I have about 18 months left in the Navy and I was trying to look for government jobs. Does anybody know a good place to start looking?

I've never understood the whole thing about veteran preference, I've read various things about civil service exam spots, non exam civil service, I've encountered rather a hodgepodge of rules for local municipal spots, town, village, small city. Incorporated municipal entities, then also at county/parish level, as opposed to state level, and get again as to Federal level, I've read that some governmental organizations, at a variety of levels, can often have direct hiring authority, incl having seen such things for Federal spots, though, quite honesrly, I'd seriously ask for vet group help as to exactly how such vet preference might actually function by you, or wherevee you'd ultimately want to go, what part of the country...my understanding also has been that, for spots with direct hiring authority, often a certain minimum educ level is needed, so, that being the case, otd depend on what background and/or degree level you have now, and/or what level you might also want to go for after you'd be out, as well as what specific field and/or fields you're looking at, those are just some errant thoughts I'd had I thought might be of use, if you'd care to elaborate on any such topics, if I can think of anything else, I'll try to suggest it, if you'd also want Guard, Reserve, AGR, Guard Tech, or Reserve Tech, that'd also help to know, I've often seen most states and/or territories have specific job sites for Guard Tech and/,or AGR, as well as related civil svc spots, under state military/naval affairs governmental entities, you might also care to look them up, in NY where my wife and I are, e.g., DMNA is the NYS entity, I've glanced at their site purely out of curiosity many times, I'm total perm disabled, I can't do any of them, however, I'd stumbled across such sites over a protracted period, which is why I was merely aware they exist, most municipal/governmental entities also have their own civil svc job websites, as I've generally seen to he the case as well....

Family, friends, local government workers. Sometimes, it's not what you know, but who you know. Good luck.

Maybe apply to the FAA as an Air Traffic Controller, although those may be outsourced now.

I am an Army Vet, versus Navy, so the only thing I understood when I saw your MOS was the radar, lol. With that said however, I presume the rest of it was either aviation or nautical related, and more on the technical side rather than flight?

I would recommend doing as others have suggested in regards to looking into where you want to "settle down" at. Once you have an idea of that, start looking into places that would be related to your field and contact their personnel office to ask for an informal walk thru of their facility. Explain to them that you are looking at leaving the Navy soon and that you are interested in learning more about them specifically. When you go to the walk thru, prepare for it as if you were going into an interview; more likely than not it will be treated as an informal one. Have your resume on hand in case they should ask for it; have specific questions ready that pertain to your field, such as what type of equipment you would be using (and if you would have to train on it due to it being different than you are familiar with). Be prepared to tell them what you are already familiar with and trained on, as well as some of your accomplishments. A couple of days after the walk through is completed, send a letter to them, thanking them for their time. In this letter, add a couple more questions if you have them. Maybe get a bit more specific. If you liked what you saw and heard, TELL them so. Tell them specifically what you liked and heard. And finally, if you are still interested in working for them, send another letter; this one FORMALLY asking for an interview. Give them a couple different dates in the future that you would be able to attend it, so they have time to plan for it, and you can take leave if you need to.

USAJOBS, MONSTER, and all the other websites that have been suggested are good places to look, but sometimes it is better to be proactive and reach out to someone personally, instead of applying to an online offer. When the position has been posted online, the personnel office can be counted on dealing with hundreds if not thousands of different applications, and even though yours may be the best one out there, if they come to it at the end of the day, the may overlook it due to being tired, or they may see one they are willing to "accept" before they even see yours, even though you would be the better person for the job. By mailing in the request for an informal walk through, you are telling them that you respect them enough to come to them and you understand how busy they are.

No matter what happens, good luck!

Try the usajobs website. That's the only way to apply (as far as I know).

The website for the Office of Personnel Management job listings is: http://www.USAJOBS.gov .... I don't know why everyone puts it as a .com when it is .gov
That has most of he job listings, depending on the agency, a few are still listed on separate websites.

Although federal jobs are nice, state jobs often will count military service as "time in service" with the state. Each state has it's own website that will have a link to job postings for the state.

A lot of this will depend on what you want to do and where you want to live. NavAir could be a good place to go if you want to continue to work on Naval Aviation side. http://www.navair.navy.mil/
Also there are likely numerous opportunities around Everett in shipping. If you like the Navy but not the deployments you might consider the USCG.
For government jobs other than Feds you can look here: https://www.governmentjobs.com/
Best of luck to you!

USAJOBS....US Border Patrol is hiring!