You Recruit Who You Are: The Quality Relationship Between Marine Recruiter and Enlistee

In recruiting, the phrase you recruit who you are describes a presumed relationship recruiters attract and enlist individuals who are similar to themselves or within their in-group. This research evaluates the correlation of high-quality recruiters on high-quality enlistees. For the 264,681 recruiter-enlistee pairs from 2011 to 2019, quality is defined and determined for both recruiters and enlistees with five metrics using DOD enlistment standards and Marine Corps promotion and retention standards. I use linear probability models with RSS fixed effects and year fixed effects to hold constant market conditions and variations across years. Based on the five metrics, I find that high-quality recruiters have a consistently positive estimated effect on high-quality enlistees across all metrics with several effects statistically significant. I surmise that, by determining which Marines are high-quality prior to their assignment to recruiting, the Marine Corps may affect the quality of the enlistees at accession. Because force design necessitates higher-quality accessions, this thesis therefore recommends that the Marine Corps consider sending more high-quality Marines to recruiting duty to potentially improve the quality of the warfighting organization. Conversely, if the Marine Corps does not prioritize and send high-quality Marines to recruiting duty, then the Marine Corps may pay the price with lower quality enlistees.