By Dr. Jerry Pionk
Faculty Member, School of Management at American Military University

Try Something New or Stay on the Same Career Path?

For most military veterans and retirees, there are two main career choices; stick with a civilian version of your military career field or venture out into a new career path. If you elect the former, you may need help translating your military occupation into a civilian job. There are many useful sites that will enable you to match civilian jobs to your military occupation and training. If you decide to choose a new career path, there are other options available. The fact is, the  military training and experience you already have may qualify you for many civilian careers and opportunities that you’ve likely never considered. Many military specialties give service members experience in security, human resource management, office administration, maintenance, data entry, and computer software engineering. This means that you might be able to pick and choose the civilian career field that best suits you and your goals.