Entry of Employment History, Education/Training, and Experience
If there is a work history, it is easy to enter it into our products. Use the SkillTRAN Case Preparation Guide to prepare and record all of the details prior to processing the case. Print out the form and make lots of notes. The form enables you to consolidate all the relevant vocational data you need from the multiple sources you have at hand.
Use the 1991 Dictionary of Occupational Titles, Revised 4th Edition to look up jobs performed in the past.
[ NOTE: SkillTRAN also highly recommends our affordable PC and web-based products called Job Browser Pro and OccuBrowse to do this easy lookup. You can also look up work history while online in TSS, PREPOST, or while using OASYS ]
Record the DOT code and title for each job successfully held for a significant period.
TIPS:
- Correct coding of work history by DOT is essential to a proper analysis.
- Each occupation contributes valuable information used in the transferability process.
- Read the standard occupational description in the DOT before choosing to use that code. Occupational titles alone can be quite misleading.
- Job Browser Pro and all SkillTRAN web-based services find the closest civilian occupation for military experience.
- Online lookup of work history is by DOT code, job title, or partial job title. When you search by title or partial title, the system finds all titles that contain the word or phrase you entered. It is not necessary to enter the period or dash in a DOT title or code.
- It is also possible to search the DOT descriptions for a matching word or key words. Use something unique or the stem of the word: ASSEMBL instead of ASSEMBLY or ASSEMBLER
- Include military experience as work history using the closest civilian equivalent.
- Use the special Military lookups in OccuBrowse, OccuBrowse+ and OASYS by MOS and military branch.
- Include occupations for which a person is trained by education (formal or informal) or experience (including on-the-job or significant volunteer or hobby/leisure activity).
- It may take several DOT codes to fully reflect one position actually held by an individual.
NOTE: IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE FINDING A DOT OCCUPATION, here are some suggestions:
- Use fewer words in the title, especially if they are unique words.
- Enter one or two unique keyword(s), for example: Pizza, hardware, truck, account, drill.
- Too common to use alone: Assembler, manager, supervisor, clerk, sales, helper
- Try a synonym for the unique keyword, for example:
Instead of "coordinator," use "manager" or "supervisor." - Use only the root of the word, for example: Instead of "clerical," use "cler"
- Avoid gender-oriented titles (e.g. salesman, fireman, etc.)