How to Understand Different Defense Jobs

When most people think of defense jobs, they imagine soldiers in camouflage carrying weapons into war zones, or possibly members of another military branch in uniform, ready to protect their country. While these are certainly part of the defense workforce, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) employs a large number of civilians in a wide variety of jobs to assist in accomplishing its mission of protecting national security.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Become familiar with the DoD's military branches: the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Marine Corps. (The Coast Guard is a military branch only in times of war.) These branches are the reason all other DoD jobs exist. Each branch employs officers and enlisted personnel to carry out its individual mission. The officers command the enlisted in military missions and take the responsibility when things go wrong.

2. Realize that to assist the military's operations worldwide, the DoD employs many people in support jobs as housing specialists, childcare workers, travel agents, food service workers, sports and physical fitness specialists and many others. Most military bases have their own small economies, complete with shopping, housing, entertainment, libraries, medical care and other things to make life comfortable for military families.

3. Look behind the scenes, where other civilians (and military personnel) provide support in other ways. To keep those on the front lines safe, the commanders need timely and accurate information about the situation both local and worldwide. Meteorologists, imagery experts, linguists and signals analysts, for example, can provide a clearer picture of what’s going on in a target area to commanders both at the front and at headquarters.

4. Be a geek if you want. Technical jobs are also very important in the Defense Department. The nation’s security requires secure communications and computer systems for its military and support personnel. Programmers, cryptographers (people who specialize in codes and ciphers) and engineers work together to design, build, maintain and upgrade the DoD’s hardware and software systems.

5. Do what you love. In every place that the Defense Department operates, jobs abound in nearly every field. Jobs for everyone from lawyers and doctors, accountants and financial analysts to secretaries, clerks and managers are available in many locations around the country and around the world.

Resources

• U.S. Army Civilian Personnel On-Line.
• Visit the Defense Department HR page.
• DoD Civilian Personnel Management Service.
• Find out about civilian defense careers at godefense.com.