How to Build a Portable Career as a Military Spouse

You know better than anyone that moving can be challenging if you’re a military spouse. You have to leave your friends, your support system, and your home. And one of the hardest things you have to do is find a job that will let you move with your spouse when they get transferred.

When it comes to employability, military spouses seemingly have a glaring disadvantage—they move often. But that flexibility could become your most significant advantage. With creativity, any job title can grow into a portable career—packed in a bag and shipped to your next duty station.

That’s why portable careers are so great! You’llgo beyond struggling to find a job in each new location and build a cohesive career path完整的with planned growth.

Defining Portable Careers

一个便携式的职业正是这听起来像:a job you can take with you from one military base to another regardless of where your spouse gets stationed. Sound like a dream you haven’t found yet in your professional life? Then we have great news for you!

There is an abundance ofdifferent job types offering portable careers. You might still associate most remote or portable jobs with tech roles. Undeniably, those are abundant, butthe remote work boom has made almost any jobaccessible for military spouses.

What Careers Support Mobility?

许多公司意识到提供的价值快速眼动ote work and how it benefits families and communities. In our database, we have remote and flexible jobs posted in over 50 categories of career fields. Fromtitle companiestohealthcaretoproject management,virtual work is becoming more and more prevalent.

Here’s an essential career tip, though—create a long-term plan. Rather than simply taking thefirst job that you find every time you move, be intentional and make it apart of your career growth. That way, you’ll ensure you’re taking on roles that support your professional momentum in the long-term.

Find Your Perfect Fit

There’s often a gap between recognizing a goal and knowing how to go after it. If you’re in a traditional job currently, it can be challenging to see the path to a portable career as a reality. We suggest discovering your perfect fit by researching mobile jobs first. Rather than limit yourself to roles within your current field, you’ll see what’s available and can begin to reframe your skills to fit.

—Research Job Options

Unsure of what direction you want to take? Spend time browsing through different job postings. Research some of the ones most frequently listed aswork-from-anywhere jobs. Narrow down the ones that match your skills and interests. Or, a favorite tip of ours:find a company rather than a jobthat you’d love to work for.

As noted above, the goal is not to limit yourself to what you’ve already done. Instead, by exploring new fields, you’ll start to discover which ones lend themselves more to portability. Create a goal of finding five jobs that you hadn’t considered and investigating them further. There might even be jobs you hadn’t known existed before.

—Find a Dream Company to Work For

A great place to start is our annual Top 100 Remote Companies List. Finda company that supports your valuesor offers a work culture that you crave, and almost any job will be rewarding, even if it’s entry-level. After that, you can choose internal growth with them for many years.

Once you have your list of companies or jobs that you’re interested in, it’s time to take stock of your skills and determine where there are gaps. Your next roles should seek to fill those gaps in a timeline that matches up with your goals. After that, the keys are flexibility, creativity, and communication.

Know Your Skills

Your professional experience is only one aspect of what you will bring to a new job. Easily quantifiable, our job experience tends to be what we lean on most. Especially as a military spouse, you bring so much more to the table than that.

—List Your Transferable Skills

More than a catchphrase, this should be the motto of any military spouse. Don’t limit your list of achievements to your professional life. Every move you’ve made created an opportunity for you to organize and manage a project. Each new location helped you learn to network as you were the new person in town.

Organization, project management, and communication are allskills that are valuable to most employers. Look at theskills you have and the problems you’re able to solve. You can focus on marketing those assets, not your former title. An excellent tip for military spouses—create afunctional resume rather than a chronological one. That way, you’ll be able to focus a recruiter’s attention on your skill set rather than the length of time at each prior job.

—Flex Your Goals

Be careful that you don’t become wedded to a job and miss other job opportunities. Were you a teacher in Texas? Perhaps you could tutor or even write a curriculum in Maryland. The skills you have and develop at each job will support your next position. Develop supporting skills in each interim role and use them as flexible assets to strengthen your resume.

Flexibility in the workplace can mean more than remote working too. You canexpand into other areas, like freelance work or contract positions, which offer more geographical freedomthan ever. There are also more resources to support military spouses. If your move takes you across state lines and you’re required to relicense, you can oftenapply for up to $1,000 in reimbursement of relicensure fees.

—Take a Creative Approach

A lot of companies have a lot of problems to solve. Don’t just apply for a position. Show them you’re the solution to their problem—even if they weren’t aware of the issue. This may mean researching the company, networking with peers who know about the company, and doing extra prep work before your interview. Be creative in your approach.

Suppose that you’re applying for a role as a social media manager. Create a report on a campaign that you’d suggest for the company. Sure, it’s free work initially, but you’ll stand out from the other applicants. The leg work will pay off in the end when you snag the position.

Consider taking a part-time role that isn’t necessarily your dream job while working toward your career goals. You can get creative in how you gain your experience. Perhaps you’re an event planner looking for a job? Volunteer to help plan a virtual or local function. Do you need to market your graphic design talents? Support nonprofits or small businesses to boost your portfolio and build brand awareness.

—Connect With Your Network

Don’t forget aboutnetworking with former bosses and coworkers. If you’ll be looking for a new role down the road but aren’t ready yet, it’s easier than ever tokeep in touch on LinkedIn. Undoubtedly, it’s tough always being a new job seeker in a new city. Everyone who knows how incredible you are is an ocean away. Keep in touch and you’ll have an entire network of support when you’re looking for your next role.

An easily overlooked statistic—anestimated 85% of jobs are filled by referrals. What does that mean for you? It means that networking is a military spouse’s best friend. Stay in contact with your network, as you never know who is in their extended network.

Get Some Expert Help

From flexible schedules to virtual office spaces,opportunities for mobility are everywhere. The important thing is to think outside the box when connecting with employers who understand and support your needs. With intentional planning and creativity, you can use your unique experiences as a military spouse to build a rewarding and portable career.

To learn more about how FlexJobs can help you build a rewarding career that fits your unique needs, take the tour.

Take the Tour

Don't forget to share this article with friends!