New Resources Help Spouses Craft Mobile Careers
By Kathie Hightower and Holly Scherer
Fall 2007
When you first marry into the military, you probably don’t think much about how this mobile lifestyle will affect your career. But eventually, it sinks in: There is sacrifice involved – for the spouse, too. It’s not easy to manage your own career as you move and deal with the other challenges of military life.
That’s why we write about mobile careers for military spouses… or really, about making the career field you choose more mobile. We want to share what has and what has not worked for other military spouses so you don’t have to learn the hard way.
Managing a mobile career requires a proactive approach and plenty of creativity. The good news is that there are some great new resources available to help military spouses pursuing a career or business.
The Military Spouse Career Center (www.military.com/spouse) has added free career counseling to its other outstanding services. Spouse Employment Assessment, Career Coaching and Assistance (SEACA; 800-768-3480) will be provided free by Impact, a recognized leader in career management services. Military spouses around the world can take advantage of professional, on-demand career coaches to help identify employment and career aspirations. Certified career coaches can help with self-assessment, goal-setting, resumes, cover letters, and even identify job opportunities. (Editor’s note: At press time, the SEACA program was suspended due to funding considerations. If funding is restored in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2007, then SEACA may be resumed.)
The Military Spouse Business Association (www.milspousebiz.org) was created by Lanette Lepper, Joanna Williamson and Rebecca Poynter, military spouses and business owners who had experienced the challenges of building “military-lifestyle friendly” portable businesses. Career-minded spouses collect information, communicate with each other and collaborate quickly – because there’s no time to waste when preparing for a move.
Staffcentrix's Portable Career and Virtual Assistant Training Program, designed for military spouses and launched in 2002 with a pilot program at Cannon Air Force Base, is now available at more than 50 bases internationally. (For a list of bases, see www.msvas.com/MSVATraining.htm.) The Staffcentrix online community of military spouse virtual assistants, at www.msvas.com, now includes at least 4,000 spouses.
Rat Race Rebellion (www.ratracerebellion.com), an online community devoted to home-based careers and family-oriented living, was launched recently by Staffcentrix founders Christine Durst and Michael Haaren. Among the site’s free resources are screened work-at-home job leads and more than 700 screened links to companies and groups that regularly hire home-based workers. “The home-based arena used to be dominated by freelance work,” says Haaren. “Now we’re seeing companies like IBM, Northrop Grumman and American Express hiring home-based employees for full-time telework.”
The proposed Military Spouse Employment Act, introduced by Rep. John Carter (R-Tex.), aims to expand the Workforce Opportunity Tax Credit to include military spouses and provide a tax incentive to employers who hire qualified spouses (active-duty military spouses, plus spouses of Guard and Reserve members activated for 90 days or more). An employer would be able to claim an income tax credit of 40 percent for the first $6,000 in wages for qualified spouses who remain on the payroll for at least 400 hours; spouses employed 120-399 hours can claim a tax credit of 25 percent.
Finally, one typically underutilized resource is other military spouses. Think about it: Each time you leave a good job because of a military move, why not fill it by another competent military spouse! That’s the idea behind large military spouse chat rooms such as those at www.cinchouse.com and www.spousebuzz.com. The more we ask for and share career and business leads, the more we can help each other make our careers and businesses more mobile.
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Military spouses Kathie Hightower and Holly Scherer are public speakers and co-authors of “Help! I’m a Military Spouse – I Want a Life Too: How to Craft a Life for YOU as You Move with the Military.” For more information or to request a presentation at your community, go to www.militaryspousehelp.com or send a message to kathie@militaryspousehelp.com.
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Attention, Spouses!
Do you work in one of these career fields – or know a military spouse who does? Your experiences – good or bad – may help other spouses. Share them with us at kathie@militaryspousehelp.com. Career fields we plan to cover include:
- Midwives/new parent trainers
- Food service (restaurants, hospital food service, dining facilities, etc.)
- Law (lawyers, legal assistants, court employees, law office staffs)
- Corrections/security
- Media (reporters, photographers)
- Project work (FEMA and others)
- Advertising sales (radio, print, Internet)
- Publishing (editors, agents, book reps, author escorts)
- Dental (dentists, dental hygienists, office staffs)
- Speech therapists
- Physical/occupational therapists