How to read a critical NEC list - 

1.  Go to this link to see the critical NEC list, it is about 1/2 down and called "Critical NEC List in Fleet RIDE"

http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/career/careercounseling/pages/fleetride-pts.aspx

I will attach a copy here because I broke it out for you to give you an idea of what you're reading.  Just click on the tab at the bottom because I broke out the meaning for the CTI rating for an example to give you an idea what it means.

NAVDEP_COM_CRITICAL_NEC_LIST_IN_FLEET_RIDE_AS_OF_8AUG11_pass.xls

 2.  There are four sections:

SVC_CODE:

• USN=Active Duty, 
• FTS=Navy Full Time Support (FTS) sailors are members of the Navy Reserves who perform full-time active duty, receiving the same pay, allowances, and benefits as active duty members
• SELRES=Reserves

EMC=Enlisted Management Code, which is a coding system developed by NAVPERSCOM (PERS-4) to categorize the combinations of enlisted ratings, functional area codes (FAC), and NEC’s for enlisted community management efforts and detailing.

RATING=Your job CTN is Cryptologic Technician Networks

PG=Paygrade

NEC=An unique four digit code that tells what the sailors specialty is.   

3.  What does the 4 digit code mean?  

The 4 digit code is the Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC) code.  It tells me exactly what you do.  For example, suppose you were just a plain old auto mechanic.  You would have a NEC of 0000, which means everyone in your rating could do your job.  Being a "quad-zip" is nothing.  I basically means you've been to "A" school.  However, suppose you were an auto mechanic that specialized in Corvettes.  You are the expert when someone has a Corvette problem.  Then you would have a special code assigned to you that says your an expert, example 9280.  (9280 is not an auto mechanic, it just happened to be one of my NEC codes).  You gain this 4 numeral code from going to "C" school (mostly), there are other ways to get it, but I won't go into that.  

Now let say you're a CTI.  We all know that there isn't a "quad-zip" CTI.  Each CTI has to have a code assigned to them.  When I see that code, I know what you do.  Most civilians think CTI's only have 6 languages, well they don't.  They have a whole bunch of languages.  Yes they show as deleted, which they are, but they're not.  I won't go into why.  (I don't want to have to kill you)

CTI-9192 Basic Thai Linguist -

CTI-9193 Basic Indonesian Linguist - 

CTI-9194 Basic Cambodian Linguist - 

CTI-9195 Basic Burmese Linguist - 

CTI-9196 Basic Malay Linguist - 

CTI-9197 Basic Serbo-Croatian Linguist - 

CTI-9198 Basic Polish Linguist - 

CTI-9201 Basic Russian Linguist - 

CTI-9202 Basic Tagalog Linguist - 

CTI-9203 Basic Spanish Linguist - 

CTI-9204 Basic French Linguist - 

CTI-9207 Basic German Linguist - 

CTI-9208 Basic Albanian Linguist - 

CTI-9209 Basic Persian (Farsi) Linguist - 

CTI-9211 Basic Chinese (Mandarin) Linguist -

CTI-9212 Basic Korean Linguist - 

CTI-9213 Basic North Vietnamese Linguist - 

CTI-9215 Basic Hebrew Linguist - 

CTI-9216 Basic Arabic Linguist - 

CTI-9310 Basic Bulgarian Linguist - 

CTI-9311 Basic Georgian Linguist - 

CTI-9312 Basic Kurdish Linguist - 

CTI-9313 Basic Portuguese Linguist - 

CTI-9314 Basic Romanian Linguist - 

CTI-9315 Basic Ukrainian Linguist - 

Go here to see the various NEC codes for ANY rating in the Navy.  

http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/reference/nec/NECOSVolII/Pages/default.aspx

4.  For fear of getting about a zillion questions about this, I will post this anyways.  This will tell you exactly how the different ratings are set up and what rating are critical and which aren't.  It tells me the billets, the manpower, and all other types of stuff.

http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/organization/navmac/manpowerprograms/Documents/Community_Health_Matrix__Spring_2010.pdf