Ready to transition to a civilian career? Think VA!

If you are in military healthcare now or are thinking about going into healthcare, here’s what I say: Think about the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for your career.

VA Careers has a Transitioning Military Personnel (TMP) Initiative designed to raise awareness about civilian careers for former service members at the nation’s largest integrated healthcare organization.

This is a program that highlights the stories of former military personnel who have moved into new careers at VA. TMP puts the focus on the thousands of Veterans serving other Veterans as health technicians, Intermediate Care Technicians (ICTs), mental health providers, nurses, physicians and support staff.

VA has preference programs to hire Veterans, including service-disabled Veterans, quickly. We invest in your education through tuition assistance for current employees and loan repayment through the Education Debt Reduction Program. Once hired, we help you advance your skills through continuous learning and leadership training.

VA careers pay well and comes with great benefits such as 36 to 49 days off, paid vacation that accrues right away and the option to participate in a 401(k)-type Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) with up to 5% in matching contributions. You can also apply earned military service time to the Federal Employees Retirement System and, if you remain in the reserves or National Guard, receive paid time off to fulfill service duties. Work anywhere at VA’s more than 1,250 sites of care.

But the best part of working at VA is that you’re supported by so many co-workers with stories similar to your own — the 123,608 Veterans who have VA careers. We Veterans are more than 30% of VA’s workforce.

You’ll work with people like Kristina Snell who started as a VA ICT in 2013, and is now the national field coordinator working out of the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. She’s a fierce advocate for this uniquely VA profession, which is a career pathway specifically for Veterans and now boasts 120 hires … and growing.

ICT positions are filled by former combat medic specialists, basic hospital corpsmen, basic health services technicians and other transitioning members of the military with certain Military Occupation Specialties. They support the delivery of acute patient care for VA units or clinics by performing complex technician-level diagnostic and treatment procedures and providing intermediate/advanced paramedic-level care.

Other eligible service members come to VA through the Military Transition and Training Advancement Course (MTTAC). Successful completion of this training within three to six months of separation opens up access to noncompetitive employment as Medical Support Assistants, who keep VA medical facilities running smoothly.

In these and other VA positions, you can take what you learned in the military to serve nearly 9 million Veterans enrolled in VA care. A VA career can help you reduce uncertainty and financial stress knowing that an exciting job is ready for you after separation.

Are you ready to think VA? Check us out at https://www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage/category/va-careers.

Darren Sherrard is an Army Veteran who served for two decades and now puts his skills to work for VA as Associate Director for Recruitment Marketing. Darren leads the VA Careers Program, which is designed to attract high-quality healthcare personnel to work at VA.