs to be changed.

Excellent. Add a one-line exemption for CAF and any other federal civil or uniformed service members with a similar housing and posting profile. I'm sure there's some dreary admin bill it could be buried in, and if anyone whines, point to S3 Bloggins, couch-surfer.

Does access to CANEX qualify as a benefit, or is their pricing a separate problem?

Lots of people think the Military gets free housing anyways, minds well make it happen

 

[dimsum]

I know nothing about being enlisted but Covid and the GOC's response to it would leave me not really wanting to risk my life for the politicians that behaved so very badly.

I'm not sure anyone joins the CAF thinking "I'm doing this for the politicians".

 

[Halifax Tar]

I'm not sure anyone joins the CAF thinking "I'm doing this for the politicians".

I think that was meant as more of a "is the juice worry the squeeze?" Statement.

And anyone joining should be looking at how we treat our people while they are in and after they get out, and deciding for themselves if they can live with the social contract as it exists.

 

[brihard]

One of the problems the CAF has with it's offer of more than just money, is it's not sold/explained well. We push the 25 year pension for life, but don't seem to push the return of contributions system that allows people to put away money for retirement even if not staying for the full 25. Based on my pay I'm essentially putting away $1800 a month without even seeing it happen, I suspect a lot of people at my pay level on the civilian side aren't putting away that much.

Offering a 70% pension after 30 years of Regular Force service might be an incentive for some to consider staying in for the whole ride.

Or, maybe not.

You guys may be overestimating how aware the recruiting base is of things like pensions.

We’re talking the 17-25 crowd. Those coming out of high school, up to those who’ve muddled about adult life for a few years and are looking for something better.

This is a cohort living paycheck to paycheck, and ill served by the education system about financial matters. It’s also a cohort that doesn’t really think about something so far out as retirement. Making rent is tough, home ownership may not even be a dream because of how out of reach it is. The notion of working 25+ years and then having a guaranteed income based on a multiple of years of service is just something that probably hasn’t been explained to them or that they’ve wrapped their heads around.

When my wife finally broke into a really solid public sector career and suddenly had good benefits and a collective agreement, I had to help her start wrapping her head around the positive implications of that, and get us meeting a financial planner who was able to map it all out. Huge eye opener for her. I think she’s reasonably typical of our millennial generation (and likely the next generation behind us) in terms of entering adulthood without very good education in big picture money stuff.

So CAF may be recruiting in part based on assumptions that the target audience understands the carrots CAF is dangling, but nobody’s ever really explained what a carrot is before.

 

[dimsum]

You guys may be overestimating how aware the recruiting base is of things like pensions.

We’re talking the 17-25 crowd. Those coming out of high school, up to those who’ve muddled about adult life for a few years and are looking for something better.

This is a cohort living paycheck to paycheck, and ill served by the education system about financial matters. It’s also a cohort that doesn’t really think about something so far out as retirement. Making rent is tough, home ownership may not even be a dream because of how out of reach it is. The notion of working 25+ years and then having a guaranteed income based on a multiple of years of service is just something that probably hasn’t been explained to them or that they’ve wrapped their heads around.

When my wife finally broke into a really solid public sector career and suddenly had good benefits and a collective agreement, I had to help her start wrapping her head around the positive implications of that, and get us meeting a financial planner who was able to map it all out. Huge eye opener for her. I think she’s reasonably typical of our millennial generation (and likely the next generation behind us) in terms of entering adulthood without very good education in big picture money stuff.

So CAF may be recruiting in part based on assumptions that the target audience understands the carrots CAF is dangling, but nobody’s ever really explained what a carrot is before.

I would suggest is that because of how crappy the home ownership/inflation/everything else situation is, the 17-25 crowd may actually understand the value of a guaranteed job with benefits because they're generally paycheck to paycheck, without knowing whether they'll be staying in those jobs.

 

[mariomike]

I would suggest is that because of how crappy the home ownership/inflation/everything else situation is, the 17-25 crowd may actually understand the value of a guaranteed job with benefits because they're generally paycheck to paycheck, without knowing whether they'll be staying in those jobs.

