Sell Yourself and Be Flexible
Knowing your strengths
can go a long way toward finding employment, but many military spouses
sell themselves short when searching for work. They often fail to
recognize or effectively communicate their abilities, experience and
transferable skills. According to Deb Kloeppel, president and CEO of the
Military Spouse Corporate Career Network (MSCCN), transferable skills
are not specific to a particular position and can be used in many
different jobs or career fields. Problem-solving, resource-management,
social and technical skills are all transferable and make military
spouses particularly marketable. “Almost every military spouse I
know has developed skills that employers find valuable,” explains
Kloeppel. “If you’ve led family readiness group or organized
an event for a spouses’ organization, for example, you’re
experienced in budgeting, planning, organizing, time management, and
problem solving.”
Additionally, Kloeppel
recommends military spouses strengthen their “soft skills”
to make themselves even more attractive to employers. “Hard skills are more concrete, like nursing or database
management knowledge and experience. Soft skills are less tangible, but
no less important. How you treat people, your character and integrity,
your posture, making eye contact, and the ability to present yourself in
a professional manner are great assets for anyone looking for
work.”
Those who don’t have a
lot of recent workplace experience often feel at a disadvantage, but
volunteer work, participating and/or holding leadership positions in
social and service clubs can also strengthen a resume. If you feel your
skills are rusty or need improvement, volunteering is also a great way
to get a foot in the door, strengthen your skills and build experience.
Statistics show that military spouses do a great deal of volunteer work
on base and in the community, and many of the skills gained as a
volunteer are readily transferable to the job market. Don’t be
bashful about including these experiences on your resume.
And don’t feel you have
to apologize for gaining the skills in a volunteer setting, says
Kloeppel. “I can’t tell you how often I hear spouses say,
‘I have computer skills, but I learned them when I was
volunteering.’ Employers are only concerned that you possess the
skills. It’s immaterial to them whether you paid for the training,
learned on the job or gained experience in a volunteer
capacity.”
Flexibility is key to anyone
looking to find employment or change jobs, and particularly so for
military spouses. Bobbie Bruzdzinski, a Coast Guard spouse, was in her
30s, had a well-established career in retirement planning and annuity
services, and was totally unprepared for the employment challenges
she’d face when she married into the military. Through the course
of her husband’s military career, an ability to go with the flow
has served her well.
“I was shocked when
we first moved to an area where there were no jobs in my career field
and pay scales were lower across-the-board. I learned I had to be
flexible and I found success by exploring diverse industries. I’ve
been fortunate to find work that was related to my background in sales,
but the focus has changed from job to job,” Bruzdzinski
says. “I’ve sometimes had to
swallow hard and accept less money. Sometimes I’ve had to accept a
lower-paying job and then wait it out till something better came along.
But thankfully, doing what I love has always been at the forefront. I
didn’t always get what I wanted, but I usually got something else
that was wonderful.”
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