Page 13 - Vets-Guide

Before you start exploring career options, consider what types of jobs match with the work you were doing during active duty. Don’t worry; you don’t have to gure this out on your own ere are several websites that have built-in
“occupation matching” and “skills matching” services ese services match your military occupation and the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) you gained through active duty service with civilian occupations that have similar tasks, work duties, and KSA requirements e civilian occupations these services identify should best match your previous work and should require the least amount of additional education and training in order to gain employment within the occupation
ese services are some of the most useful tools available for your career exploration.
New Mexico’s Department of Workforce Solutions provides an occupation and skills matching service through its NM
Workforce Connection website—www.jobs.state.nm.us Here’s what you need to know to
use this service on your own:
Step 1: Create an individual account
Step 2: Select “Career Services” under the “Service for
Individuals” on the le -hand navigation pane
Step 3: Select “Career Explorer ”
Step 4: Select “Match Your Occupation ”
Step 5: Select the “Occupations by Military Specialty” link
Step 6: Enter your Military Occupation Specialty (MOS) Code, Keyword, or Branch of Service to begin searching for your occupation
Step 7: A listing of civilian occupations that best t your previous military occupation will be listed You can click on an occupation and related occupations to get detailed infor- mation on training and education requirements, necessary skills, projected job openings, and wages
People are o en surprised at the civilian occupations in which they may be able to work Transferring Your Skills: How to Use Your Military Experience to Identify Opportunities in the Civilian Labor Force, presented later in this publication, provides several examples of common military occupations and related civilian occupations with similar knowledge, skill, and ability requirements is is a tool you should use even if you are looking to enter a career that is completely di erent from your work in the military.
So now that you’ve looked at some of the civilian jobs that
most closely match your military experience, are any of those
jobs something you’re interested in? If you are interested
in one or more of the occupations, you can start evaluat- e Interest Pro ler asks you to answer questions that ing whether you have all of the necessary KSAs and begin represent six interest areas Knowing your work interests can
What if I’m Thinking about Working Outside of New Mexico?
If you’re looking for a job in New Mexico, your key resource is www.jobs.state.nm.us.
If you think you might be looking for work outside of the state, a great national resource is www.careeronestop.org.
CareerOneStop offers most of the services provided by New Mexico’s Workforce Connection website but also allows you to search for jobs in other states.
CareerOneStop also has information and tools speci c to veterans through the Veterans Reemployment section of the website.
Just like New Mexico’s website, CareerOneStop has resume and cover letter tools and other resources to help you in your job search.
CareerOneStops career exploration tool is called MyNextMove and works like the tools on the Workforce Connection website.
identifying options to gain more education and training
ere are several tools available through the NM Workforce Connection website to help you plan an education and training route as well as speci c services available to veter- ans (for example, the GI Bill) that are detailed later in this publication. As always, you can contact a Veterans Repre- sentative at your local NM Workforce Connection o ce to help you If you feel you have the necessary quali cations for one or more of the occupations, you can begin searching for a job Steps 2 through 8 of the job search outline the process
But, what if you’ve identified comparable civilian occupations and are not interested in those occupations? What if you would like to enter a career that is completely different from what you did during active duty service and are unsure what to do? The NM Workforce Connection website has several other tools beyond occupation and skills matching to help with career exploration. Two key career exploration tools on the site—the Interest Profiler and Work Importance Locator assessments—help you identify your interests and work values and translate those into career choices
Interest Pro ler
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