Guardsmen, do you consider a civilian career that mirrors your MOS makes a better asset to your unit, or should a unit strive for variety?

I think it's good to have both. The soldiers that have similar civilian careers can share that experience with others in the unit in a directly applicable way, and the soldiers that have civilian careers that don't directly relate will also find ways of applying that experience in their military careers. As I have deployed with my unit over the years, I have always felt that our diversity of backgrounds and skills was a key enabler and possibly an advantage over many similar active component units.

While deployed to Afghanistan I had members of my team that brought a variety of civilian skill sets with them; most were completely separate from their military rate (MOS). We had mechanics, computer ITs, constructions folks, even a banker. This made our ability to overcome obstacles we encountered much easier and allowed us to be more self sufficient. Gotta love the Reserves!!

As an IT Signal Warrant, we had an advantage over our active counterparts as we had warrants who did all of their IT MOS in the civilian sector as well. For the IT field, it would be vital.