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How To Update Your Resume As A Military Spouse

By on March 26, 2012

This is a guest post by Amanda Bruns of Military Spouse Central.

Finding employment after military life can be difficult for a military spouse who has spent the past years serving alongside their veteran. Deployments, TDYs, PCSs and other demands for flexibility don’t always lend themselves to establishing a steady job or continuing education—two areas of attention on a resume.

Luckily employable skills can come from other sources, including the military spouse lifestyle. Consider the following:

Skills of a Spouse

Given the variety of locations a spouse may live in, the roles he or she may take on and the circumstantial conditions a spouse may be dealt, there are a lot of opportunities for growth. For instance:

  • Flexibility/Adaptability: Spouses learn quickly to keep plans tentative. Assignments may be extended or completely changed last minute. Given the possibility a service member can be called away on duty, spouses must develop the skills to manage the home, kids, pets, finances, and more. Employers are attracted to employees that can adapt and take on challenges that arise.
  • Diversity: The military can expose a spouse to multiple locations, which can mean they see different cultures, climates, size of community and different paces of lifestyle. The gained perspective and insight can offer employers a fresh set of ideas, strategies and practices.
  • Stress Management: Anyone that says a military life isn’t stressful is just plain silly. Whether it’s single parenting, managing budgets, preparing logistics for relocations and/or maintaining a home, spouses develop stress-management skills. (That is before the emotional stressors are taken into consideration). Employers will be able to trust that a spouse can take on multiple tasks and handle them effectively.

Ways to Expand

A consistent career may not always be realistic, but there are some flexible, travel-friendly programs a spouse can look to for developing experience and skills. Consider:

  • Volunteering: No matter the location, chances are there are opportunities to be a volunteer. A spouse can show off their leadership skills with coaching a team or leading a scout troop. Tutoring or mentoring can develop educational and communication skills. Other volunteer opportunities can expand the competency in organization, time-management, writing abilities and interpersonal skills.
  • Home-based Business: An entrepreneurial spirit can lend itself to some major proficiency in management, self-motivation, organization, customer service, sales and marketing. Perhaps he or she can turn their favorite hobby into a profitable business or explore the realm of a virtual work-from-home job.
  • Utilize Military Resources: There are educational courses offered by the military that educate in the fields of computer technology, foreign languages, leadership, health and wellness, finances, relationships and more.

If you’re a military spouse, take advantage of the opportunities you have and be ready to sell your qualities to employers when the time comes. You have a lot to offer.

This is a guest post by Amanda Bruns of Military Spouse Central.

Categories: Career, Guest, WorkLeave a Comment

Would You Quit Your Job To Be A Stay-At-Home Parent?

By on October 20, 2011

a life in balance

In the sake of keeping some sort of mystery in my life, I’m not going to give you an exact timeline of when my husband and I plan to have kids (and trust me, there’s a timeline – I’m a planner!), but I will tell you that it could happen tomorrow or it could happen in 3 years.  (And, of course, I’m banking on the fact that we’ll be able to have kids easily, which is a whole other issue in and of itself.)

When I think of this kids timeline, one question seems to pop up in my head:

Would you take time off from your career to stay home with children?

As we prepare to buy a house, we’re loosely basing our future budget (that includes a mortgage) on one income.  Partly for emergency matters (if one of us were to lose our job) and partly for parenting matters (it’d be nice to have the option for one of us to stay home with our kids).

Staying home seems like it would be a nice experience, and I definitely have the possibility of doing that now that I’m generating a reasonable amount of side income (although, it’s inconsistent, which is another factor to consider).

But I am terrified of leaving my comfortable, steady job to raise a family and make inconsistent income on the side.  Here’s why:

