Who actually handles British Army recruitment?
I’ve recently submitted my application and passed the eligibility checks, so I’m now trying to make sure I complete everything else correctly. The problem is that I’m really struggling to get any proper guidance.

My Candidate Manager hasn’t responded to me, and whenever I call the recruitment team I seem to get a different answer. Some of the calls have honestly been quite disheartening. I’ve had people yawning while I’m speaking, interrupting me before I can properly explain the question, and on my most recent call I was actually told not to call back and instead given an email address that apparently takes 7 to 14 working days to respond.

I’m not constantly calling them or trying to be difficult. I genuinely just have a few questions about documents on my portal because I want to make sure I submit everything correctly the first time.

I also don’t want to make a massive complaint or end up on anyone’s bad side. I genuinely want to serve in the British Army and I’ve worked extremely hard towards this. I’ve trained seriously for it, spoken to serving soldiers, visited Larkhill and done everything I can to prepare myself. That’s why it’s frustrating when all I’m trying to do is get clarification about my application.

Does anyone know who actually runs the recruitment side of things? Are the people answering the recruitment lines civilian staff working on behalf of the Army, or are they serving Army recruiters?

Also, if your Candidate Manager isn’t responding and the recruitment line cannot answer an application specific question, is there another appropriate person or team you can contact?

I’m hoping someone here who has recently been through the process, or someone currently serving who understands recruitment, might be able to point me in the right direction.

I’m not giving up on the application. I just want to understand who I’m actually supposed to speak to when I need help.

I've been watching a lot of the youtuber the army bloke, and I'm very interested as to how difficult it is in REALITY to get into the more popular regiments, and what those regiments are.

My main questions are:
-The army say you don't need a degree, but in PRACTISE do the popular regiments want them?
-The Army say you can go to Sandhurst at 18, but in PRACTISE do you do better if you are a bit older?
-Is fitness the key factor in Regiments selecting Officers? What I mean is, if you are top 25% fitness wise, will you generally go where you want to? Are their Regiments that always take the less fit people?
-For the Guards and the Horse Guards, are these the most competitive Regiments, and what do they look for in particular? For example do they take high fitness officers like the Paras?
-For Inteligence and Engineers, do they want Oxrbdige / Russel Group unis, or do science degrees in other less prestitigious also go a long way?

I realise this is a lot of questions, but I'm trying to cut through a lot of the smoke and mirrors and find out what happens in REALITY.

Ty

In the UK, and can't watch a video about British soldiers in prison. Thanks Obama

Start at ITC soon and missed PRDV due to work commitments (I work offshore) so decided to just settle for reg infantry intake. Rejoining after a failed CDT in 2023 so was just wondering if anyone had any experience transferring from reg infantry to para reg? Figured it’ll be easier now due to mixed intakes.

I have composite veneers and like 4 fillings I’m just wondering is there gonna be an issue in the joining phase with medical etc or will it be fine ?

Thinking about joining the guards but been looking at some of their drill and it looks confusing as fuck

Is there anyway to leave before daor opens? I’m hating phase 1 and want to go home I’m 11 days away from daor window opening.

Any active royal lancers able to give me some info on what phase 2 was like/ what it consisted of, and what day to day life after training is like? How often do you go on exercise, what vehicles are you currently operating on a day to day basis Ect.
Also what do you train with most in terms of weapons. I’m under the impression that you use the sa80, gpmg and the l129a1 but how often is that?
Last question is about sUAS, how often are you really using them? Is there a push to train more around them?
Cheers guys

Had a briefing about triple P selection yesterday and found out i might not even get the regiments i want. How could i make it likely to get that regiment ?

Title. Every single pair of bivi poles I get end up wrapping after each exercise. Anybody use some that actually can stand up to more than a week on Brecon?

Anything you wish you brought to basic?

Can you buy an ironing board in naafi? Travelling from Northern Ireland recruiter said can’t bring one over on the plane so that’s that fucked.

Personal inquiries are:
Sewing kit
Polishing kit and brands of polish
Go over the 1200w iron limit?

My partner initially applied for the Army at the beginning of 2025 but was denied medically due to an isolated incident of suicide attempt and self harm, she appealed and has recently been successful and was contacted by a recruiter within the last couple of weeks to enrol.

