Tips for Military Spouses Returning to Work

This week I'm speaking at the Military Officers Association of America Spouse Symposium on the topic of Career Reentry for Military Spouses. This Spouse Symposium is part of the larger Joint Warfighting Convention, which is being held at the Virginia Beach Convention Center near Norfolk, Virginia. Nearly 3,000 people are attending, and I'm sure there will be demonstrators there protesting the war because defense contractors are involved in this conference as well as the military. However, the difficulties faced by military spouses relaunching careers after returning from lengthy overseas postings or after moving every few years rise above the political divide over the Iraq War. Here are some tips for military spouses resuming careers after a career break:

Qualifications

You have unique qualifications to offer employers as a military spouse. Make sure you highlight these areas of expertise when you discuss your strengths:

1.) Emotional resilience. You are emotionally resilient because you have had to deal with your spouse being away on lengthy military deployments, often with his/her life at stake.

2.) Experience in dealing with uncertainty. You are constantly dealing with uncertainty about your spouse’s whereabouts and safety, and the timing and location of your next posting. Dealing with uncertainty is a qualification lacking in many job candidates at any life stage.

3.) Comfortable with constant transition. The business world is in a constant state of flux. Transition is a way of life for military spouses and many take for granted their expertise in dealing with it.

4.) No benefits required. Military spouses have benefits, so benefits do not need to be part of your compensation package. Use this as a bargaining chip when negotiating terms of your employment.

Readiness

2.) At-home responsibilities are overwhelming. Since you are bearing the brunt of the childcare and eldercare responsibilities alone, you may feel these responsibilities are too overwhelming to consider returning to work even if you did have some sort of support community in place.

Tips

1.) Take a series of baby steps. The objective is to maximize current and relevant experiences, so reference to these experiences can be made during informal networking, formal interviewing and on resumes.

Find relevant volunteer work that can be done when your schedule permits. Take one class at a time instead of enrolling in a more demanding program. Seek occasional consulting work from time to time.