VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- With access to more than 130 different career fields, and numerous special duty opportunities, Airmen across the Air Force are often afforded the chance to find a profession that best suits them.
In an effort to make this vast amount of career-opportunity information easily understandable and available to Airmen – many bases, to include Vandenberg, have a Career Assistance Advisor ready to support members’ needs.
“As the Career Assistance Advisor, I basically have two main responsibilities,” said Master Sgt. Taryn Stys, 30th Force Support Squadron Career Assistance Advisor. “The first one is professional development. This means I’m in charge of the First Term Airman Center, the NCO enhancement seminar and the senior NCO professional enhancement seminar. From this office I also work with organizations like the Top-3, Rising Six and the Airmen and Family Readiness Center. The second half of my responsibilities would be the career counseling. This means working with Airmen who are at the point in their career where they may want to do something different, or know what their options are. I can help them find out more about retraining, special duties, or even if they want to learn more about what their benefits are -- really anything pertaining to their career.”
As well as being an outlet of useful information for members’ themselves, the position is also equipped to provide supervisors, at all levels, information pertinent to their subordinates’ careers.
“The role of the Career Assistance Advisor has really grown into a multifaceted position,” said Roy Lapioli, 30th FSS base civilian training manager. “They are the subject matter expert on Air Force career enlisted programs and incentives. When a supervisor, or chain of command, cannot assist based on their limited expertise in this area, they have the Career Assistance Advisor as their reference to assist their members.”
In addition to improving morale by helping Airmen find the right job, Stys believes putting the right people in the right positions also helps the Air Force retain skilled professionals.
“I think giving Airmen the opportunity to find something they would love or really want to do within the Air Force, is really important,” said Stys. “A lot of the time Airmen are unaware of all the opportunities available to them. I think it’s a great way to retain skilled people by helping them find where they fit best in the Air Force and letting them know there are options available to them.”
Stys’ leadership understands how important a Career Assistance Advisor can be and has full confidence in her ability to excel in her new position – after being hand-selected for the developmental special duty.
“Master Sgt. Stys is new to this position, but comes to us with quite the pedigree to be selected over the other candidates,” said Lapioli. “She brings in her knowledge, experience and network of relations with so many people. Her predecessor, Master Sgt. Santiago, left her in great shape and she will be able to build on his successes and create her own that will better the products and services for our base and personnel. I encourage all to take advantage of her many programs.”
Although the job requires Stys to acquire and disseminate a plethora of information, she maintains a high-level of job satisfaction being able to assist her fellow Airmen.
“I really enjoy being able to pass knowledge on to Airmen who may have been stressed about their futures,” said Stys. “Just being able to share that there are more options out there, gives me a lot of job satisfaction. I encourage anyone interested to call or email me – but they can even walk into my office, if they’d like.”
For more information, contact Master Sgt. Stys at 805-606-9815.