Military spouses have historically had a more difficult time than their “civilian” counterparts in finding a job, much less a career. With frequent PCS moves, deployments and whatever else the Army decides to throw our way, its difficult to keep your resume from appearing as a job hopping mess.

Some spouses are lucky enough to have degrees or training that can easily transfer from one post to the next and are in high demand – such as those in the medical field. Others of us are not quite so lucky and end up having to settle for jobs that don’t use our degree or training because it is all that is available.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know that no matter where the Army may move you, your career can move with you? This was the best solution for me when my husband joined the Army. Not only did I want to have a portable career, I also wanted one that would offer a flexible schedule that could work around block leave schedules, surprise 4-day weekends and, of course, deployments.

I won’t sugar coat it. Leaving a good job with a guaranteed paycheck every two weeks was difficult. I think I backed out at least twice before I finally took the leap to becoming an entrepreneur! It has been five years since I took that leap and I am very happy that I did. There have been challenges along the way but the rewards have far outweighed them all (and I’m not only speaking financially).

I’ve spoken with quite a few military spouses about following the same path and many believe they don’t have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Well, I have news for you. Many of the same qualities that make you successful as a military spouse will also make you successful as an entrepreneur.

* Adaptability: You are a military spouse. You’ve learned to deal with change since the very first meeting with the recruiter.
* Flexibility: When is the last time you completely changed your plans due to the whims of the Army and still made it work?
* Independent & Self Sufficient: During separations, you manage to take on all of the roles of two adults in the household. You become the chief executive officer, financial officer, head of operations, housekeeper, mechanic, cook, the list goes on. This is very similar to the daily roles of an entrepreneur.
* Commitment & Dedication: Dealing with the entrepreneurial world requires you to be able to overcome roadblocks and not give up at the first sign of trouble. Military spouses have had more of their fair share of opportunity to exhibit commitment and dedication to both their soldier and a boss that is technically his and not yours.
* Problem Solver: Its the rule of the military. As soon as your soldier leaves, anything that can go wrong, will. As a military spouse, you’ve learned to deal with problems head on, tackle whatever may come your way and come out on the other side with a smile on your face.

Over the next few months, I’m going to be expanding the website to create a section especially for entrepreneurs. We’ll discuss everything you need to know to be successful as an entrepreneur from idea creation to financial considerations. I want to reach out to other Army family members so that they can create a career life for themselves NOW instead of waiting for their soldier to retire, as I’ve seen so many spouses do. It is possible to be married to a soldier, yet still have a life and career of your own. And I will show you how.

Volunteering can be a great way to contribute to society regardless of whether you are a military wife. There are many organizations both on and off post that rely on their volunteers to help run their programs. Be sure to check with the Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) or ACS office on your post as they can lead you to volunteer opportunities. You can also check a website called Volunteer Match that displays opportunities based on your zip code.

Volunteering is also a great way to stay busy during deployments or training exercises and for the stay at home parent, it can be a great way to have some adult conversation! Many opportunities offer childcare for free or at a reduced rate while you volunteer (this is especially true on post).

Below are several organizations that I am aware of and places of businesses that commonly have volunteer opportunities. If you know of other places, please let me know so they can be added.

National Organizations:

American Red Cross

USO

United Way

Girl Scouts/Boy Scouts

Big Brother/Big Sister

Ronald McDonald House

Habitat for Humanity

Salvation Army

Goodwill

Other Organizations:

Hospitals

Hospice

Museums

Chamber of Commerce

Homeless Shelters

Animal Shelters

YMCA

Do you volunteer? What organizations do you volunteer for and how did you approach it? Please share in the comments!

Your resume is often your first impression with a company. It needs to look professional but also make you stand out from the crowd. Do you know that research shows that employers spend less than 30 seconds glancing at your resume? More often than not, they are looking for reasons to count you out to make the process easier for them. This is especially true if they have hundreds of resumes to sift through. In larger corporations, your resume may have to pass the screening test of a computer before a human ever sees it.

