No Career Left Behind
Let your experience do the talking.
RESOURCES FOR YOUR SUCCESS
Big Transition, same passion
We recognize the change from military lifestyle to civilian is not seamless, especially when thinking about how to apply your unique skillsets to career experience.
- Identifying Your Expertise & Skillsets with Industry
- Aligning Military to Civilian
- Language
- Preparing Your Resume
- Interview Preparation
- Veterans’ Guide to Vocational Schools & Apprenticeship Programs
IDENTIFYING YOUR EXPERTISE & SKILLSETS WITH INDUSTRY
You have a wealth of technical and advanced training from your military career, often earned through rigorous qualification processes, classroom work, and lengthy on-the-job-training.
You have been a leader, the first line of defense, and the subject matter expert. Those skillsets will be valuable in your next career.
The Verification of Military Experience and Training (VMET) is a document available to uniformed service members to aid in the preparation of resumes and job applications. This document translates the training you received during your military career into civilian-friendly terms. This will help you align the similarities between your training and skillsets to the requirements in a job listing.
ALIGNING MILITARY TO CIVILIAN
You have incredible discipline, unique skillsets, and experience of a warrior. The challenge is translating this from military semantics to civilian. We recognize this could be difficult when trying to highlight your abilities to correspond to your fields of interest.
You have inspired us to create materials to support you for a successful conversion of your background to industry standards.
These tools are designed to help you apply your military career into work experience in a seamless way by emphasizing the key components to assist in applying for a position at LLNL.
LANGUAGE
Below are some common terms we have developed for your reference. This serves as a general guide some terms may vary based on discipline.
Military | Civilian | LLNL |
---|---|---|
TS/SCI or Secret | DoD Top Secret or Secret | DOE Q-Level (TS) or L-Level (Secret) |
O-4 thru O-6 | Director, Deputy Director, Manager | Division Leader, Manager |
O-1 thru O-3 | Operations/Department Manager | Engineer, Associate, Specialist |
Senior NCO | Personnel Manager | First Line Supervisor/Technical Specialist |
Squad/Fight Leader | Technical Coordinator/Technical Lead | Team Lead, Technical Coordinator |
MOS/AFSC/RATE | Career Specialty, Field, Trade | Technician Technologist, Trade, Coordinator |
Supply or Logistics Specialist | Supply or Logistics Specialist | Supply Chain/Distribution/Material Handler |
Recon/Intel Analysts, Security Manager, OPSEC | Intel, Data-Collection, Analysts | Information Security, Security Analyst or Manager, OPSEC, Counter-Intelligence |
Infantry/MP/Security Forces | Security Personnel | Security Officer |
Regulations, Instructions, SOP | Policies, Guidelines, Compliance | Policy and Procedures, Compliance |
Subordinates | Direct Reports, Employees | Personnel, Technicians, Direct Reports |
PREPARING YOUR RESUME
The resume creation process is no simple task, but it's important as it is our first impression of you. We have put together some recommendations to help you get the process started.
Prepare your resume to be tailored specifically to the job description.
Focus on several areas of strength and how they had successful impacts in your career.
Demonstrate how your military experience aligns with the job postings requirements and responsibilities.
Communicate how your role was necessary for the project, mission, or task at hand and your direct impact on the outcome.
Highlight any awards or service recognition you have received for your efforts.
Showcase your ability, role, and results while in a teamwork and/or diverse environment.
Consider your audience when pulling together content, utilize our terminology table to help you best simplify military language to civilian.
INTERVIEW PREPARATION
The interview process is an exciting step in getting closer to your desired position. We look forward to the interview process because we get to learn more about yourself and you get to evaluate if we are the right place for your next phase of your career.
Impressions are everything, so we have gathered some tips to help you in your interview preparation.
Research about LLNL to get a better understanding of who we are, what we value, and our mission as a DOE National Laboratory.
Study the job description you are being interviewed for. What made you want to apply for this position?
Familiarize yourself with the resume you submitted so you can elaborate on some of the key points you included, have additional examples and details prepared for follow up questions.
Have questions ready to ask the interviewers to ensure you have a clear understanding of the position, what you can expect daily, your responsibilities, and opportunities it will have if you are selected.
Consider how you handled challenging situations or individuals, your opportunities versus strengths, and ability to go above and beyond protocol.
Be confident in yourself!
VETERANS’ GUIDE TO VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS & APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMS
In the current job market, we’re experiencing a significant shortage of qualified trade workers, leading to an increase in demand for skilled labor and apprenticeship.
This presents a prime opportunity for veterans to explore vocational education and apprenticeship programs, enabling you to transition smoothly into meaningful civilian careers
A comprehensive guide was created for you that dives into the advantages of non-traditional postsecondary education and outlines crucial aspects of vocational and apprenticeship programs, including eligibility costs, and making a successful transition to civilian work life.
CONTACT US
For general questions, website feedback and all other inquiries please contact us at military-veterans [at] llnl.gov (military-veterans[at]llnl[dot]gov).
