How To Become An Army National Guard: What It Is and Career Path

What is an army national guard and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an army national guard. For example, did you know that they make an average of $24.03 an hour? That's $49,976 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 3% and produce 38,000 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreArmy National GuardUS Average

Salary

3.9

Avg. Salary $49,976

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.6

Growth rate 3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.59%

Asian 5.35%

Black or African American 12.62%

Hispanic or Latino 17.24%

Unknown 5.30%

White 57.91%

Gender

female 21.30%

male 78.70%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

8.6

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.9

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

9.4

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an army national guard

Explore army national guard education requirements

Most common army national guard degrees

Bachelor's

38.5 %

High School Diploma

26.7 %

Associate

19.5 %

Start to develop specific army national guard skills

Skills	Percentages
Combat	13.39%
Logistics	7.68%
Technical Assistance	6.23%
Weapon Systems	4.56%
Teamwork	4.19%

Complete relevant army national guard training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New army national guards learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an army national guard based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real army national guard resumes.

Research army national guard duties and responsibilities

Conduct monthly training for operating and managing artillery materials, ammunition, hazardous material and processes.
Train in counter terrorism strategies.
Learned hazmat awareness with a pleathra of chemicals.
Create and edit spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations for supervisors for use in briefings.

Prepare your army national guard resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your army national guard resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an army national guard resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable army national guard resume templates

Build a professional army national guard resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your army national guard resume.