But you can have a successful resume by following five simple tips.

1. Spelling and grammar count! If you’re using a word processing program such as Microsoft Word, use the spell check and grammar check. Errors on your resume will stick out like a sore thumb. Don’t give them an easy excuse for putting your resume in the trash.

2. List your accomplishments not your job duties. Unless you’ve been given a strange and unrecognizable title in your last job, your resume should focus on your accomplishments. This is how you will set yourself apart from others. Use concrete data whenever possible as well. For instance instead of saying “Increased sales in my division,” say “Increased sales by 74% in 12 months for the southeastern division.”

3. Be careful when listing dates. You should list dates on your resume whenever possible. At the very least, your resume should list the years of employment for each job. An even better choice is to list the month and year. If you have gaps of unemployment, list any courses you took or any volunteer work you performed to help cover the gap.

4. Don’t give personal information. Keep your resume professional. The employer does not need to know that you are married with three children and a dog and enjoy knitting. If it doesn’t specifically relate to the job duties, it does not belong on your resume.

5. Include complete contact information. You want to make it easy for an employer to get in touch with you. Be sure you provide your first and last name, complete address, phone number (with area code) and email address. You may also want to provide a cell phone number if its unlikely you will be near your home phone during normal business hours. Along this same line, be sure your voicemail on your cell phone and your answering machine at home have a professional message.

Finally, and this advice may be a little controversial, you may consider leaving off the location of your jobs if each one is at a different post. It won’t be quite so obvious you’re an Army Wife and will possibly prevent skipping over your resume because they don’t think you will be around long term.

Good luck!

Moving to a new place where you don’t know anyone and having to restart your career can be a daunting task – but it is doable. One of your first resources when it comes to job hunting should be on post. There are a wide variety of jobs from those that require a high school diploma to those that require a Master’s degree or higher. Working on post can give you the much needed flexibility when it comes to your husband’s schedule. Your boss on an Army post will likely be much more understanding about your husband’s upcoming deployment than a civilian employer will be – she may even be the one who will be going through the deployment with you.

But, it is also possible to find a job off post as well. If at all possible during the interview, try to avoid saying that your husband is in the military. I’ve been on several interviews where they knew that he was and I was asked, “How long will you actually work here since your husband is in the military?” To which I really wanted to reply, “Well, I don’t have my crystal ball here today…” But my response was normally more along the lines of “As you know, my husband defends our country and he must go where he is needed to be sure we can all continue to enjoy our freedoms. While I can’t guarantee an amount of time I will be here, no more than I could if my husband wasn’t in the military, I can guarantee that I will give 110% to this job and you’ll be very happy with my performance.” That tends to move the conversation along! The key is to focus on the positive contributions you can make rather than the fact that you’ve had to change jobs every two years due to PCS moves.

I recently picked up these tips from another wife. Once you have been offered the job, you may want to explain that when and if your husband is deployed, you will need the flexibility to be able to take phone calls at work. Your husband will have no control over the time he is able to call (in most cases) and keeping your lines of communication open is important. You may be able to work something out along the lines of you will not take your morning break, etc. so you can be excused when you get the phone call. You may also know that you are a puffy eyed, red-nosed lady the day after deployment and therefore need a day before having to go back to work. Whatever issues you have like this that may come up, be sure to work them out beforehand so there are no surprises.

Some companies are very military oriented and go out of their way to hire military spouses. Home Depot and Sears come to mind immediately. There are many other companies that are military friendly as well.

When it comes to searching for a job, there are many online resources: Monster and CareerBuilder are two huge sites with thousands of job listings. Many newspapers now also have their classifieds online. The Department of Labor also has job listings that can be accessed online.

Temporary agencies can also be a great resource to find a temp to hire position. In addition to this, many Army wives have decided to go the route of home based businesses.

Good luck in your job search and don’t forget to work on your job resume too!