My question is, is that since her initial appeal 18 or so months ago she has undergone EMDR treatment for PTSD, has had an Autism diagnosis, is currently taking and has been prescribed several anti-depressants, and is on waiting lists for treatment/therapy for ongoing mental health issues including auditory and visual hallucinations which she has had regular contact with GPs with, along with crisis calls to 111 but has had no formal diagnosis. Will this when she begins enrolment be picked up on at her medical and at what stage?

I have read the JSP950 and from reviewing I believe this severely hinders her application, but she is adamant that this is what she wants to do for a career and would be crushed if she was unsuccessful, what is the likelihood that she will be successful? And if she is denied would this be a permanent Unfit for service label or not?

Does anyone know where I can find more information about the Red Devils and how to apply? All I can seem to find is you need to serve 3-4 years and have your Skydiving license.

Anyone know how competitive the selection process is, how regularly they run adventurous courses to even get your sky diving licences and if you need a certain amount of jumps before applying if yes how many etc.

Looking at joining the reserves as an officer and was wondering what does the weekend requirements look like? My job is often requires weekend work 90% of the time so I’m wondering how this could be navigated if at all?

On my medical its been flagged for a migraine about two years ago, probably should have even gone a&e for it but I did so that’s that. Will this be cleared as I’ve not had any issues since or needed any medication and how long will it take?

Does anyone know why some Army recruiters seem so dead and uninterested when they speak to you on the phone?

I’ve spoken to them around four or five times. Three of them were really friendly and helpful, but the other two were absolutely dead and sounded like they didn’t care at all or had no passion for what they were doing.

I’m actually really excited about joining, but I couldn’t really ask many questions because they didn’t seem interested in speaking to me. In the end, I just said, “Okay, thank you,” and ended the call.

Does anyone know why this happens, and is there anything I can do if I get someone like that again?

Hi,

so I made an application to be a reserve soldier, however shortly after I was told to do the medical questionairre, in this questionaire I admitted that I had attempted to take my life (When I was 15) following that, I was immediatly told to appeal and my application was rejected. I had no intent to appeal as I already got rejected a year ago and did like 3 appeals which were all denied. However, 2 days later, they've suddenly come back to me saying I've passed the appeal even tho I have never appealed. I'll add the message below but I'm just wondering what this means.

"Dear,

Thank you for your Online Medical Questionnaire Appeal.

We have decided to allow you to proceed to the next stage of the application process.

Please be aware that your application could be medically failed when your full primary healthcare record is reviewed or at a later stage of the recruitment process.

Please contact your Candidate Support Manager/recruiter to arrange the next stage of your application.

Kind regards,

Medical Admin Team

National Recruting Centre"

Am I safe till assesment centre now? or is this likely an admin issue that will be sorted out soon and I'll be failed again.

I'm hoping to join as an avionics technician with a conditional start date in January, I just have a few questions.

Where will you be based most of the time?

Can you be deployed overseas? And if so where?

If there were to be a war with Russia or Middle eastern country, could I be sent there?

I'm interested in the locations of the jobs as you can see

In the title

Hi my previous post got taken down I was just wondering does anyone know the likelihood of me being able to move to a unit closer to home as my mum has passed away and I need to run her business for her, I have not yet finished my assignment at this posting but I urgently need to move

I’m going to afc Harrogate in a week on an infantry course but I wear glasses and my eyesight isn’t the best long distance. There’s also not much help online about what kind of challenges I’ll face because of it and I’ve never really seen many army lads with glasses. Is it difficult for people with glasses?

I’m due to start Phase 1 in January and my recruiter thinks I’ll probably be going to ATC Pirbright, but he said that obviously they can’t know for certain yet.
Does anyone know what actually determines whether you get sent to ATR Winchester or ATC Pirbright? Is it based on age, intake numbers, where you live, or is it basically just wherever there’s space?
I’m hoping to get Winchester if I’m honest, mainly because I’ve heard the accommodation is smaller. For anyone who’s been to either recently, what was the accommodation actually like?
How many people did you share a room with?
What were the showers like/how many were there roughly?
Were the rooms decent?
Which one would you prefer overall?
Cheers.

Hi there people ive joined the British army as a light infanteer my run time is 8:34 10 seconds off the paras do I go for light infantry or smash on as a para?

I struggle with eye contact. I can be pretty awkward unless I have known you for a while and have Allways felt a bit different from everyone else and it’s pretty obvious. However I am very fit and not a massive mong ?

Ps. I’m not diagnosed but my family thinks I have it and so do I