What are the pros and cons of going from your first contract as active duty Army to Reserves?

Pros: Pride in continued service; additional income; Tricare Reserve Select; opportunities for rank and leadership experience; opportunities for additional training; additional motivation to maintain your physical health; service member benefits; contact with people from diverse occupational backgrounds; train close to home ("close" being relative so it may also be a con); your fulltime military experience conveys value to your Reserve unit.

Cons: Can interfere with civilian life and career; most civilians and Active Duty SMs do not understand, and may look down on, what you do and if/how you sacrifice; "one weekend a month; two weeks a year"...that's a bit optimistic; military bearing may not be what you were used to on AD.

A lot of the comments touch the bases, but without knowing your career goals, we can't give you the most applicable advice.

What your plan? Do you want to stay AG? Commission, warrant, CSM, AGR?

Maybe you want to go to nursing school, get your BSN and the go AMEDD and get all those sweet annual bonuses 66Hs get just for hanging out in the Army Reserve.

The Army has great benefits on both sides, but the RA component is going to require a lot more of your time than the Reserve and you're going to earn that Tricare Prime.

I served 12 years on active duty, was caught up in the Clinton era downsizing, and moved to the National Guard, where I served another 12 years. As a senior captain going from active duty to the national guard the main pitfall was not belonging to the in crowd. I was always an outsider. The only thing that saved me was I had a couple of good friends in the unit that I went to ROTC with, but I was never, never going to have a command or be in an important position. Those assignments went to one of the boys. It may be a lot different for a PFC or SPC making the transition, but they have their in crowd and you will have to deal with that.