How does civil affairs transfer to civilian employment?

It also depends on what skills set you have under your belt before joining CA. Be it Junior Enlisted, NCO or Officer.

If you're coming into CA - and you have an ear for a foreign language, you'll get the chance to go to DLI in Monterey, CA to learn anything from Afrikaans thru Urdu.

If you're coming into CA and you have a degree - that will put you into a good population base of CA soldiers. (On one deployment to Iraq, I worked with guys who had worked the floor at the NYSE. Now, that's an education... and they were both Junior Enlisted)

If you go to various military - and veteran websites - you'll see that CA translates into Business Continuity Planners/Business Operational Planners.

If you have worked previously in manufacturing - try to get a Lean Six Sigma course under your belt (Lean and Efficiency are now watch words), as well as taking classes in project/program management.

All that I've written - fit all three of the grades above.

LTC David A. Tuttle

It really depends on your deployment experiences, how you word your resume, and your civilian experience. There are CA folks I deployed with who are lawyers on Capitol Hill, Public Works Administrators, Police Officers, Nuclear Couriers, or all the way professional students/entry level employees.

Some of the skills/experiences you can gain from CA that can set you apart from other Joes are: Foreign Humanitarian Assistance, Populace and Resource Control, Civil Information Management, Nation Assistance, and Support to Civil Administration. Each of these things alone could give you the skills/experience to land a sweet ass gig, but it all depends on how you sell yourself and those experiences.

With those five areas of concentration for CA soldiers, it opens up your portfolio to a wide array of options!

Civil Affairs applies through the principles and guidelines on the interaction and cooperation between military and civilian organizations and entities in disaster response and humanitarian assistance abroad, especially in the case of disaster and complex emergencies. Many NGOs and IGOs, such as UN-OCHA, UN-DPKO, EUCPM, NATO, ICRC, UN-CMCoord, and EADRCC are conveyed by mission experienced international subject matter experts. The CCOE (CIMIC Center of Excellence) located at The Hague in The Netherlands is a great place to get relevant training courses, and to build invaluable working networks.