Veterans make great employees. Military service provides a wealth of experience and specialized training. It also reinforces soft skills, like being dependable, reporting to work on time and following instructions.

But when it’s time to transition from the service to the workforce, how do you know which types of jobs might be a good fit for your particular skills?

The State of California has made it easier, with a new online military skills translator tool.

Just enter your military job title, select your branch of service and click search. It’s that simple.

The translator tool will list every state job classification that might be a good match, based on the skill set for your military occupational area.

For example, if you were a heavy equipment operator in the Army, your search might return a number of jobs in the CalTrans maintenance series, such as equipment operator, highway maintenance worker, highway landscape worker or maintenance supervisor. The listing also includes links to each of the job specifications, so you can find out the requirements, including knowledge, skills and abilities needed for each position, as well as minimum and desirable qualifications.

CalHR provides other information for veteran job seekers, including veterans preference criteria, on the main Cal Careers website.

The Employment Development Department (EDD) also has online resources to assist veterans in their job search, and they hold numerous job fairs and workshops throughout the state.

If you’re looking for a job at CalVet, you can always search using the careers link at the top of our website: www.calvet.ca.gov.