1. Who wants my skills?
The minute you find out where you will live next, start identifying what employers or companies are within an acceptable commuting distance of that location.
There are several online approaches to doing this:
- Visit the web sites of your military installation, or of the city or state in which you will live. Chances are they will have links to web sites of employers in the local community.
- Visit your favorite search engine for jobs and perform a search for employers based on location.
- Visit Job-Hunt's state pages to find links to hundreds of employers and other local resources listed for that state.
Once you identify potential employers, then take steps to get to know them and the people who work there.
Notice, I did not recommend looking for job openings right away. Your goal should be to connect with some people with whom you can establish a networking relationship, because career experts agree that networking is the most effective way to land a job.
2. How do I connect with these people?
When on the company web site, look for icons that take you to the most popular social media platforms.
Another approach would be to start with a social networking tools like LinkedIn or Facebook to search for company names, which may appear in individual profiles, as company profiles, or in groups.
By connecting with the networking contacts before you start looking for a job, you will have time to nurture the relationships and discover where your skills fit.
3. What do I bring to the table?
Military spouses often have a wide variety of marketable skills, but the secret to successful job search is to know how to market them.
Your resume, cover letter, and interview responses should always have a good balance of hard skills and soft skills:
- Hard skills are those that demonstrate you can do a job. They are learned through education or training, are measurable, and often are technical or job-specific. Some examples are teaching, nursing, operating a computer, or accounting.
- Soft skills are usually intangible, interpersonal, and behavioral, and are transferable to different types of job, such as leadership, communication and critical thinking.
Regardless of whether you obtained the skills through paid employment or volunteer work, you can count them toward your level of experience, and they can be used on your resume or application.
However, when writing resumes or completing job applications, focus on including only those skills that are relevant to the job for which you are applying. If you were going to have your car repaired, would you care that your mechanic could fix small appliances or is also a landscaper? Probably not.
Employers want to know what skills you bring to the table that are important to doing the job for which they are going to hire you.
4. When - and from where - do I want to work?
Thankfully, this age of technology offers many options for flexibility. With each PCS your life could be very different and, therefore, require a different work situation. Based upon the location, number and ages of children, financial needs, local job market, and demands of your spouse’s job, you may need to choose between full-time, part-time, temporary, and virtual work.
Take the time to honestly assess your family needs and only consider jobs that will allow you to accommodate them.
Bottom Line:
As a military spouse, you may never control where you live or when you move, but you can control the impact that your work or career has on your family, and, with the help of the Internet, you can get a head start on finding a job in that next location.
© Copyright, 2011, Pamela M. McBride. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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About This Author:
Pamela M. McBride is an author, career coach, and 20+ year Army wife. Pamela is the author of 2 books: Work It, Girl! and The Mocha Manual to Military Life and a blog, The Work-Life Diva. Learn more from Pamela on the Work It Girl and Working It Military Life Style Facebook fan pages, and follow her on Twitter @PamelaMMcBride.
