U.S. Navy Rating Career Guide

YNS — Yeoman (Submarine):
Civilian Career Guide

Navy YNS experience can support executive administration, human resources, records, travel, legal-support administration, security-program support, and office leadership. Strong candidates prove personnel served, actions processed, records controlled, messages routed, trips coordinated, inspection results, turnaround time, and team scope. Security administration does not confer adjudication authority, and any clearance status remains subject to authorized verification.

Administrative services manager median: $114,130

HR specialist median: $75,940

HRCI aPHR total application and exam: $400

Navy rating source note

NAVPERS 18068F identifies YNS as the submarine Yeoman service rating. YNSs perform clerical, personnel, physical-security, customer-service, correspondence, records, legal-support, travel, mail, message, award, evaluation, separation, and office-management functions. Senior members supervise administrative programs and teams. Civilian fit depends on the actual personnel, records, travel, security-support, software, inspection, and leadership scope.

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Choose the part you need first.

Executive Administrative Assistant$51k – $110kBroad administrative support benchmark

Human Resources Specialist$47k – $129kCross-industry human resources benchmark

Records Specialist / File Clerk$31k – $63kGovernment and regulated-industry records benchmark

Travel Coordinator$32k – $78kTravel-clerk wage benchmark

Administrative Services Manager$67k – $208kSenior administrative leadership benchmark

See full role breakdowns: demand data, hiring notes, and employer expectations →

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Turn broad Yeoman work into distinct civilian service lines.

Your blueprint should separate personnel actions, records, travel, correspondence, legal support, security administration, executive service, software, inspections, customer volume, approval limits, and team leadership.

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Section 01

Top Civilian Role Matches for YNS

Executive Administrative Assistant Most direct administrative path

$51k – $110k

YNS experience preparing correspondence, routing official messages, maintaining calendars and records, coordinating travel, and supporting senior leaders maps well to executive administrative work. Employers need document volume, leaders supported, deadlines, meeting cadence, travel activity, records accuracy, and software used. Classified or submarine administration can demonstrate discretion, but it does not replace commercial office-system experience. Show how you organized competing priorities, corrected errors, protected sensitive information, and kept leaders prepared rather than relying on the Navy title alone.

Executive supportCorrespondenceTravelRecords

Broad administrative support benchmark

Source: BLS OEWS: Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants · Median $76,590 (May 2025) · $50,560 – $109,850 national 10th-to-90th-percentile range

Human Resources Specialist

$47k – $129k

YNSs who maintained service records, processed reporting and detaching actions, supported evaluations, awards, leave, benefits, separations, and personnel counseling can target human resources specialist roles. Civilian employers need employee population, action volume, systems, turnaround time, data accuracy, privacy controls, and customer outcomes. Navy personnel work is relevant, but civilian HR may also require employment-law, recruiting, benefits, or labor-relations knowledge. Separate transactions you processed from decisions reserved for command, legal, payroll, or human resources authorities.

Personnel actionsHR recordsPrivacyCustomer service

Cross-industry human resources benchmark

Source: BLS OEWS: Human Resources Specialists · Median $75,940 (May 2025) · $47,180 – $128,720 national 10th-to-90th-percentile range

Records Specialist / File Clerk

$31k – $63k

YNS records work can support document-control, records, and file-clerk positions in government, healthcare, legal, engineering, and regulated industries. Translate service records, correspondence files, publications, legal records, and classified document accountability into indexing, retention, access control, reconciliation, retrieval, and disposition. Employers need record counts, accuracy, retrieval time, audit results, systems, retention schedules, and corrective actions. Security markings and Navy procedures show disciplined handling, but each employer sets its own records policy, technology, and legal requirements.

Records managementDocument controlRetentionAudit support

Government and regulated-industry records benchmark

Source: BLS OEWS: File Clerks · Median $43,600 (May 2025) · $31,200 – $63,490 national 10th-to-90th-percentile range

Travel Coordinator

$32k – $78k

YNSs who arranged official travel, prepared orders, reviewed itineraries, resolved voucher issues, and coordinated travelers can pursue travel coordinator or mobility support roles. The civilian story should show travelers served, trips processed, dollars reconciled, exceptions resolved, deadlines met, and systems used. Defense Travel System familiarity is useful in federal contracting, but commercial employers may use different booking and expense platforms. Do not imply authority over policy or reimbursement decisions that belonged to approving officials, finance, or command channels.

