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MyVector - not just another tool

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Sarah Hanson
  • Air Force Reserve Command Public Affairs
MyVector, an Information Technology platform that supports mentorship, is not just another Air Force tool. It is a way to change our Air Force culture to be a more mentor-centric environment.

MyVector rolled out on July 10, 2015 and since that time more than 120,000 users have registered. Out of those registered users, 13,000 are Citizen Airmen; that is almost 20 percent of the total Air Force Reserve strength.

“We would like everyone to consider registering on MyVector,” said Lt. Gen. James Jackson, Air Force Reserve Command commander. “When we all actively participate and engage with one another, we will start to see the profound benefits of this very important program.”

The program offers a variety of tools to regular Air Force, Reserve, Guard, civilians, and even sister service members.

The first tool that users will see, after they have created an account, is Mentoring Connections. Here members can establish a mentor relationship either through Direct Connect or Find a Mentor. A direct connection can be made with anyone as long as they are registered in MyVector.

“Direct Connect is for people who have already established a mentor relationship or they have an individual in mind. MyVector provides a platform to connect and interact,” said Maj. Holly Chadwick, Chief, Reserve Development Integration, AF/REPP. “People can use Find a Mentor if they don’t have a mentor; they can select the characteristics that are most important to them and the system will find potential mentors registered in MyVector who meet those qualities.”

The next tool is See My Experience; this gives members a look at their duty history. They can also review their experience summary, education and training summary and export their entire record.

“This section gives a really good overview of your career history and experience,” said Chadwick. “It’s not just a list of jobs you’ve had, it breaks them out into different functional experiences and at what organizational level you had them.”

Plan My Career is another tool listed in MyVector; this capability allows members to view and update their career plan, assignment preferences and intent.

Within the Plan My Career tool, users will find their Career Pyramid. The Career Pyramid provides an interactive view of an individual’s career field. The pyramid has three sides: jobs, education and skills.

According to the user guide, the job side of the pyramid illustrates the different “job buckets” available in a specific career field. A person can view the details of the job by right-clicking on the icon.

The education and training side of the pyramid displays different levels and types of education such as; professional military education, traditional education and acquisition or skill level training.

An individual’s history is reflected in green. Members can right-click the box to view details such as career field statistics and individual accomplishments.

The skills side of the pyramid is split into two sections. The left side contains the individual’s skills and the right side displays the most common skills obtained in that specific career field. When a common skill is highlighted in green that means that the individual has attained that particular skill.

Whether you’re military or civilian, everyone can benefit from the Bullet Tracker tool. Members can record their accomplishments throughout each reporting period in this section of MyVector. In addition to keeping everything organized, a person can share their bullets with their mentor.

“The bullet tracker is an easy way to keep all of your information over the year in one single place,” said Chadwick. “When your annual report comes due, it’s really easy to export, and then you can just hand all of your accomplishments to your supervisor.”

The Join Discussions section is a place where people can go to pose questions, talk about their career fields or give feedback on a variety of topics. Members can join groups, start groups and communicate within those groups.

Currently, there are more than 300 different discussions groups in MyVector. The groups range from broad topics such as furthering your education to career field specific groups created by career field managers. Groups are both public and private. Private groups require an individual request access from the group creator.

“Whether you want to be mentored or you want to mentor, come into MyVector; it has so many different capabilities,” said Capt. Thomas McNitt, Chief, Force Development Information Technology Branch, AF/A1DI. “Successful mentoring should help build a better Air Force by fostering the development of our younger Airmen, so it’s important for people to jump onboard.”

Right now the only way to access the program is through the Air Force portal with an authorized Common Access Card through a CAC-enabled computer. However, in fiscal year 2016 an upgrade will allow participants to access the program from any computer, which would make a big difference to the Reserve community.

Air Force senior leaders are encouraging everyone to logon and create a MyVector account.

“This program can assist you no matter what your participating status is,” said Jackson. “We want to establish an environment where anyone can mentor or be mentored at anytime, anywhere.”