Soldier's Wife, Crazy Life

Military Spouse Employment

Chasing Your Own Dreams in the New Year

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Chasing Your Own Dreams in the New Year

“New Year, New Me!” is a common phrase we hear this time of year. As the old year ends, and a new one begins, we all start to think about how we can better our lives. What can we change about ourselves? What goals can we focus on? How can we chase our dreams?

As military spouses, we might not know what the new year will bring. Will our spouse deploy again? When will the deployment they are currently on end? Will we PCS? And to where? There are so many unknowns it can be hard to know what to focus on.

As a military spouse, being able to chase your own dreams is important. You want to be able to focus on yourself instead of just your spouse’s career. Your career and dreams matter just as much.

As we go into a new year, start thinking about what you want your life to look like. You might not know if you will be living in Japan or Georgia, but you can work on yourself, and your own dreams as much as possible.

Here are a few ideas:

Do you want to go to school?

Maybe you already have your college degree but want to go back for something else. Maybe you never got your degree and feel like now is the time. There are many options for military spouses to go back to school. You can go 100% online, and get that degree from your own home, no matter where that might be. You can attend classes at a local college, or even on post. Here at Fort Campbell, you can attend some classes at their Education Center. This makes it easier for some military spouses to be able to focus on their education.

Do you want to start a business?

Starting a new business can be a smart move for those interested in this type of work. A business is something you can possibly take with you from duty station to duty station. There are so many options for online businesses these days. If you have a good business idea, maybe the new year is the time to get started. Figure out what you want to do, make a plan, and go for it.

Do you want to write a book?

Books are truly the best things in life! Why not write your own? Do you have a book idea swimming in your head? Maybe the new year is the time to get it written. Whether it is a nonfiction book about your experiences as a military spouse or a fun romance you have been thinking about for a while. The sky is the limit!

Do you want to find a new job?

Maybe you are ready for a job change. Maybe you have been at home for a while and want to get back into the workforce. Whatever the reason, looking for a new job can be pretty daunting. There are a lot of steps to finding the right job. Luckily there are many job search resources out there for military spouses.

Planning your new year

As a new year approaches, try to think about all the goals you want to accomplish, from personal to professional to goals for your family. Make a list. Make notes about how you will accomplish them. Create a vision board. Figure out how to get to where you want to be.

Whatever your goals are for the new year, get yourself organized, and figure out the best way to accomplish them. Working on your own goals, even if a deployment is in your future, will help you stay active and busy no matter what life brings. Good luck and Happy New Year!

Military Spouse Employment Matters to the Military Spouse Community

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Military Spouse Employment Matters to the Military Spouse Community

Yes, Military Spouse Employment is Important

The beauty of 2023 is that remote work is a lot easier to come by than it used to be. Many companies that had never considered having remote workers in the past were forced to do so in 2020 and have chosen to stick with remote work for the long term, at least on some level. Remote work is a huge plus for military spouse employment.

I work from home and while I had been doing this before 2020 hit, I am glad to see so many others being able to figure out how to do so. Remote work can be great for military spouses, and the flexibility is one reason why. You can be your own boss and go to the entrepreneur route, or work for a company from home.

From those early days as a WAHM, I learned that working from home was definitely all about balance. I needed to figure out how to get all my work done and take care of the baby and the house. A lot of lessons were learned along the way.

And THEN my husband joined the military. Was this going to be an adventure? I wasn’t so sure but I was ready for the life change. We found out he was going to be stationed in Germany.

Europe…of all places!

I was SO excited about this new path we were taking, even though I was pretty scared about all the details and what it would take to get there. In the end, it took us about 4.5 months to join him over there. And I had to give up my eBay business.

Now, at the time, I was glad for the break. I didn’t have to worry about filling orders anymore. I could focus on our move and our son. But in the back of my head, I couldn’t help but think about what I was giving up.

This little business, that I had worked so hard on, had to be put up. At least for the time we were overseas. Why? Because of SOFA and what they allowed and didn’t allow family members to do while living in another country. We couldn’t use the APO mailbox for anything business-related.

When a service member is trying to decide to reenlist in the military, a big factor is the health and well-being of their family members. One big part of this is military spouses and their own career paths. We all know that military life means sacrifice.

