Officers: Create your professional roadmap, attend OPM virtual career guidance roadshows

The Officer Personnel Management Division (OPM) is scheduled to hold 10 one-hour virtual roadshows beginning Feb. 23 at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. These virtual roadshows will provide tips for success and address common questions on a variety of career management topics for the entire officer corps.

OPM will build upon the presentations from last year. Commands are encouraged to watch the videos immediately preceding the Virtual Roadshows to bolster wardroom conversations and create unit specific questions. Each session will start with a brief synopsis, updates to policies, trends and best practices, and then move to questions and answers. This year’s sessions will have longer question and answer periods—nearly a full hour—to allow you to engage directly with your assignment officers (OPM-2), representatives from the Boards, Promotions, and Separations Branch (OPM-1), and the Officer Evaluations Branch (OPM-3). OPM is excited about this new format, which will initiate greater interaction with presenters.

OPM recommends that you talk with your assignment officer the summer before your tour is complete. This allows you to explore assignment options and understand the pros and cons of certain assignment decisions. This is also an opportunity to discuss other factors affecting assignment such as co-location (COLO) or special needs.

“Officers should be comfortable and educated on the process of promotion boards, selection panels, assignments, and programs and policies which define their careers,” said Cmdr. Jared Silverman, chief Officer Career Management Branch. “The Coast Guard’s most important resource is its people. OPM remains focused on providing officers with the knowledge, tools and guidance they need to be successful.”

The dates, times, and topics for each session are as follows:

Feb. 23 at 2 p.m. EST: (OPM-4) Career Guidance/CG-4082/Promotions and Command Recommendations
Mar. 2 at 2 p.m. EST: (OPM-3) Officer Evaluations/OSMS 2.0
Mar. 16 at 2 p.m. EDT: (OPM-1) Promotions/Post Graduate School
April 20 at 2 p.m. EDT: (OPM-2) Support/Special Assignments
April 27 at 2 p.m. EDT: (OPM-2) Response Assignments
May 11 at 2 p.m. EDT: (OPM-2) Prevention Assignments
May 25 at 2 p.m. EDT: (OPM-2) Afloat Assignments
June 8 at 2 p.m. EDT: (OPM-2) Intel/DCMS and Cyberspace Assignments
June 22 at 2 p.m. EDT: (OPM-2) Aviation Assignments
July 20 at 2 p.m. EDT: (OPM-2) Chief Warrant Officer Assignments

As mentioned above, it is highly encouraged that you watch the applicable 2021 roadshow recordings so that the 2022 sessions can focus on updates and provide ample time for you to engage OPM representatives directly. This can easily be done if wardrooms schedule the 30 minutes prior to the presentation times to review the 2021 presentations. This year’s themes are the same from 2021 and the recording titles match.

For units that would like a more tailored approach should assign an officer to work directly with OPM to schedule a Teams session. Common topics to request include: officer specialty progression, request for a specific assignment officer, promotion boards, eResumes, career management, advanced education panels, and temporary separation (TEMPSEP). You can request multiple topics for your unit.

“Personnel management is constantly shifting as new policies are promulgated and members make life decisions, [for example] TEMPSEP, post grad, retirement, etc.,” said Silverman. “It is important to provide current information as it becomes readily available, and the 2022 roadshows provide the updates necessary for successful career management.”

If you are interested in participating, you can email OPM-4. To watch the 2021 sessions, go to access OPM-4’s Portal site.