You’re not alone if you’ve toiled with pursuing a practical career versus one geared toward your professional passion. Often, this means weighing a job or career that is secure, lucrative, and accessible with one in which you’d be doing something you love for less financial gain. Weighing a practical career path versus a professional “calling” is common for those pursuing a first career or a “next” career. However, practical careers have taken on new meaning as the challenged economy creates an uncertain job market.
While there are no guarantees when it comes to finding a lifelong career that satisfies your passion and lifestyle needs, you can do some things to point yourself in the right direction.
Assess Yourself
As a job seeker or someone looking to change careers, consider your values, interests, and talents. Use a formalized approach by tapping into free assessment tests and tools. Start in Career Transitions “Discover My Interests” section for assessment tools.
Another key resource is the online O*Net center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. Go to http://online.onetcenter.org to access an interest profiler, ability profiler, and skills evaluation tool that matches skills to occupations.
Explore and Research Career Paths
After completing various assessment tests and reviewing results, you should have a good idea of the occupations that might be a good match for you. Afterwards, decide which ones interest you, and then do some research. Read up on job responsibilities, the economic outlook and projected growth, average salary range, trends, and more. Again, Career Transitions presents this information in a way that is easy to find and understand in the “Explore Careers” section.
Selecting and pursuing a particular career path is exciting, but it can also be a daunting endeavor. By leveraging available career information and tools, you can make a more informed decision. Whether you opt for a practical career path, one weighted toward your passion, or a balance of both, the choice is yours. Be sure to embrace and enjoy the process and the exciting career opportunities that lie ahead.
Showing posts with label O*NET. Show all posts
Showing posts with label O*NET. Show all posts
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Monday, December 20, 2010
Transitioning Out of the Military: 5 Steps to Success
Step 2 – “Demilitarize” Your Resume
No matter how qualified you may be, if a potential employer can not decipher your resume, comprehend your military skills and experience, and understand the value you offer, you will not get calls for interviews. In teaching thousands of military service members from all branches of the military, I have learned they find the task of translating their skills to civilian terms the most challenging step.
To begin, you must strip away the military language and acronyms in order to highlight your skills in your resume. Many of the people who will screen or read your resume have no concept of military life. It is your job to provide a clear understanding of the relevant skills and experience you gained in the military. Most military experience transfers easily to the corporate world with the right language.
Instead of: Acted as the battalion secretary to create schedules for the unit.
Translate to: Created calendars and organized training schedules for 150+ personnel.
Instead of: Achieved FMC rate of 88% and 98% scheduling effectiveness rate.
Translate to: Maintained critical equipment availability 6% above USAF standards. Managed time effectively to ensure 98% of all scheduled maintenance was completed on-time.
Additionally, many military job titles are meaningless in the civilian world. Do your research to determine what potential employers are calling the positions for which you are qualified. Take the following example of how you can translate the USAF First Sergeant duty title. Employee Relations Manager (First Sergeant), United States Air Force. As you can see, the official title is still included on the resume, we just highlighted the “civilianized” job title by bolding it.
There are some very useful resources available on the Internet. Here are a few:
O*NET (http://online.onetcenter.org/) – Offers the Crosswalk Search by entering your Military Occupational Specialty (MOS), Navy Rating, or Air Force Military Occupation Code (MOC).
Army COOL and Navy COOL (https://www.cool.army.mil/) or (https://www.cool.navy.mil/) – Works in connection with the Occupational Outlook Handbook to provide detailed career information.
Verification of Military Education and Training (VMET) (http://www.dmdc.osd.mil/vmet) – Provides detailed information about your current position and related civilian career fields.
America’s CareerInfoNet (www.acinet.org/moc) – Serves as a military to civilian occupational translator and provides labor market information by state.
No matter how qualified you may be, if a potential employer can not decipher your resume, comprehend your military skills and experience, and understand the value you offer, you will not get calls for interviews. In teaching thousands of military service members from all branches of the military, I have learned they find the task of translating their skills to civilian terms the most challenging step.
To begin, you must strip away the military language and acronyms in order to highlight your skills in your resume. Many of the people who will screen or read your resume have no concept of military life. It is your job to provide a clear understanding of the relevant skills and experience you gained in the military. Most military experience transfers easily to the corporate world with the right language.
Instead of: Acted as the battalion secretary to create schedules for the unit.
Translate to: Created calendars and organized training schedules for 150+ personnel.
Instead of: Achieved FMC rate of 88% and 98% scheduling effectiveness rate.
