Well, there is an uproar on the internet, and it is about military spouses and jobs. A few days ago, a syndicated column was posted on a few online sites. The article is titled 12 great jobs for military spouses. It starts off well, talking about the skills and qualifications of military spouses, and the the Military Spouse Employment Partnership, and then it runs a bit off track. Actually, like the track just fell away into a ravine or something.
The “great” jobs included in this article are:
- direct selling
- child care
- selling handcrafted goods online
- tutoring and substitute teaching
- errand runner
- catering or cake decorating
- pet services
- gift basket creator
- personal trainer
- administrative assistant
- information technology specialist
- tax preparer
- temporary worker
Now, don’t get me wrong. These are all fine jobs, and can be exactly the right choice for some people at some times. However, to pigeonhole military spouses into such a limited range of opportunities is really annoying. In addition, many of the items on this list are actually awful choices for military spouse. Anything that involves building a clientele, like running errands or making gift baskets, is virtually impossible for someone who moves regularly.
I know that military spouses are capable of having any type of job or career that they desire. Sometimes it is challenging, but it can be done. I’ve had milspouse friends who are teachers, doctors, hairdressers, craft demonstrators at Michaels, lawyers, nurses, authors, radiologists, social workers, lobbyists, accountants, gosh, I can’t even count them all. Heck, I’ve been a waitress, a temp, worked retail, managed a restaurant, worked in mortgage banking, sold Pampered Chef. (And that selling on Etsy thing looks cool, until I think about how uncrafty I am.)
What do you think about the article? What sort of jobs have you had? Fun, awful, cool, impressive, boring, whatever – we can be whatever we want to be, when it works for our families and us.
I have multiple teaching certifications in both Georgia & Texas. It's incredibly expensive to obtain them as well as to maintain them (continuing ed). While we lived in GA, I worked in schools as a teachers aide while I finished my certification, then waited tables during the summer to make ends meet. In TX, they were firing instead of hiring teachers so I subbed and attempted to make & sell children's clothes online & to boutiques. I'm not sure if I ever actually made any money doing that but I did completely burn myself out on sewing for a long time. Now we're in AZ, we won't be there long enough to get my certification (only 5 months). I probably won't work at all. I think it's ridiculous to expect military spouses to have to do all that expensive continuing education work to maintain their certifications when they aren't living in the state.
Fortunately, folks are waking up and realizing that military spouses have careers! There are laws being enacted in many states to help certifications transfer to your new state or suspend until you return. Check out this blog (http://www.militaryoneclick.com/23-states-have-now-passed-pro-military-spouse-license-portability-measures/) but then look at your individual state. If there isn't a law already, write to the legislators requesting one!
I count 13…hmmmh…
Also, from the referenced and other the posted urls.
http://www.jdnews.com/articles/percent-105972-mil…
I've been a dependent child, Active duty, Ready Reservist, Active duty and then 25 years as a MilSpouse, since 1965. Transferable skills is what gets you hired at the next duty station. I was in the trades as a glazier and never had a problem getting gainful employment. I did get hurt doing my job and had to change occupations, that was tough. On our last deployment overseas I did run into a couple of women who had been in about the same amount of time as I have. They seemed to have been doing much better than I did. They stuck to a career and kept working every place their husbands transfered to. One became a govt employee who sometimes transfered ahead, behind or with her spouse. The other was a Nurse who was always employed, even overseas. While overseas, I met a young man who had been to war and had PTSD. He left the service but his wife stayed in. He found his perfect job of taking care of children, the care he gave these children and their laughter kept him sane and happy. He is only a GS-3 but had 8 years under his belt. His pay was not pretty good.
There were many others and they all had the same thing……SKILLS that transfered. Some had scholastic educations others didn't. But all who kept their skills up and changed when needed continued to work and do well. Our young spouses did the worst. Most stayed home because they had to give away most of their money to the babysitter. So they didn't develope themselves or give a lot of thought as to the what ifs, they just did what the spouse next door did…complain. Too many of the military spouses get divorced, many because of money woes, others because of other reasons. Once they are divorced, they have to go out to find jobs….where is their experience? If they had worked and developed themselves at the beginning as I should have as well, there wouldn't be much of a problem finding work. You know there is going to be a day when your spouse has to leave the service.
Both should be ready for the transistion. The Military member should have been getting all the schooling they could while active duty and have the service pay for it. A few of our friends retired as Dr's, Masters and Bachelors as well as having a multitude of certifications. The G.I. Bill had been given to their spouse or to a child. Those families who planned and didn't listen to their neighbors did better than most.
I being a man still have problems when filliing out the applications because I have time overseas where I couldn't work. I'm asked if I had been incarcerated, our lady friends were just thought to have been at home taking care of Jr.
Having employment skills is what keeps us working, even if we are already skilled, our skill may be lacking. WE must always keep ourselves ready and able to work.
Tomorrow I have to NOT buy my hand gun (1st handgun) and use that money to pay for a couple of certs that will greatly boost my employability.
Do what you have to do, don't complain, JUST DO IT. That is why we are called AMERICANS, because we just do it.
Last and final…..
When I moved to Korea with my husband's most recent duty station, I quickly discovered that an MBA does not mean anything outside of the US. After floundering for a while, I fell back on a set of job skills that I had forgotten about: coaching. I'm a volunteer soccer coach on post, but also do one-on-one training for high schoolers that are hoping to get scholarships. Its not the kind of career money that I'd like to be making, but its hard to complain about a job that keeps me fit, outside, and with some cash in my pocket.
I couldn't find the original article, but I am doubtful it was much different from the usual piece that isn't telling you anything a little common sense couldn't find in the dark.
But how many of those jobs, not careers mind you, earn a living wage? Admittedly, I didn't research but I think fewer than half is a generous estimate. If correct, it's a pat on the head and a "you go, girl!" for ideas about supplemental income which may not in many cases offset the opportunity cost.
The Military Spouse Employment Partnership is hardly better, or at least it was earlier this year. It irked me so I haven't kept up on developments, but amidst all of the initial hype I found that companies were more than willing to put their names on the list of supporters, but could not find out what commitments they were making to employment of military spouses let alone in living wage positions. The website to assist military spouses in finding jobs in their geographical locations or ones that could be performed at home was essentially a dump of job listings, many in differing formats making it difficult to search and filter for relevance. Many of the jobs were also highly specialized, indicating it wasn't a tailored list, which is fine but if I were a job-seeking organic chemist, I probably don't need that website in order to find employment in my field.
In my opinion, military spouses need help determining the best certifications or degrees to pursue and perhaps even assistance, such as low interest loans or heck what about work study? These target jobs AND careers should be based on the obvious relevant factors as well as job outlook from the DOL. Military spouses should have assistance to become entrepreneurs. And employers should be given some sort of incentive to hire military spouses for jobs above the poverty level at a minimum. Even an incentive less than that of hiring a veteran would encourage employers to take it into account.
I do appreciate that this topic is being raised for conversation at a national level, but I hope the discussion can also translate into meaningful results for those it is intended to help.