This is something I haven't seen posted in the time that I've searched, but hopefully I can get an answer because I'm looking at tendering an application as soon as is reasonable. I'm 25, and I got pretty poor grades throughout high school. This is mostly due to the fact that I had some serious attendance issues when I was in my early to mid teens relating to anxiety and some other stuff that took a long time to work through.
As I finished credits and matured, my grades got better, and I began to get grades in the upper 80s and 90s in some classes. However, at this time my mom got lost her job and got cancer in the same month, so I had to go to work to pay bills. This more or less left me with no real opportunity to finish school and I ended up getting my GED rather than draw out the process of finishing off my high school credits any longer than I already had. She then got cancer a second time, and while she has recovered, she's been out of work for several years now and I've been working full-time to support the both of us (she raised me as a single mom).
I'm a smart person, but the problems I had in my early-mid teens and some of the things that came up in my late teens meant that I never really lived up to my potential. I've had an interest in the armed forces since a speaker came to my high school when I was 15 or so. Currently my only real work experience is working full-time in a retail environment. It's not particularly useful work experience for anything except other retail jobs. I feel kind of trapped and this has me turning to the one career option that has kind of stuck with me for the past 10 years and always seemed like something that would be rewarding. I like working with my hands and would ideally end up in a position like weapons tech (land). I don't want to sound like I'm denigrating the position, but I don't think it's a job that would necessarily have the most stringent academic requirements. Also, I feel like I would do very well on the aptitude test (due to the practice tests I've taken) and could make a good impression in an interview.
But what I'm wondering is if having the grades that I did in high school put me at a severe disadvantage compared to other people? I feel like I have to accept responsibility for not having more self-motivation when I was younger but it bothers me to think that it's about 10 or so years later now and I'm still having to live with the mistakes I made when I was a dumb kid. Is this something that would be a serious negative on my application, or would a high score on the aptitude test and a good interview serve to help smooth that over?
I didn't mean to write so much, but I appreciate any input anyone may have. Thanks.
As I finished credits and matured, my grades got better, and I began to get grades in the upper 80s and 90s in some classes. However, at this time my mom got lost her job and got cancer in the same month, so I had to go to work to pay bills. This more or less left me with no real opportunity to finish school and I ended up getting my GED rather than draw out the process of finishing off my high school credits any longer than I already had. She then got cancer a second time, and while she has recovered, she's been out of work for several years now and I've been working full-time to support the both of us (she raised me as a single mom).
I'm a smart person, but the problems I had in my early-mid teens and some of the things that came up in my late teens meant that I never really lived up to my potential. I've had an interest in the armed forces since a speaker came to my high school when I was 15 or so. Currently my only real work experience is working full-time in a retail environment. It's not particularly useful work experience for anything except other retail jobs. I feel kind of trapped and this has me turning to the one career option that has kind of stuck with me for the past 10 years and always seemed like something that would be rewarding. I like working with my hands and would ideally end up in a position like weapons tech (land). I don't want to sound like I'm denigrating the position, but I don't think it's a job that would necessarily have the most stringent academic requirements. Also, I feel like I would do very well on the aptitude test (due to the practice tests I've taken) and could make a good impression in an interview.
But what I'm wondering is if having the grades that I did in high school put me at a severe disadvantage compared to other people? I feel like I have to accept responsibility for not having more self-motivation when I was younger but it bothers me to think that it's about 10 or so years later now and I'm still having to live with the mistakes I made when I was a dumb kid. Is this something that would be a serious negative on my application, or would a high score on the aptitude test and a good interview serve to help smooth that over?
I didn't mean to write so much, but I appreciate any input anyone may have. Thanks.
