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CAREER/EDUCATION
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Fast-forwarding several years, I faced a crossroads when I realized that marrying a military man likely meant frequent relocations, repeated deployments and lengthy separations from my partner. It occurred to me that the only thing for certain was going to be uncertainty. I began to question whether this potential lifestyle meant giving up on career goals and aspirations. After much unnecessary and unproductive worry, hours of research and the advice of several other Army wives, I discovered that being married to a soldier does not have to mean giving up on your own goals.
Army Wife Ailments
I often hear my fellow Army wives express concerns that their career progression has suffered due to the military lifestyle. Over the years, I have even listened as spouses talk about feeling discriminated against because of their military affiliation. In other instances, Army wives land great jobs and establish themselves within a company, only to face an unavoidable PCS move in just a few years. In these cases, many Army wives worry that they will be unable to find a similar position at their next duty station.
There is no denying that Army wives face obstacles in regard to career and education that our civilian friends do not. Nevertheless, we also have a variety of resources and experiences available to us as a direct result of our military affiliation. The key to a successful, satisfying career is leveraging such opportunities to our advantage and adding a dose of creativity.
Diagnosing Your Resume
Common red flags on any resume include chronic job hopping, a lack of career and responsibility progression or extended breaks in employment--unfortunately, all of which we Army wives are more than likely to have. So what’s a career-minded Army wife to do?
First, take a good look at your resume. As you review your experiences, ask yourself the following questions:
- Are you the victim of frequent relocations and corresponding “jobs” instead of a career filled with a series of title and responsibility progression?
- What resume layout are you using to highlight your skills?
- If you were in the manager’s shoes, would you hire you based on your resume?
- What do you wish your resume looked like?
- Are you adequately articulating how each experience prepared you for the job you are currently applying for?
- Are there frequent gaps in employment?
- Have you included volunteer work, education and training?
- Are you using tangible, quantifiable numbers to express your experience level?
- Are jobs with short durations the result of military relocation or a lack of commitment?
- What do you want this resume to say about you? What is it saying now?
Before you can fix your resume, you have to first identify what needs improvement. The most obvious obstacles military spouses face include accounting for a lapse in employment due to relocation and lack of job progression. Look for themes on your resume like different jobs with the same title, employment duration of two years or less and a lot of seemingly disconnected experiences. If you struggle with making a diagnosis for yourself, seek assistance from a trusted friend, family member or professional.
Curing the Chaotic Career
From No Direction to Job Progression
So you have diagnosed your resume as having no real direction. Perhaps you feel as though your experiences have been disjointed in nature or that you have had jobs simply for the sake of having a job. Maybe you feel as though you have never really had a passion for any of your prior professional experiences. If you find yourself in this particular category, search for the similarities between your otherwise scattered jobs.
You may love your current position or dread Monday mornings-either way, you can always learn something from the job you are currently in. For instance, you may have learned what type of management style you prefer, an industry you would like to avoid in the future, how to handle stressful situations or simply how long of a commute you are willing to make. Remember, every experience is a learning experience, making it important for you to view each work environment as an opportunity to learn more about yourself. Think of it as a job journey that is leading you to the next experience.
Become strategic in the way you think about every job you have had, even if they may appear unrelated initially. If you are unable to articulate a natural connection between your jobs on the resume, don’t forget about the cover letter! The cover letter gives you the ability to tie otherwise disconnected experience together in a cohesive manner.
PCS = People, Culture, Society
Forget Permanent Change of Station! For the purposes of resume writing, PCS stands for the ability to find out about different people, respect new cultures, and learn about society as a whole! I won’t deny PCSing is not entirely a rendezvous to Paris or a shopping trip to Germany’s Christmas markets. I realize there are broken items and lost boxes, uprooting families and housing wait lists.
Despite the frustrations, you have probably seen a lot more of the country, or maybe even the world, than your civilian friends. Speaking personally, my family loves that I move around because within 3-5 years they have a new place to visit that they may not have otherwise! If you don’t already view the travel as a wonderful opportunity, think of it as a way to learn about other cultures, backgrounds and ways of life! Such a range of life experience will very likely set you apart from your competitors in the job market. The cover letter is again a great area to discuss how much you have learned as you traveled.
Fill in the Gaps
If you find that your resume is suffering from lapses in employment, there are a number of treatment options. Try not to rule out volunteer work or community involvement. Consider the fact that we tend to be drawn to things that we naturally enjoy. You may dismiss valuable experiences because to you they are “just a hobby.” Even if you have experience that you were not paid for, it is very likely as asset if it pertains to your career goals.
In the instance that you just relocated to a new area and have not had the opportunity to become active in the community; you may want to take classes. Even if you are unemployed, obtaining relevant training helps you stay current in your field’s trends and demonstrates professional activity while between jobs.
Celebrate Your Resume’s Recovery
To this day, my husband and I are both still admittedly stubborn and passionate about our careers. The difference now is that we don’t necessarily see our career paths as two, diverging courses to two set points. I question whether I would have ever realized how much I suffered from career tunnel vision without the Army lifestyle shaking me out of my comfort zone. We all must realize, whether Army wives or not, life is going to throw us unexpected turns that may ultimately present opportunities we were too focused to consider previously!
The Army lifestyle has challenged me to plan less and embrace spontaneity more. I won’t say that it is always easy to welcome unexpected changes, but every obstacle can be viewed as an opportunity-it simply depends on whether we choose to embrace it.
Stacy Swearengen, Certified Career, Education and Adult Learning Coach, and spouse of an active duty soldier, provides military wives with career and education counseling that is tailored to meet the demands of the military lifestyle. Offering a complete range of career counseling services, including resume critiques, mock interviews, job search resources, college decision-making strategies and guidance on using military spouse benefits, Stacy provides telephone coaching to spouses across the world.
All army wives receive a complimentary 30-minute coaching session
to determine if career coaching is right for them.
Website: www.militaryspousecareercoach.com
Email: Stacy@militaryspousecareercoach.com
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Stacy Swearengen
Career and Education
Senior Contributor
stacy@armywifemagazine.com
www.militaryspousecareercoach.com Stacy@militaryspousecareercoach.com
Long before ever meeting my husband (and I like to believe still to this day), I was a driven, determined young woman, motivated by thoughts of success, a fabulous career and a world of possibilities. My husband and I first met at a time when we were both very focused on our own individual careers--he on the Army and me on the business world. It is no secret among our family and friends that in addition to our career determination, we have also always shared the ability to be rather stubborn. Even upon first meeting, neither my husband nor I intended on giving up well-established, lifelong professional goals for anyone else.
Diagnosing Disjointed Job Experience:
Identifying and Eliminating Resume Redflags
by Stacy Swearengen, posted April 2010
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