Assessing Your Skills
To find a good civilian job, you need to clarify your skills. Skills assessment helps you
answer the question "What do I do best?" A skills assessment can:
- Help you determine the types of jobs in which you are likely to excel (manager, mechanic,
nurse, salesperson, teacher, etc.)
- Help you prepare a focused resume (one that only includes the aspects of your background that
specifically relate to the job or career you are looking for)
- Help you answer job interview questions such as, "What do you like to do in your spare
time?"
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Hot Tip:
Relate your spare-time activities to the job for which you are interviewing.
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Translating military experience into civilian language is one of the most common stumbling
blocks in the skills assessment process. One way to tackle this problem is to talk to friends
who have already left the service. Ask them to tell you the do's and don'ts of what civilian
employers want to hear. You should also consider attending workshops and seminars. Here’s
a good approach to assessing skills:
Step 1. Assignments: List the projects you have worked on, problems you have
solved, situations you have helped clarify, and challenges you have met.
Step 2. Actions: List the actions you have taken to carry out these
tasks.
Step 3. Results: List the results that your actions helped to
achieve.
The skills that appear on these three lists should be incorporated into your resume and job
interviews.
Skill assessment for many service members and their families requires assistance. The
staffs at the Transition Assistance Office and Education Center can provide that
assistance.
For more assistance in skills assessment, go to
http://www.hirevetsfirst.gov and
http://www.Military.com/careers.
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Hot Tip:
Use the
Military Occupational Classification (MOC) Skills
Translator offered by O*NET to translate your military specialty. You can also use the
Military.com
Salary Calculator to get salary information for specific industries in your desired work
location.
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