  • Re-entering the workforce might be difficult.  I will no doubt return to full-time work after our kids are grown.  Who knows if that will be when they’re in elementary school or high school.  Either way, I’ll be behind by the times when I re-enter the workforce.  There will be new generations of hungry 20-somethings who will probably be smarter and more tech-savvy than I will be.  Who knows if I could even get a job at the same level.
  • I might take a pay cut.  If I do leave the workforce for an undetermined amount of time, I’m guessing I’ll take a pay cut (unless I can get my old job back again).  Honestly, this doesn’t bother me much, but it would if it were a severe pay cut.
  • My husband could lose his job.  What if I quit my job and we were relying on my husband’s income and then he loses his job?  Sure, we’d have emergency savings, but it’d still be terrifying.  What if he couldn’t find work again?
  • My kids might not appreciate me.  I was lucky enough to have my mom stay home with my siblings and myself.  But I didn’t appreciate that until just recently.  My mom worked so hard to live frugally, cook good meals three times a day, create fun activities for us during the summer, encouraged us, kept the house clean, planned vacations and more.  That’s a lot of work.  Probably more than I do at my full-time job.  I was always told to tell her thank you, but I just said it because I had to.  Now I realize the full extent of her sacrifices and hard work.  Can I handle being under-appreciated for all my work?  (Insert jab to my current job here … haha.)
  • I might start to hate freelancing/writing.  Right now, writing and freelancing are all fun for me.  When I become dependent on them, will I start to detest them?
  • My freelance income could dry up.  I’m grateful for the freelance opportunities I have, but freelance is just that: not a guaranteed job.

On the plus side of things:

  • Family and love are all that matter.  This is the tipping point for me.  This is what really sways me in the direction of wanting to stay home.  When it comes down to it, nothing in life really matters except for love, especially family love.  Don’t believe me?  Try creating a movie in your mind of all the happy memories from you life.  These memories probably don’t include a designer purse or a new car.  They probably include experiences you’ve had with your loved ones.  Love is all that matters.  If love is the most important thing, shouldn’t I sacrifice to put it at the center of my life?
  • I won’t miss T-ball games or dance recitals.  I’ll be able to cart my children around to all their activities without worrying about getting off of work early.  I’m not a parent, but this gives me an inckling of hope that I might have more time to clean the house or cook good dinners.  Most parents will probably tell me to stop dreaming. ;)
  • There will be no more Mondays.  I feel like I can’t get excited about this because, 1) my husband would still have them, and, 2) there will be more Monday’s when I re-enter the workforce.  So, I guess this isn’t even a perk at all.
  • Maybe I can cook and clean?  If there are any mom’s reading this, they’re probably shaking their head and laughing.  But, in my fantasy world, I could cook great meals and have a clean house on top of staying home with my kids AND freelancing.  That’s possible … right?

Another option that I haven’t looked into yet would be part-time work (my current job probably won’t allow that) or securing a more stable writing job (any takers?).  I think tackling these two options is next on my to-do list before we even start thinking about having kids.

Like I said earlier, I’m not quitting my job any time soon. I love my current position and love my stable job. I love having somewhere to go every day. But, as the season of motherhood approaches, I can’t help but wonder if I’d be willing to give it up for the sake of my family.

What are your thoughts?  Would you quit your job to stay at home with your children?

UPDATES:

  • I should have mentioned that I’ll LIKELY have at least 2 days per week where either my mom or my husband’s mom will watch our child(ren) so I can work that day.  And by work, I mean freelance/blogging.  So, I’ll still have at least 2 days where I can feel like I have a job outside of staying home with the kids.
  • Little Miss Moneybags made this excellent point: When your cost of daycare starts to creep up towards your income levels (or even HALF of your income levels), is there really a point to even working?  Not sure we’ll have that problem with living in the Midwest (where daycare is cheap), but I could see it being a problem for other areas/careers.

Categories: Career, Family, Money47 Comments

Career Balance: People Are Happiest When Working?

By on July 12, 2011

work life balanceA couple of weeks ago, one of my friends – who is a full-time recruiter – was telling me that studies show that people are happiest when they’re working, especially when it’s something they care about.

I definitely agree with this idea.  Call me a nerd, but I often feel extremely happy while working towards something and after I’ve accomplished that task, project, or goal.  And when you look around and see almost everyone working towards something – a goal or self-improvement or creating something – it starts to makes sense that various types of “work” are what makes us happiest.

For me, a great example of work creating happiness is Blonde & Balanced.  I love B&B dearly.  It brings me a lot of happiness, but it’s definitely work.  However, if I could, I would probably spend 80 hours a week blogging, writing, social media-ing (is that a word yet?), and connecting with others.  Blogging is work and it’s work that makes me extremely happy – a close second behind family and friends.

