Personnel Managers

Background

As with civilian employers, the military tries to find the best person for each job and encourages each individual to realize his or her full potential. Personnel managers direct programs to attract and select new personnel for the services, assign them to jobs, provide career counseling, and maintain personnel records.

What They Do

Personnel managers in the military perform some or all of the following duties:

• Classify personnel according to job aptitude, interest, and service need
• Develop programs to prevent and resolve equal opportunity problems
• Direct personnel recordkeeping operations
• Direct testing and career counseling for military personnel
• Direct the assignment of personnel to jobs and training
• Establish standards to determine the number of people to assign to activities
• Plan for hiring, training, and assigning personnel for the future
• Plan recruiting activities to interest qualified young people in the military
• Study military jobs to see how they can be improved and kept up to date with technology

Physical Demands

No information available.

Special Requirements

A four-year college degree is normally required to enter this career.

Helpful Attributes

Helpful attributes include:

• Interest in planning and directing the work of others
• Interest in working closely with people
• Interest in working with computers

Helpful School Subjects

No information available.

Helpful Fields of Study

Helpful fields of study include:

• Industrial psychology
• Labor relations
• Organizational development
• Personnel management

Work Environment

Personnel managers work in offices.

Services offering this career:

• Air Force
• Army
• Coast Guard
• Marine Corps
• Navy

Hiring Practices

To serve in the military, a person must be at least 17; the maximum age for enlistment varies. To enlist, a person must pass a physical exam and an aptitude test. An enlistee must also meet military standards of discipline and be a US citizen or permanent resident alien.

This position is for officers.

Wages

The military is competitive with the civilian world when it comes to pay and benefits. All branches offer the same basic pay and benefits.

Pay depends mainly on rank or grade as well as length of service. Bonuses and the situation in which the person is serving (for example: flight duty, sea duty, hazardous duty) also affect pay. 

Cost-of-living increases usually occur every year, based on inflation. The military also pays allowances for food, clothing, and housing. All these factors combined are called Regular Military Compensation (RMC). They should all be considered when comparing military pay to civilian pay.

There are two main parts to RMC: basic pay and allowances. There are also additional incentives for special abilities, training, or hazardous duty.

Check out the RMC Calculator to calculate your RMC based on your inputs.

Training Provided

Job training consists of five to 16 weeks of classroom instruction.

Course content typically includes:

• Automated personnel systems
• Career development programs
• Equal opportunity problems
• Management and organizational concepts
• Military personnel policies and objectives

Further training occurs in advanced courses.

Civilian Counterparts

Civilian personnel managers work for all types of businesses and industries, as well as for government agencies. They perform duties similar to those performed by military personnel managers. Depending on their specialty, they may also be called employment relations directors, employment managers, occupational analysts, industrial relations directors, equal employment opportunity representatives, or affirmative action coordinators.

Related Civilian Careers

• General and Operations Managers
• Human Resources Managers

Employment and Outlook

In peace time the services have about 4,500 personnel managers. In times of military action the number may be different, depending on the type of specialties required. Each year the services need new managers due to changes in personnel and the demands of the field. After job training, personnel managers may be assigned many different types of work, depending on their specialties. Usually, they begin by working under experienced personnel managers. In time, they may advance to senior management and command positions.