We know that military life means having to move often, running the household alone at times, and giving up some of what we want to do, even temporarily. But we also know that being able to chase our own dreams is important which is why military spouse employment matters.

According to the Military Spouse Chamber of Commerce, the military spouse unemployment rate was 22% in 2021. That means that out of the 1 million military spouses, 1 in 4 are unemployed. To compare, the national unemployment rate in 2021 was 4.83%.

As you can see, military spouse employment is an important issue. One that many military spouses have been concerned about for a while. Whether you are a military spouse entrepreneur, having to make changes you don’t want to make to go with your service member to their next duty station, or a military spouse trying to find yet another job, hoping and praying you find something that pays more than $11/hr, military spouse employment issues are important to you.

Volunteering

Volunteering is so very important, it really is. And military spouses do volunteer well. But a question we need to ask ourselves is, is the military depending on volunteering vs offering paid positions? Do people think that military spouses are okay with working for free, filling spots that could otherwise be paid because volunteering is the norm?

If you ask any senior spouse, they will probably tell you of a time when they felt like they are expected to lead some type of group or event simply because of who they are married to. We always say the military is the service member’s career, not the military spouse’s. But then, the culture of military life is that some spouses are expected to step up into these leadership roles.

What if the spouse works full-time? What if they have other obligations? What if they just don’t want to fill that role?

Location-Based Issues

Sometimes a military spouse moves to a new place, and they either can’t find a job or their job literally doesn’t exist there. This can be very frustrating and again, the military spouse has to make some hard decisions.

Should they put that part of their life on hold? Should they stay behind? Should they pivot and try to turn this frustration into something else?

What can be done about this? Sometimes it can feel like the only jobs available are retail and that isn’t the solution for every military spouse.

Employers Won’t Hire Military Spouses

A question that seems to come up in some military spouse groups I am in is if you should mention anything about being a military spouse on your resume or in an interview and the answer is always a big NO. Don’t do it. They don’t need to know this information and in many cases, they won’t hire you because of the fact that you are a military spouse.

But the scary reality is, as soon as a possible employer hears that you might not be sticking around longer than 2-3 years, they might just write you off. They don’t even want to take the chance. But this makes finding the right job when you PCS more difficult, even if you are qualified for that position.

What is the solution to the military spouse employment issue?

What if things could change for the better? What if we could get that military spouse employment rate down? What if military spouses could thrive in their careers during military life instead of feeling as if they can’t possibly move forward while their spouse is actively serving?

There are certain things the government can do. There are things the military can do. There are things we can do to get this figured out. To get military spouse employment to a better place.

We can share our stories, and find out what worked for other military spouses.

We can pay attention to upcoming legislation and changes that have to do with military spouse employment, such as the Military Spouse Hiring Act.

We can start asking more and more questions about what the military community can change and what we can do in the future to make things better.

What about you? What has been your experience with Military Spouse Employment? Have you been able to further your career during military life? What has worked and what hasn’t worked for you?

Ideas to Improve Military Spouse Employment and Finding Those Remote Opportunities

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Happy to have this guest post by Linda on working from home and employment. Please email me at Julie@soldierswifecrazylife.com and let me know if you would like to write a guest post for Soldier’s Wife, Crazy Life too.

35% of Military Spouses are saying that they are NOT employed but NEED OR WANT employment. 

According to the BSF/IVMF Survey # Respondents, Military Spouse Employment remains the reigning TOP ISSUE for Military Families! Link to Survey: https://bluestarfam.org/survey/

Reason’s why it is the TOP ISSUE –  It creates financial stress when with each PCS move a spouse loses her job and is forced into unemployment or under-employment status taking a low paying position at the new location. Add to that the stress from COVID 19 with the impact of school closures, daycare closures, the cost of childcare and access to quality, affordable childcare in general, and an unpredictable daily work schedule of their service member, and you have the perfect recipe for Military Spouses and Service Members to choose their FAMILY over Service when it comes time to re-enlist.  

