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Military Spouses often leave the jobs they love for the soldier, sailor, airmen, or marine they love even more. Hiring Military Spouses is Good Business. The consequences affect every aspect of life– including our careers. However, it’s in these transitions, that we find new knowledge, strengths, talents, and skills we didn’t know we possessed or had to learn to survive– to thrive under unusual circumstances.
Hiring a Military Spouse is Good Business
Flexible Employment Opportunities
Why don’t companies don’t make it a practice of hiring military spouses? It wasn’t long ago that many companies didn’t offer employment opportunities that were substantive to military spouses due to our transient nature. Fortunately, the tide is turning and companies are recognizing that military spouses offer a diversity, born out of that transience, that far exceeds the gaps in employment and multiple fields and skillsets they employ.
Military Spouses
When considering hiring military spouses, employers should know we bring unique strengths that benefit any team. The military spouse workforce offers skills shaped by constant change and resilience:
- We are adaptable. Ask me how I’ve overcome obstacles, and you’ll hear remarkable stories of resourcefulness.
- We offer a broad skill set. Because everything seems to break when our service members deploy, we learn everything from car maintenance to plumbing. Many of these valuable skills never make it onto a typical job application or resume.
- Military spouses know how to budget. Living in remote locations taught us to stretch a single paycheck, managing basic living expenses while saving for travel and other goals.
- We want to work. Despite frequent moves, we match civilian job turnover rates. Employers can expect the same two years of commitment as they would from any other candidate.
- We understand community building. Military life fosters strong, loyal bonds. We create supportive networks out of necessity and a desire to belong, making us natural team players.
Military Deployments
Often, deployments are logistical moves that involve the military member and/or units without the family. Typically, they include extended training at military installations. Many of these locations are dangerous or lack services and accommodations for the family. Deployments can be tough because many of the details are classified, which means you really don’t know where your spouse is, what they are doing, or exactly how dangerous his or her environment is.
The first one is usually the worst; it was for me. Our children were very young, and it was difficult to explain where daddy was without upsetting them. I had to manage the house, pay the bills, and shuffle kids to and from activities. And I had to do it far from friends or family. Hiring military spouses makes sense because of our diverse skillsets.
Living Overseas & Abroad
Living abroad teaches us new ways to cope. Additionally, we learn to respect different cultures, religions, and languages. We adjust to big lifestyle changes and communicate in places where we may not know the language. Furthermore, we do this far from home, sometimes without our spouse because they are often deployed. Moving overseas, also called a PCS, makes military spouses well-rounded and resilient.
Permanent Change of Station (PCS)
PCSs can be as short as 6 months or as long as 3 years with extensions. Similarly, these moves uproot the entire family, belongings, and pets. We move across the country or the world.
In addition, it is often left to us to handle transportation, find a new home, enroll children in school, and locate new doctors and dentists. Military spouses do all this while trying to keep our families happy and healthy. We also stay hopeful that they will love the new home, new friends, and new life as much as the old ones.
Finally, multiple PCS moves take us around the world. Deployments often feel like single parenthood. The stress of having loved ones far away, often in dangerous situations, creates unique growth opportunities.
Why Hiring a Military Spouse Can Benefit Employers
1. We can save businesses money. I have negotiated a higher salary that doesn’t include health insurance. While that’s more money in my purse, it’s even a larger saving to the company.
2. We have the degrees. The military spouse population continues to be the most overqualified and underemployed sector of the population.
3. Military spouses are diverse. Many people think of the military spouse as one big homogenous population. We are far from that. Military spouses come from every state in the union and many foreign countries. We have different, lifestyles, religions, languages, backgrounds, and interests.
4. We can handle stress. Are you paying attention?
5. Military spouses understand volunteerism and service. Our lives center on the fact that our service member serves his country. Many of us feel we are an extension of him or her.
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