Travel planningExpense supportCustomer serviceCompliance

Travel-clerk wage benchmark

Source: BLS OEWS: Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks · Median $44,390 (May 2025) · $32,140 – $78,150 national 10th-to-90th-percentile range

Administrative Services Manager

$67k – $208k

Senior YNSs who supervised administrative teams, controlled programs, managed mail and records, inspected work, advised leaders, and improved office processes may grow into administrative services management. Employers expect staffing, budgets, vendors, facilities or services, performance measures, policy, and risk ownership. Quantify personnel, customers, programs, records, inspections, turnaround time, costs, and improvements. This is a conditional senior path, not an automatic translation from rate or rank. Target office manager or administrative supervisor roles first when commercial budget and vendor authority is limited.

Office operationsProgram controlSupervisionProcess improvement

Senior administrative leadership benchmark

Source: BLS OEWS: Administrative Services Managers · Median $114,130 (May 2025) · $67,100 – $207,720 national 10th-to-90th-percentile range

Section 02

Transferable Strengths: What Administrative Employers See

Controlled Administrative Accuracy

Submarine administration depends on accurate records, messages, correspondence, and personnel actions under deadline pressure. Translate documents processed, error rate, records reconciled, inspections passed, turnaround time, and corrections prevented. Employers value the ability to keep consequential administrative work complete, traceable, and ready for review.

Sensitive Information Handling

YNSs may handle personnel, legal, security, and classified information with strict access and transmission rules. Describe categories of information, access controls, accountability, audit outcomes, and privacy practices without revealing protected details. Civilian employers see discretion and compliance discipline, while still verifying any clearance separately.

Personnel Lifecycle Support

Reporting, detaching, evaluations, awards, leave, benefits, retention, and separation actions create a broad personnel-operations foundation. Quantify people supported, monthly actions, processing time, discrepancies corrected, and customer response across each service line. Distinguish administrative processing from legal, payroll, command, or adjudicative authority in civilian applications.

Executive and Customer Coordination

Supporting leaders and crew members requires triage, communication, calendar control, travel coordination, and follow-through. Show leaders supported, customers served, competing deadlines, trips, meetings, inquiries, and satisfaction or timeliness results. That evidence makes the administrative value visible beyond the submarine setting.

Program Inspection and Team Leadership

Senior YNSs train personnel, inspect files, monitor programs, assign work, and advise command teams. Translate staff size, programs owned, inspection findings, training completion, backlogs reduced, and processing improvements. Employers need proof that leadership improved service quality rather than rank alone.

Section 03

Common Mistakes YNS Veterans Make in the Civilian Job Search

Calling Everything Administration

A resume that says only administration hides personnel, records, travel, legal-support, security, mail, and executive functions. Split the work into civilian service lines, then quantify volume, accuracy, timeliness, customers, systems, and risk. This lets employers match the experience to a specific opening instead of guessing what a YNS actually owned.

Overstating Security or Legal Authority

Preparing clearance paperwork, controlling classified mail, or maintaining legal files does not make a YNS a security adjudicator, attorney, investigator, or records authority. State the administrative function, access level, approvals required, and decisions reserved for authorized officials. Verify current clearance status separately and never place protected information on a resume.

Skipping Commercial Software and Policy Gaps

Navy personnel and travel systems prove process discipline, but civilian HRIS, expense, document-management, employment-law, and records-retention requirements may differ. Compare target postings before applying. Name transferable workflows, learn the specific platform where useful, document recent hands-on practice, and avoid claiming proficiency in software you have not actually used or administered.

Section 04

Credentials That Strengthen a Navy YNS Transition

HRCI Associate Professional in Human Resources

Cost $300 exam plus $100 application feeTime No HR experience required; credential is valid for three yearsFormat 65 scored questions plus 25 pretest questions at Pearson VUE

HRCI Associate Professional in Human Resources is an entry-level HR certification for candidates with a high school diploma or global equivalent. It can help YNSs translate personnel records and actions into civilian HR language, but it does not replace employment-law knowledge or practical HR experience.

