When I joined the Navy, I became an aviation structural mechanic. Now I definitely did not do this for compensation at the time, as early enlisted members of the military are paid very horrible, but over time I was motivated by it. After basic training and several months of aviation schooling I finally made it to the fleet. This meant that I was assigned to a squadron of fighter jets and placed into a work center to do my job. During the first couple of months, I learned so much about every aspect of the jet including hand signals, towing, startups, daily maintenance, and other trivial things. Over time though I wanted to start getting paid more and be promoted so I started to come in early and stay late and volunteer for tasks no one else wanted to do. Eventually I was recognized, and I received a very good evaluation. To be promoted in the Navy you need to have a certain minimum score for your job and rank that comes from a semiannual test and your evals. Now that I hard the eval and decided to study hard for the test so I could be promoted. After taking the test and waiting a few months the results finally came out and I made E-4 (Petty Officer Third Class in the Navy) and achieved my goal. I was later paid more for my new rank and later I did the same thing to make E-5.
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