I can only view the navbar, when the nav class is inside the container.
<div class="navbar">
<div class="navbar-inner">
<div class="container">
<ul class="nav">
<li><a href="#">Recruitment</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Exits</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Which looks as follows:

If I use the sample on the bootstrap site, such as below, I cannot view the navbar. It shows up all messed up. I am at a loss as to why.
<div class="navbar">
<div class="navbar-inner">
<ul class="nav">
<li><a href="#">Recruitment</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Exits</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
Please Disregard the ‘3g’ image. It is from another div.
In both cases, this navbar is nested inside a container. I have not modified the bootstrap css in anyway. Just to be sure, I downloaded a fresh copy and overwrote the bootstrap files.
What gives?
Your code (the “wrong” one) is working propperly with Bootstrap 2.1.1. Look here
Check your version of Bootstrap. If you use up-to-date sample code with an old version of the framework these kind of issues could appear.