My only experience with young people was being sent to a few career days at local high schools when I was injured. I didn't volunteer for it.

I spoke about making a contribution to society. The satisfaction of helping people in the community.

Maybe that was important to some. Maybe not.

I wonder if this might be a good way to go for the CAF,

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Except that in FRP, the intent was to reduce the force size. The intent now is the opposite.

Is it though? I think the CAF is concerned…I believe the GoC is “less concerned”.

If the average CAF mbr pay is $8k/month and the CAF is short 10k in the Reg Force, that is $80 million CAD less in salaries paid/month.

 

[Furniture]

You guys may be overestimating how aware the recruiting base is of things like pensions.

We’re talking the 17-25 crowd. Those coming out of high school, up to those who’ve muddled about adult life for a few years and are looking for something better.

This is a cohort living paycheck to paycheck, and ill served by the education system about financial matters. It’s also a cohort that doesn’t really think about something so far out as retirement. Making rent is tough, home ownership may not even be a dream because of how out of reach it is. The notion of working 25+ years and then having a guaranteed income based on a multiple of years of service is just something that probably hasn’t been explained to them or that they’ve wrapped their heads around.

When my wife finally broke into a really solid public sector career and suddenly had good benefits and a collective agreement, I had to help her start wrapping her head around the positive implications of that, and get us meeting a financial planner who was able to map it all out. Huge eye opener for her. I think she’s reasonably typical of our millennial generation (and likely the next generation behind us) in terms of entering adulthood without very good education in big picture money stuff.

So CAF may be recruiting in part based on assumptions that the target audience understands the carrots CAF is dangling, but nobody’s ever really explained what a carrot is before.

My point is that we should be selling it more, explaining to the target audience that the CAF offers a great retirement savings plan that you won't even notice happening, similar to the way the the GI bill down in the US works by deductions from pay.

Though it's a VAC programme, but the CAF should also be pushing the up to $40K for education after six years of service.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Keep in mind the "long-term job with benefits" is still a recent anomaly.

 

[daftandbarmy]

My only experience with young people was being sent to a few career days at local high schools when I was injured. I didn't volunteer for it.

I spoke about making a contribution to society. The satisfaction of helping people in the community.

Maybe that was important to some. Maybe not.

I wonder if this might be a good way to go for the CAF,

These ads completely miss the mark...

... unless 'the mark' is why your Granddad joined the Army

 

[dimsum]

similar to the way the the GI bill down in the US works by deductions from pay.

TIL. It's not "free" money, it's a forced education benefit.

Keep in mind the "long-term job with benefits" is still a recent anomaly.

I don't know. Lots of older-generation folks who spent entire careers in the same company. I would suggest that the current "gig" economy is the recent anomaly.

 

[Remius]

TIL. It's not "free" money, it's a forced education benefit.


I don't know. Lots of older-generation folks who spent entire careers in the same company. I would suggest that the current "gig" economy is the recent anomaly.

And how many generations is that though? One? Maybe two?

And plenty of generations before that where people would bounce job to job based on where the work was at. Maybe the gig economy is the norm.

 

[brihard]

My point is that we should be selling it more, explaining to the target audience that the CAF offers a great retirement savings plan that you won't even notice happening, similar to the way the the GI bill down in the US works by deductions from pay.

Though it's a VAC programme, but the CAF should also be pushing the up to $40K for education after six years of service.

More than 40k now, it’s been indexed since the year it was established. I haven’t taken mine yet but I think it’s up to 46k. Eyeballing a masters in another couple years.absolutely CAF should be capitalizing on that. Accept that some troops will only be in for a certain amount of time.

 

[Brad Sallows]

I don't know. Lots of older-generation folks who spent entire careers in the same company. I would suggest that the current "gig" economy is the recent anomaly.

Depends on how old you are. In my case, my grandparents' generation (people born 1900-1935) mostly shuffled around over their lives in resource industries.