Develop Your Career Soft Skills

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

Describe how the VA can help you develop soft skills to help further your career goals.
Access VA resources to help you improve your professionalism in areas like interviewing and networking.
List some best practices for success in your interviews.

Polish Your Professional Skills

Illustration of a Veteran, professionally dressed, shaking hands with an interviewer as she enters a room for a job interview panel.

In partnership with the Department of Labor and other agencies, VA provides training and resources to help Veterans transition into the civilian workforce by developing their soft skills. These are the interpersonal professional skills, such as interviewing and networking, that will help you reach your career goals.

Every year, approximately 200,000 men and women leave US military service and return to life as civilians, a process known as the military to civilian transition. The Transition Assistance Program (TAP) provides information, tools, and training to ensure service members and their spouses are prepared for the next step in civilian life.

All transitioning service members receive the TAP 1-day employment preparation workshop to evaluate career options and understand the fundamentals of civilian employment.

Veterans have the option to attend another 2-day workshop to learn interview skills, build effective resumes, and use emerging technology to network and search for employment. This is called the Department of Labor Employment Workshop.

There is also a Vocational Training Workshop that allows Veterans to evaluate their vocational career options and identify the training or credentials needed to pursue their goals.

Whether you are a Veteran or spouse, these resources can help you through the finer details of your career transition process—from defining your career goals to interviewing successfully to negotiating for a great job offer.

Take Advantage of Training Resources

If you are taking this trail, you are likely a Veteran or spouse on your way to taking a certification exam and/or exploring new job opportunities. These training materials are full of tips to help you interact effectively with future employers.

The TAP virtual curriculum provides service members who are unable to attend the TAP in person due to military exigencies with the ability to fulfill their TAP obligations. The full, virtual TAP curriculum is available to Veterans and spouses of service members.
Veterans can also search for in-person TAP classes near them at https://tapevents.org/.
You can access workshop participant guides that offer tips and best practices for every step of your career transition:
The DOL VETS Apprenticeship Pilot provides counseling and apprenticeship placement services to transitioning service members (TSMs) and their spouses who are interested in exploring apprenticeship as a post-separation career pathway.

For Military Spouses

Military spouses offer a unique combination of education, experience, and strengths. The skills and abilities they have gained in mobile military life make them a standout in the employment market. Military One Source shares resources to help spouses design and sell their strengths, get career and resume coaching, and find job opportunities.

In Closing

VA earnestly strives to provide Veterans with the world-class benefits and services they have earned. Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors are encouraged to take advantage of the many health, financial, and career benefits described here to support their civilian transition.