Translate to: Maintained critical equipment availability 6% above USAF standards. Managed time effectively to ensure 98% of all scheduled maintenance was completed on-time.
Additionally, many military job titles are meaningless in the civilian world. Do your research to determine what potential employers are calling the positions for which you are qualified. Take the following example of how you can translate the USAF First Sergeant duty title. Employee Relations Manager (First Sergeant), United States Air Force. As you can see, the official title is still included on the resume, we just highlighted the “civilianized” job title by bolding it.
There are some very useful resources available on the Internet. Here are a few:
O*NET (http://online.onetcenter.org/) – Offers the Crosswalk Search by entering your Military Occupational Specialty (MOS), Navy Rating, or Air Force Military Occupation Code (MOC).
Army COOL and Navy COOL (https://www.cool.army.mil/) or (https://www.cool.navy.mil/) – Works in connection with the Occupational Outlook Handbook to provide detailed career information.
Verification of Military Education and Training (VMET) (http://www.dmdc.osd.mil/vmet) – Provides detailed information about your current position and related civilian career fields.
America’s CareerInfoNet (www.acinet.org/moc) – Serves as a military to civilian occupational translator and provides labor market information by state.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Transitioning Out of the Military: 5 Steps to Success
Step 1 – Find a Focus
Whether you have served four years or dedicated your entire career towards service in the military, you may face some obstacles in your transition. Over the next five weeks, I will tackle some of the issues you will face and provide you with five steps you should take in order to expedite the transition process.
This first step is very important; it will determine the effectiveness of your military transition. In order to get results, a job search and a resume must have a target or focus. One of the biggest errors made on military transition resumes is a lack of focus. There is no such thing as an effective generic resume. A resume that tries to appeal to everyone ends up appealing to no one.
Military personnel learn a wide variety of skills and often have countless additional duties on top of their duty title. It would be nearly impossible and certainly ineffective to fit all your previous military experience into one resume. Studies show that the reader affords your resume 10 to 15 seconds of attention. The reader will not sift through all the irrelevant information to get to the most compelling information. Your relevant, transferable skills must be easy to find, not buried among the unimportant information.
For example, a jet engine craftsman whose focus is contract and finance management will never be effective in their search with a resume that focuses on jet engine maintenance. In addition to mechanical knowledge, this candidate has project management, customer service, budget planning and allocation, documentation management, and supervisory experience. Their mechanical knowledge has no place on their resume, as it is irrelevant to the target employer.
Before beginning your transition, determine the career field you will pursue and identify the local companies that have jobs. Discover what qualifications and education you need and define your transferable qualifications. Some research resources are the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook (http://www.bls.gov/oco) and the Department of Labor’s O*NET site (http://online.onetceter.org).
Making the decision to target your job search will enable you to eliminate irrelevant information from your resume and accelerate your job search. This may mean leaving out some skills and experience or possibly having multiple resumes targeted to different careers.
Whether you have served four years or dedicated your entire career towards service in the military, you may face some obstacles in your transition. Over the next five weeks, I will tackle some of the issues you will face and provide you with five steps you should take in order to expedite the transition process.
This first step is very important; it will determine the effectiveness of your military transition. In order to get results, a job search and a resume must have a target or focus. One of the biggest errors made on military transition resumes is a lack of focus. There is no such thing as an effective generic resume. A resume that tries to appeal to everyone ends up appealing to no one.
Military personnel learn a wide variety of skills and often have countless additional duties on top of their duty title. It would be nearly impossible and certainly ineffective to fit all your previous military experience into one resume. Studies show that the reader affords your resume 10 to 15 seconds of attention. The reader will not sift through all the irrelevant information to get to the most compelling information. Your relevant, transferable skills must be easy to find, not buried among the unimportant information.
For example, a jet engine craftsman whose focus is contract and finance management will never be effective in their search with a resume that focuses on jet engine maintenance. In addition to mechanical knowledge, this candidate has project management, customer service, budget planning and allocation, documentation management, and supervisory experience. Their mechanical knowledge has no place on their resume, as it is irrelevant to the target employer.
Before beginning your transition, determine the career field you will pursue and identify the local companies that have jobs. Discover what qualifications and education you need and define your transferable qualifications. Some research resources are the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook (http://www.bls.gov/oco) and the Department of Labor’s O*NET site (http://online.onetceter.org).
Making the decision to target your job search will enable you to eliminate irrelevant information from your resume and accelerate your job search. This may mean leaving out some skills and experience or possibly having multiple resumes targeted to different careers.
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