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18E MOS (Special Forces Communications Sergeant): 16 civilian careers O*NET links to it, with pay.

The civilian occupations O*NET's Military Crosswalk relates to Army 18E, each with its BLS median pay and a TryHired career page where we have one.

Updated Nov 4, 2026 · Data: O*NET Military Crosswalk (site updated October 6, 2026), BLS OEWS May 2025
Quick answer

18E is the Army enlisted military occupational specialty Special Forces Communications Sergeant. O*NET's Military Crosswalk links it to 16 civilian occupations, plus 1 military-only occupation. Among the civilian ones with a BLS wage, the May 2025 national median ranges from $59,570 (Broadcast Technicians) to $142,080 (Political Scientists), using broader BLS occupations for some specialties. O*NET gives 1 of them its Bright Outlook designation (occupations expected to grow rapidly, to have many job openings, or that are new and emerging). A crosswalk link is a related occupation, not a guaranteed job or an equivalent license.

Civilian jobs

Civilian occupations related to 18E Special Forces Communications Sergeant

In O*NET's order. Pay is the BLS national median annual wage, May 2025. Bright Outlook is O*NET's designation.

Data
Civilian occupations O*NET relates to Army 18E
OccupationO*NET-SOC codeMedian pay (BLS, May 2025)Bright OutlookTryHired guide
Emergency Management Directors11-9161.00$93,330
Training and Development Specialists13-1151.00$69,280YesTraining Specialist
Network and Computer Systems Administrators15-1244.00$99,130System Administrator
Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technologists and Technicians17-3023.00$78,190
Political Scientists19-3094.00$142,080Political Scientist
Career/Technical Education Teachers, Postsecondary25-1194.00$63,820
Career/Technical Education Teachers, Middle School25-2023.00$65,030
Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School25-2032.00$66,270
Interpreters and Translators27-3091.00$60,170Translator
Broadcast Technicians27-4012.00$59,570
Intelligence Analysts33-3021.06$93,790 (BLS: Detectives and Criminal Investigators)Intelligence Analyst
Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, and Blasters47-5032.00$61,390
First-Line Supervisors of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers49-1011.00$79,860
Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installers and Repairers49-2021.00$63,520
Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers49-2022.00$63,890
Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Commercial and Industrial Equipment49-2094.00$74,090

O*NET also lists 1 military-only occupation for 18E: Special Forces. BLS does not publish civilian pay for these.

The Defense Manpower Data Center's own record for 18E maps it to: Special Forces.

How to read this

What a crosswalk match means, and what it doesn't

Data

O*NET's Military Crosswalk Search combines several official sources: the Defense Manpower Data Center's crosswalk of military occupation codes, an enhanced analysis commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor with the Department of Defense under the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, a RAND study of Army knowledge, skills and abilities, and the services' Credentialing Opportunities On-Line (COOL) sites. A listed civilian occupation is one O*NET relates to the military job's training and work. It is not an equivalence, a promise of a job or a statement that you meet the civilian job's requirements: many of these occupations need a state license, a certification or a degree that the military job alone does not provide.

Next steps

Turning 18E experience into a civilian job

Advice

Start with the civilian titles above whose work you already did most of. For each one, check its licensing and certification requirements in your state, then rewrite your service record in that occupation's language: the systems, procedures and results a civilian hiring manager recognizes, not unit names or acronyms.

Disclosure: TryHired makes HIRED, a paid job-search program, so we have a conflict of interest when we mention it. Every list on this page is free to use without buying anything.

FAQ

Questions people ask

What civilian jobs can a 18E get?
O*NET's Military Crosswalk relates 18E Special Forces Communications Sergeant to 16 civilian occupations, including Emergency Management Directors, Training and Development Specialists, Network and Computer Systems Administrators, Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technologists and Technicians. Whether you qualify depends on each job's licensing, certification and experience requirements.
What is the civilian equivalent of 18E?
There is no single equivalent. The Defense Manpower Data Center maps 18E to Special Forces, a military-only occupation; O*NET's crosswalk lists 16 related civilian occupations.
How much do civilian jobs related to 18E pay?
BLS national medians for May 2025 run from $59,570 (Broadcast Technicians) to $142,080 (Political Scientists) across the related occupations with published wages.
Method

How this page is built

The civilian occupations on this page are exactly the ones O*NET OnLine's Military Crosswalk Search returns for the code, in O*NET's order, read on Nov 3, 2026 (O*NET site updated October 6, 2026). Official military titles come from the Defense Manpower Data Center file O*NET distributes. Pay is the BLS national median annual wage for May 2025. Where O*NET lists a specialty that BLS does not survey on its own, the figure is the BLS figure for the broader occupation and is labelled with that occupation's name.

What this page can't tell you
  • Duties, entry requirements and training: this page does not describe them; see your service's official job description.
  • Your fit: a crosswalk relates occupations, not people. Your rank, specialty training, clearances and credentials change which civilian jobs fit.
  • Pay: national medians for civilian workers in each occupation, not offers and not adjusted for your location or experience.
Sources
  1. U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, O*NET OnLine Military Crosswalk Search, read Nov 3, 2026. Military Crosswalk Search by U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
  2. O*NET Resource Center, Military crosswalk data (source: Defense Manpower Data Center).
  3. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 national estimates (public domain).