I am considering joining the Army Reserves if I cannot get promoted to Staff Sergeant in the near future. How are things in the Reserves ?

It all depends what you are wanting to get out of it. I'm am currently AGR and have been in the reserves for 12 years. Came from active duty in 04. There are a lot of training opportunities in the reserves for schools and missions if you are green across the board and wiling to go. It is a different mind set in some units but in the end the Soldiers need good leadership and want to train, just gets hard when the culture of a unit is to sit back and collect the check. Not all reserve units are like this but it's those that are that give reserves a bad rep. If you have any other questions about the reserves let me know

It depends on what type of unit you go to but I can assure you it won't be like the regular Army.

Depends on what you are looking for. Reserve and Guard are both the same thing in essence..you just report for different time requirements. The big difference is reserves can make you move if needed where guard is state hence you don't get pcsd without your say...unless mobilized or active guard.

The big difference active sees when they switch is the dynamics of the reserve or guard scenario. In civilian mode you could be the supervisor of your commander once you show up for formation in military mode and vice versa. The other? Prepare for a huge difference in speed of asignments. Remember active is 24/7....guard and reserves are weekend. You will be expected to do what you would normally take a week to accomplish in less than 48 hours.