Hi, great question and one so many people are worried about. The Army is just a job. Yes, it's a job where you have to move away from home to train to be able to do it but there could be the opportunity to be posted near to where you live currently (if that's what you choose). Although the needs of the Army will always come first and there aren't many jobs where you will deploy on exercise, operations or even adventurous training, you can have a very normal (pre army) life. Lots of people still play for their old sports clubs for example and get to see their civi friends.
A normal week might be something like, late start on a Monday (to allow people to travel back to camp on Mon morning rather than Sunday night), Weds sports afternoon, Fri finished around 2pm to enable people to drive 'home'. Most weekends are not working weekends. However, obviously if you are deployed on exercise / ops you are 'working' pretty much 24/7 (as in you can't go home).
I have 3 children and have been fortunate with my postings and have gone to locations i wanted - including 5 years in Germany. I live 45mins from my own parents now and get to see them when i want to. I hope this helps. Please don't see the army as this job where you live behind a wire and barely get to go home - it's absolutely not like that at all. There's plenty of serving personnel who do 9-5pm depending on their job role and what they are doing .

13 July, 2021 23:01