I think the theory even holds true for chores like cleaning.  Although G and I procrastinate on cleaning days, once we get started, we are seriously in it to win it.  You can’t even break us from our cleaning zone once we’ve started.  And after we’re done, we marvel for days about our clean house and how happy it makes us.

If the work/happiness concept is true, it’s no wonder we’re all striving to find our perfect job, the perfect work balance – because we’re happiest when we’re working hard at something we love.  I know I am.

And, by the way, if you’re wondering about the study, I actually looked it up.  A psychology professor named Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (say that three times fast) has spent a lot of time studying the topic.  He claims that people are happiness when they’re in a state of “flow” and working is something that provides that “flow”.  Interesting, huh?

Do you think work brings happiness?  Does your work (full-time, part-time, hobby, etc.) bring you happiness?

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Categories: Blogging, Career, Work7 Comments

Passion Vs. Money

By on February 3, 2011

A lot of people ask me if I LOOOOVE accounting when I tell them what I do.

Yes, of course, I just LOOOOVE spending my days with Excel spreadsheets and financial systems and debits and credits and financial reports and journal vouchers and meetings about journal vouchers and conference calls about journal vouchers and water cooler talk about journal vouchers and e-mails about journal vouchers and … okay, you get the point.

I don’t LOOOOVE accounting.  I don’t dislike business work, but I’m not jumping for joy every time my T-accounts balance.

Here were some majors I toyed with when I was a freshman in college:

  1. Journalism (1st declared major)
  2. Criminal Justice (2nd declared major … long story, but I wanted to be a cop.  Yeah, I can’t see that either.)
  3. Marine Biology
  4. Broadcast Journalism
  5. Interior Design  (seriously? I haven’t bought a piece of home decor in over 4 years.)
  6. English (no comment)

Anyways, after I finally sobered up, I got real and choose Accounting as my major.  I was always great with math and numbers and had a knack for computers.  I knew any business major was a smart decision, so I figured it was the way to go.  In the end, I decided that I wanted to make money and live comfortably instead of follow any of my real passions.  I chose the most practical major that involved at least a hint of something that I was good at (numbers, math, adding, subtracting, all the basics … yeah, I rocked those out).

G is also, technically, an “Accountant” (insert lame joke here about how we’re a bunch of nerdy bean counters who bonded over numbers and stuff … yeah, we’ve never heard that before …), but he’s not really an Accountant.  His Master’s is in Accounting Information Systems (MAJOR nerd alert!) so he works exclusively in IT and data analytics these days.

Still, he, like me, chose his major because it was a smart and practical field to go into with plenty of opportunities and room for growth.  And, like me, he doesn’t LOOOOVE accounting.

We chose our majors with our futures in mind.  We did not choose our majors based on our interests and passions (because, if G would have taken that route, he would have, and I quote, majored in “watching basketball all day” ;) ).

A lot of people tell me I’m “lucky” because I made enough money to pay off my debt quickly (which is just silly because I was making a teacher’s salary when I was paying off my debt).  Those comments always drive me crazy because I chose my profession specifically to improve my financial future.  I sacrificed my true interests for a better future for myself and my future family.  I know a lot of people do this, too, and, I think, that sort of sacrifice deserves a bit of credit.

I went into college as a Journalism major.  I enjoyed writing.  I thought it might be fun and exciting to write for newspapers or magazines.  I still think that would be fun and exciting – it’s why I write on this little bloggie and moonlight as a freelance writer in the evenings.  But I knew there were limitations.  I couldn’t make much, and if I did eventually make much, it would take years.  It’s different with accounting (or any business job for that matter).  Jobs pay well and offer great benefits.  You might not go home at the end of the night feeling like you changed the world or even did anything that made you feel alive inside, but you did make a decent salary to enjoy all the good things life has to offer.  Plus, like I said, I don’t dislike my work.  In general, I enjoy working, having something to do, not being lazy, so I’m very fortunate that I have a good job.

G and I have worked really hard and made smart choices in our twenties (okay, so we did make some dumb choices ;) )so we wouldn’t have to struggle as we got older.  We sacrificed interests and passion early on so we could focus on it later in life.  People might call that lucky, but I just call that smart.

Do you work in a field that you’re passionate about?  Or did you choose a passion so you could have a good job?

Categories: Career, Dollars, Work61 Comments