What Needs to Be Done –  Companies that hire military spouses and offer remote work opportunities along with flexible schedules and opportunities for advancement, need access to the Military Spouses and need to be able to share those opportunities in the community. Community businesses around military installations need to reconsider their stance on hiring or choosing not to hire military spouses because of the amount of time we may or may not be at a duty station. In the civilian sector, employees are typically not staying in a position longer than 5 years.  

At the Command level, reasonable accommodation for service members that need to manage home or family obligations should be encouraged. Explore ways to expand military childcare capacity or expand the MCCYN Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood fee assistance program and make it easier for those “underground” childcare providers to gain the quality rating necessary to be on the installation provider list.

Encourage partnerships with organizations that have DOD agreements to complement the services being offered through ACS, MWR, the Education Center, and SFL TAP by inviting them to Newcomer Briefings and allowing them to provide the information for additional employment opportunity support.  If the spouses do not know about it, they can not access it. 

This also is THE #1 Issue Impacting your Service Member Retention! 

To address the Military Spouse Employment Issue, there has been an explosion of grassroots Non-Profit Organizations in the last 10 years, STARTED by Military Spouses or Veterans that aim to alleviate military spouse Un and Under-Employment 

Who are they? This is by no means a complete list but is a list of the Organizations that are vetted, and I have personal experience with: 

  • Hiring Our Heroes Military Spouse Professional Network – National and Local Installation locations
  • USO Pathfinder Transition and Military Spouse Programs 
  • Blue Star Families 
  • IVMF Institute for Veterans and Military Families – O2O Onward to Opportunity with Syracuse University 
  • Vets2Industry 
  • MSEP Military Spouse Employment Partnership 
  • Vet Jobs 
  • VirtForce 
  • Veterati 
  • MOAA Military Officers Association of America 

What do they do? These organizations tackle Military Spouse and Veteran Employment and have something slightly different to offer that sets them apart from each other. However, they all work together closely and share a passion for their mission. 

I wish I had known about them 10 years ago as I struggled my way through my own career journey. I only learned about them 2 years ago, and only because the little reserve installation we were near actually had a PPP representative, and she shared these with me! 

The above resources have connections to company partners that are Military Spouse and Veteran friendly employers who have a commitment to hiring Military Spouses and Veterans. Some of them have the same partners, but many of them have their own unique relationships with different companies and if you know what all of them are doing, you are only going to increase your chances of finding the perfect job or personal growth opportunity for your family’s situation! All of them have Vetted Opportunities and are often remote and some are CONUS and OCONUS friendly.  

Working From Home Life 

Almost everyone I speak to, says, “I would love to work at home, you are so lucky! That is what I want to do.” With COVID 19 in 2020, many people found out very quickly some of the challenges of working from home as their spouses, and children joined them at home, and they got to have ALL that EXTRA together time.  

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I will ever go back into an office again in my lifetime. However, with that said, it isn’t for everyone.  

Things to consider: 

  1. Are you self-disciplined? 
  2. Are you an extremely social person? 
  3. Do you have a dedicated office or workspace, or could you create one? 
  4. Is the position a W2 position or an Independent Contractor (1099) position? **This one has tax implications. 1099 Independent Contractors do not have taxes taken out and should be paying taxes quarterly. You may want to get a CPA.**) 

There are companies out there that are committed to hiring military spouses, and some were created by military spouses to be able to offer REMOTE, Portable employment with ROOM for Advancement, flexible schedules, and a network of other military spouses, that just get it! 

Be Active On LinkedIn

Get your free LinkedIn Premium account https://socialimpact.linkedin.com/programs/veterans/milspouses

Connect with the networks I mentioned above and follow them. Start Networking and attending events and learn about the companies that are committed to hiring military spouses. Do some self-reflection and narrow down what career path you are on and find your dream job! 

Linda Bailey has been a Military Spouse for 16+ years, with 3 grown children, and 3 fur babies. She is an Empty Nester preparing for life after the military in a few years. She has somehow managed to stay employed throughout her husband’s career, but she WILL say that it has not been easy. Her new mission in life is to help other military spouses have a better career path than her own. She has just spent 30 Days posting on Linked In and sharing resources for Military Spouses and discovered some great opportunities that did not exist during her search for employment over the years. Please check her out on LinkedIN and Facebook.