Get your resume complete and make it look PROFESSIONAL. I have reviewed numerous resumes from college grads and transitioning sailors over the past few months, and their resume's sucked. It looked like they put it together while sitting at Starbucks, with no thought or very much care. After all, any company you send your resume to, this will be their first impression of you. Make yourself stand out. With budget cuts and lay-offs, folks with advanced degrees and numerous years of experience will probably be competing with you for the same job. Just want to pass on some basic resume tips:
- Make sure you spell check and grammar check.
- Make sure you are using the proper words. For example: their vs there, too vs to vs two, sea vs see, etc..
- I personally do not mind "Navy Lingo" since I understand it. However, there are some recruiters and hiring managers that don't know what specific acronyms might mean. If you use an acronym in your resume, make sure you define it, ie "I was the Leading Petty Officer (LPO) in a division of approximately 45 subordinate personnel...."
- Make sure you expand on your LPO duties - to include leadership, supervision, responsibility, etc..
- Make sure you include any personal awards/quals beyond the basics, such as a NAM, ESWS, Purple Heart, etc. Good conduct awards is nice..but they are a dime a dozen. So are sea service ribbons, etc..
- If you can get letters of recommendation from your LCPO, DIV-O, OPS BOSS, XO and CO, that would be awesome. But I think letters of recommendation through the OPS Boss is more realistic.
2. Job Opportunities
There are lots of opportunities available, and to be honest, quite difficult to capture them all here in an email. So, I will try to give you some basic types of places to look. Of course, it all depends on where you want to relocate. Be advised, relocation expenses USED to be the norm. Now, with our current economic situation, that benefit has pretty much ended. So, wherever you land, you will have to move there on your own expense.
- GCCS-M: From my days in the C4ISR community, there were
NUMEROUS opportunities for GCCS-M operators and technicians. Since I
have been out of that area for the past few years, I am not sure what
the requirement might be for those kinds of people. But I assume with
CANES in full swing by now, the requirement for GCCSM experience hasn't
decreased. However, I do believe that the majority of the jobs for
GCCS-M will be out in San Diego, since that's where SPAWAR is located.
SPAWAR (Space and Naval Warfare - http://www.spawar.navy.mil) is the system command that oversees GCCS-M. You *MIGHT*
be able to score a job working the GCCS-J program. However, I assume
that work will mostly be with the other services (Army, Marines, and Air
Force)
- AEGIS: Lots of work in AEGIS right now, since we started building more DDG 51class ships. You should be able to utilize your AEGIS skills in various areas such as T&E (Test and Evaluation), Validation and Verification. Also, AEGIS is going thru this "Modernization" effort for the older CGs and DDGs. So, you could get involved with that here in DC.
- SSDS: Same as AEGIS. Plus we (the Navy) are building new CVNs and a bunch of new amphibs. LSD(X) is in the planning stages and is supposed to start construction in 2017/2018 timeframe. I don't know much about the amphib side though.
- Operations/Staff Duty: Might also want to check out jobs supporting
the Atlantic/Pacific Fleet commands. God knows there are enough of
them. The jobs there could be varied and probably extremely admin in
nature dealing with ship operations, mission/exercise planning, TYCOM
(Type Commander) availability planning etc.
3. Job Searches
a. Web Searches (the usual suspects) using keywords such as: Navy, USN, WNY, Navy Yard, NAVSEA, Naval Sea Systems Command, PEO IWS, PEO SHIPS, SEA 21, DDG Mod, CG Mod, GCCS-M, GCCS-J, AEGIS, SSDS, Amphibs, LPD, LHD, CVN -21,etc..
- Monster.com
- DefenseTalent.com
- clearancejobs.com
- indeed.com
- USAjobs.gov (FYI..government/civil service jobs. Will need a degree for any job with Navy)
- WashingtonPost.com
- Norfolk/Va Beach Paper
- SanDiegoTribune.com
- Norfolk/Va Beach (NSWC PHD VB Detachment, Atlantic Fleet Commands)
- King George/Dahlgren VA (NSWC Dahlgren)
- Washington DC (Washington Navy Yard, NAVSEA, NAVFAC, etc)
- Washington DC Metro (includes Northern Va and Maryland)
- San Diego (PACFLT Commands, SPAWAR/SSC)
- Los Angeles/Oxnard (NSWC PHD)
- Lockheed Martin
- Northrop Grumman
- Raytheon
- General Dynamics - Advanced Information Services
- BAE Systems
- SAIC
- AMSEC
- Gryphon
- TASC
- TSC
- DRS Technologies
- Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH)
- Systems Planning and Analysis (SPA)
- Plus, there are ton's and ton's of small contractor/contracting companies.
