I think I chose the wrong MOS

[Stuffs]

If all else fails you can probably switch to active when you reenlist but it'd be harder to get recon the older you are ithink...not sure tho, but that's your best bet..

[Redsfan293]

If you want infantry then make sure your recruiter knows. I've heard that the new fiscal year starts in October, then the Marine Corps gets more money and there will be more jobs opening up. Don't quote me on that though that's just what I've heard.

[PNW2011]

Yes, october is the start of the next fiscal year, has little to do with money, more to do with quotas

[IHaveEGA843]

I dont know if you want to do it but I know they have reserve slots for 0311s. I waited until the list of what will be open here was avail for the up coming fiscal year and made my decision.

My recruiter asked me if I wanted 0311, passed on that noise....just took 0481 that had me on the first thing smoking to PI.

[MunkyVsRobot]

Cant wait too long if you are in the DEP for too long they can boot you I believe.

[PNW2011]

They can, and will. But there's nothing stopping you from coming back in. the SNCOIC kicked a lot of people out, and probably half of them re-enlisted.

[DForbes]

I'd get ripped a new one for defining what a reserve force is? That's awesome for your nephew, I'm not hating on the reserves. I'm just acknowledging what it is. And from talking to reservists online and in person, the opportunities to deploy are significantly lower than active duty. I'm not saying "active Marines are better than reservists", active infantry battalions will always deploy somewhere. That is guaranteed, and that's why I said if you really want to be "in the sh*t", that would be the way to go.

Saying "you can't say that", doesn't make my statement invalid ma'am.

Putting a ma'am after things does not make them respectful; she is a Marine and you should NOT be talking back to her in any way. You also shouldn't be trying to lessen the reserves, I don't really care if that's what you mean, that's what you wrote and that's how it's going to come across. Even if Marine reserves aren't dying at the same rate (I don't know any stats, I'm going off of what you said), they are still sacrificing by being away from their families for a year or more too and missing everything like an active duty Marine does. You should check yourself.

OP: Like others have said, a recruiter is your best bet; however, from what I learned when making the decision too is that it's a lot easier to go active duty before going to boot camp than after if that is what you want to do, I never really saw you say that, other people were though. What I've learned from Marines that come back from boot camp is that during you will be offered a chance to go Recon although I believe you have to be an 03XX, don't quote me on that though. If you can't get an infantry slot firstly I would tell my recruiter to become a smoke jumper. I'm not sure all RSS's are the same, but for us smoke jumpers are those that can be called when something goes wrong and someone can't ship. I'd let my recruiter know I want someone's infantry slot if something comes up. Aside from that though, my recruiters have said that it's fairly easy to do a lateral move once in the fleet into another MOS. This is my own figuring here, but I would think it would be easier to switch out of an MOS if it was one that didn't require too much schooling, in other words that hadn't invested too much in you yet. That's just the way I think it would work.
Good luck!

Poolee Forbes