FEDERAL CAREER CONNECTION

Great new tool for transitioning veterans!

My Next Move for Veterans is a new interactive tool designed to help U.S. veterans learn about their career options. The site has tasks, skills, salary information, job listings, and more for over 900 different careers. Veterans can find careers through keyword search; by browsing industries that employ different types of workers; or by discovering civilian careers that are similar to their job in the military.  To learn more, go to: http://www.mynextmove.org/vets/.

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Mil2FedJobs portal great tool for transitioning vets

The state of Maryland recently launched a web portal to assist veterans with translating their military jobs to federal civilian positions.

According to a state government press release, "Lt. Governor Brown Launches First-In-The-Nation Web Portal to Connect Veterans With Military Jobs" (April 26, 2011), the Maryland Workforce Exchange directly matches transitioning servicemembers with both white and blue color jobs in the federal government.

["While veterans have an array of skills and vast training, many struggle to understand how their military experience can translate into the professional civilian environment. The Mil2FedJobs portal uses veterans’ military occupational codes (MOC) to query federal openings that match their qualifications on the USAJOBS Web tool. In part because of the large number of vacancies posted on USAJOBS, navigating the site without a tool like Mil2FedJobs can often be an overwhelming task for a first-time federal applicant. In addition, Mil2FedJobs allows civilian hiring managers to identify specific military occupations that share attributes with specific jobs in their agencies."]

To access the Military to Federal Jobs Crosswalk, click here. Or copy the following link into the URL address bar in your browser:

http://www.mil2fedjobs.com/

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Vets have more difficulty finding jobs

I came across a NPR news story (Fresh From Service, Vets Face Daunting Job Market, May 20, 2011) citing that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are facing more obstacles when competing for civilian jobs.  I agree with two points made by the author.

First, many veterans have a difficult time translating their military skills and experiences into marketable, private-sector industry terms for potential employers.

There are two handy web sites that I would recommend for veterans:

1. Military to Civilian Occupation Translator
2. O*NET Online's Crosswalk Search

Second, I am of the same opinion with Tim Embree's statement that many "potential employers don't understand the valuable experience vets bring to the job".  Embree is a legislative associate with the group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

However, as a Persian Gulf War veteran, I learned right away that once I left the Marines and began my job search, many employers from the private sector did not care to hear about my exploits in the sandbox. They just wanted to know how would my skills and experiences benefit their organization's bottom line.

Click here to read the full story.

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FCC hosts first guest speaker

Cortez Puryear Jr., a veterans employment program manager with the U.S. Department of Justice, will present a workshop titled, "The Federal Jobs Process." This is the first guest speaker for the Federal Career Connection program. Puryear's professional career outside DOJ includes 28 years of combined Army active duty and Army Reserve time as a personnel officer, along with over 17 years working for the Department of the Army’s transition program (Army Career and Alumni Program) at Headquarters, Army Human Resources Command, Alexandria, Va.  For more information about this workshop, contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Aracely Stephenson, at 703-901-3306. 

For more information about Federal Career Connection, please email: info@federalcareerconnection.com.

More tips for transitioning vets

Good information for those military members planning for their next career in the federal government: More tips for transitioning vets.