Civilian HR signal · Best for personnel-heavy YNS backgrounds

Microsoft Office Specialist

Cost Voucher and authorized test-center fees varyTime Preparation depends on existing Word, Excel, Outlook, or PowerPoint skillFormat Application-based exam through an authorized Certiport center

Microsoft Office Specialist validates a specific Microsoft application. Choose only the application required by target roles, and ask the authorized center for current voucher and proctoring fees. The credential is optional when work samples and recent office-software experience already prove capability.

Office software proof · Useful when postings explicitly request Microsoft proficiency

PMI Certified Associate in Project Management

Cost $225 PMI member or $300 nonmember exam feeTime Requires 23 hours of project-management educationFormat 150-question certification exam

PMI Certified Associate in Project Management can translate schedules, stakeholders, records, risks, and coordinated administrative projects for senior YNSs. It is not necessary for routine clerical roles and should follow evidence of project responsibility rather than replace it.

Project coordination signal · Best for senior administrative and program roles

Section 05

Resume Translation: From Navy YNS to Civilian Administration

Separate personnel, records, travel, security support, executive service, and team leadership, then document volume, accuracy, authority, and outcomes.

Before: Military language that hides the civilian value

Served as a Yeoman (Submarine), handled administrative duties, maintained records, processed personnel actions, supported security programs, arranged travel, and trained junior Sailors.

After: Civilian language with scope and evidence

Supported [X] personnel and [X] senior leaders through [X] monthly personnel, correspondence, travel, evaluation, award, leave, reporting, and separation actions while sustaining [X]% record accuracy and a [X]-day average turnaround. Controlled [X] official records, publications, messages, legal-support files, and sensitive documents under documented privacy, access, retention, and routing procedures; resolved [X] discrepancies and passed [X] inspections without repeat findings. Coordinated [X] trips valued at $[X], reconciled [X] expense issues, answered [X] monthly customer inquiries, and trained [X] team members. Clearly separated administrative processing from command, legal, payroll, security-adjudication, and final approval authority so civilian employers could evaluate scope accurately.

The YNS Translation Formula

Military term	Civilian translation	Proof to show
Yeoman shop	administrative operations team supporting personnel, records, correspondence, travel, and executive workflows	customers, staff, monthly actions, turnaround time, backlog, and accuracy
Service record	controlled employee record with lifecycle, privacy, retention, reconciliation, and access requirements	records, discrepancies, retrieval time, inspections, and corrections
Official message traffic	time-sensitive executive communications intake, routing, tracking, and records control	messages, recipients, deadlines, errors prevented, and response time
DTS and travel orders	business travel planning, approval routing, expense support, exception resolution, and reconciliation	travelers, trips, spend, vouchers, exceptions, and cycle time
Security program support	personnel-security administration, access documentation, classified-mail control, and compliance support	packages, access actions, documents, audits, training, and authority boundary

Always quantify personnel supported, leaders supported, monthly actions, records, messages, travel spend, inspections, discrepancies, turnaround time, customer inquiries, team size, and process improvements.

Sources checked July 18, 2026: NAVPERS 18068F Volume I, Change 106, BLS May 2025 OEWS tables, HRCI aPHR requirements, Certiport voucher policy, PMI CAPM requirements.

Section 06

YNS Civilian Career FAQs

What civilian jobs fit Navy YNS experience best?

Executive administrative assistant, human resources specialist, records specialist, travel coordinator, and office-operations roles are strong matches. Senior YNSs may pursue administrative management when they can prove staff, budget, vendor, program, and performance ownership. Choose the target from the function with the strongest documented volume and outcomes.

Does YNS security work mean I have an active clearance?

No. Security-program administration and classified-information handling are valuable experience, but clearance eligibility and current status must be verified through authorized channels. Do not describe protected assignments or claim adjudication authority. State the administrative scope and tell an employer that clearance status is subject to verification.

Is an HR certification necessary for a YNS?

Not for every position. HRCI aPHR can help when personnel actions are the strongest part of the record and target roles use civilian HR terminology. Compare postings first. Executive support, records, travel, and office operations may value recent software skill and quantified experience more than an HR credential.

What should a YNS quantify on a resume?

Quantify personnel supported, leaders served, monthly actions, records controlled, messages routed, trips and travel spend, discrepancies corrected, inspection outcomes, customer inquiries, processing time, backlogs reduced, programs owned, and people trained. Also state approval limits so employers can separate processing responsibility from decision authority.

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