I am about to do my conscription soon. Are there benefits to volunteer on after completing the compulsory one?
Secure job, salary, and health benefits.
Canât be any dissimilar to volunteering in other countries â armed forces.
What leads you to consider this avenue?
Can you volunteer before completing the compulsory one? And does it count towards the time you need to do compulsory training?
I am considering this because my mandarin is horrible to actually be working in office. My cousin who finished serving the compulsory one told me that he was offered the voluntary service and that they offered to help him improve his mandarin and ofcourse other beneits like you had mentioned. That would be the main reason.
Another thing is that my whole life, I lived in Myanmar & Singapore. My education is kind of business management background. No clear technical skills like engineering or medicine. I had founded my own company in Myanmar though. Managed to get investments from 3VCs based in Japan, Uk & Singapore. Founded it in 2016 when I was in my 24 so 7+ years already. It is somewhat self sustaining now. If you are wondering why I donât try to grow and keep expanding it, it is because of the political situation in the country. However, not sure how that experience would help me here. Career wise.
Thirdly, I am getting Taiwan citizenship mainly because my father is a Taiwan citizen. My grandparents lived here as well as my dad before they moved to Myanmar. I feel the need to overcompensate so as to not feel like an imposter here and I want to feel belongingness to the country. In a sense like kind of connecting back to my ancestry you know. This is just emotional side of it.
Any advice is welcome. I am still trying to figure out Taiwan.
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I am not sure about that.
Maybe you can talk to recruiter in armed forces.
Do you have a particular area you want to focus on, such as air force maintenance, or military logistics, just as examples.
I donât have. I am not really familiar with the military and all its subdivisions. You seem to know a lot more about it. Any suggestion on which unit to join?
Lol, not really.
Children starting to talk about it, because theyâll have to do it some day.
Airplane maintenance, logistics, drone flying, etc. seem to be the âsaferâ areas if indeed a war starts up.
areâŚare you serious?
Logistical suppprt functions - particularly those with heavy emphasis on difficult-to-replace technical knowledge - are high priority targets for first strike and follow-on strikes.
How good is your fitness and how willing are you to get and stay fit?
How good are your technical or mechanical skills?
How well do you handle a high pressure environment (if you donât know itâs okay).
You say your mandarin is very poor, but what other languages and to what level of fluency are you proficient withthose languages?
The point is to be somewhere in some bunker or hard to destroy place, not on front lines handing out ammunition or driving equipment in the field.
Imma go with slow your roll.
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Being a staff NCO or officer would be more likely to get someone safe and secure. But all things considered equal itâs not âsaferâ being in the rear with the gear as it used to be in previous wars with more established boundaries between combat and noncombat zones.
Drone warfare at scale has completely changed the rules of the game for ground warfare.
-Turkish operations against the Kurds in Syria (2020)
- Armenia vs Azerbaijan [Nagorno-Karabakh conflict 2020]
- Russia vs Ukraine [FEB2022-current]
Reviewing combat ops footage and planning from both sides has shown how quickly drone warfare has matured and the obsolescence of present combat doctrines.
If it were the U.S. invading Ukraine it would be a wake-up call to the vulnerability of all elements on the field. Green zones arenât so green and safe anymore when indirect fire was involved. Had the presence of drones been available at scale and provided by Iran to Iraqi insurgents during the U.S. occupation the casualty rates would have been far worse than they were with just IEDâs.
But in any case I digressâŚ
My English is good I would say. I could speak Burmese as native language. Technical wise, not a programmer but I learn pretty quick. Mechanical wise, other than changing light bulbs or car tires, not much experience. I am will to stay fit physically. I am quite good with high pressure situation. My body response is always calmness and I tackle the issue step by step during the high pressure situation. I do not become frantic.
Sorry, I would need more elaboration. What do you mean by slow down on roll?
Well, I mean when it comes down to full blown war and invasion. Nowhere or Nobody really will be safe. I think the best place is where all your capabilities can be fully utilized. If death comes, there is no avoiding it. I arenât really concern with death but man⌠living is harder. *not being suicidal, just my opinion.
Youâre going too fast. I would reconsider joining the military when you havenât mastered the language. I doubt it would be enjoyable.
It is not me bro. It is compulsory enlistment. I donât really have control of the timeline.
Yes but donât you say you were thinking of joining up after the compulsory part is over?
This is more of the âhow things will beâ approach for that scenario. If you were suicidal then alcoholic drinking and chain-smoking would get you there faster.
So youâre proficient in Burmese and have workable english. Have you been tested for competency in either language? (Army bureaucracy loves paperwork [[I identify with MAJ Winters that I donât want to see another piece of paper 
]] so having this will help you).
If you donât already possess certifications and work experience in technical or mechanical aspects then you donât have it. Handling high-pressure environments is good, and donât forget to maintain yourself and take mental breaks and develop mitigation strategies for the like.
Physical fitness is something you can start today. As soon as youâre done scrolling through this post go for a 30 minute walk. If walking is boring then jog, if jogging is boring then run. do as many minutes/seconds at a time as you can until you can do it for the full 30 minutes because youâre going to be doing lots of running in the military.
Last few questions are such:
- How old are you?
- Do you intend to pursue an officer track (not sure if Taiwan permits foreign-born citizens to become officers).
- How proficient is your current chinese level?
-
- If you are not very proficient with your current level are you able to devote full-time focus to learning the language and advancing your skill and knowledge base in the language?
Final question is: What do you want to get from your term of service and what do you plan to do when you eventually get out?