The US has hundreds of thousands of enlisted personnel all around the world, but millions more serve alongside them from home. Maintaining a household, raising children, and so many more responsibilities need 2 incomes, but millions of milspouses struggle to build their careers while regularly moving from base to base. To find the best jobs for military spouses, Top Applicant recommends consulting the MilSpouse Roadmap!
About the MilSpouse Roadmap
Hiring Our Heroes partnered with Google to develop this helpful guide that provides insights into career-building pathways for military spouses. With support from the US Chamber of Commerce and one of the world’s largest tech companies, this roadmap features strategies that can provide real opportunities for one of the most underserved demographics in the US workforce. To identify your best options, the roadmap focuses on 3 professional development pathways.
Entrepreneurship and Self Employment
Remote Work
Upskilling and Reskilling
Meeting Every Milestone
The MilSpouse Roadmap breaks down the entire experience into 4 phases, outlined by milestones to guide your success. These milestones provide a step-by-step path to professional and personal development. In our overview, we’ll break down each of these phases, milestone-by-milestone, to share the roadmap’s resources that lead to jobs for military spouses.
Taking it All In
Prioritizing Professional Options
Finding Your Rhythm
Permanent Changes of Station
Trusted By Employers
In addition to providing helpful resources for job seekers, this resource also includes advice for employers to open up their hiring to military spouses. Forward-thinking employers can skip ahead to learn about these recommendations.
Backed By Research
Thanks to the input of over 1,500 military spouses, the MilSpouse Roadmap shares real world insights that keep couples together and careers thriving.
The 2019 Military Spouse Career Journeys Study revealed several key elements of career building while working in the unique arrangement of military life. These statistics helped develop this roadmap:
- 33% of surveyed spouses said they have chosen to “geo-bach” at some point in their marriage. During geo-baching, 1 spouse moves to pursue their new assignment, while the other spouse and family remain in the previous home location. This allows military spouses to pursue their careers while living apart.
- 48% of military spouses with a graduate or professional degree have seriously discussed the possibility of their service member spouse leaving the military specifically to support their work.
- 80% of respondents have already pursued additional training or are interested in upskilling to have a more versatile career.
It’s no secret that military life comes with sacrifices, but it should never cost a relationship or a career future. That’s why Top Applicant is passionate about showcasing jobs for military spouses on our platform. Personalized profiles connect driven career builders and exceptional employers every day! Sign in to get started, or keep going to dive deeper into the roadmap.
Entrepreneurship and Self Employment
1 in 4 spouses who participated in this survey currently or previously started their own business or were self-employed. Being your own boss can help you develop a strong skill set that makes you an in-demand candidate for companies or experience to start your own. However, this pathway isn’t for the faint of heart! Balancing a successful business, family, and the stress of military life can be a lot to handle on your own.
Remote Work
If you’re looking into more structured jobs for military spouses, remote work can provide the opportunity you’ve been searching for. Remote work can provide the flexibility you need without the stress of managing your own business. However, it can require a deep level of self-discipline, planning, and burdens on your work-life balance. To discover organizations that provide ideal remote work options, the roadmap shares resources to help you gain the qualifications you need.
Upskilling and Reskilling
Each of the outlined career pathways in the MilSpouse Roadmap are intertwined with each other to offer the most flexible, successful career development possible. Since everyone’s situation looks different, full-time work may not work the best for you.
That’s why the roadmap also shares details on how to further develop your skills and learn new ones! Building your skill set gives you more for the future of your career—with or without the military. In each phase of your chosen pathway, you can focus on professional and personal growth.
Phase 1: Taking it All In
In the first phase of this pathway, the roadmap outlines 2 milestones to help spouses find success while self-employed. Milestone 1 helps you assess the pros and cons of a local job, while Milestone 2 focuses on building a support system through networking and mentorship.
In the first milestone, the roadmap helps you fully grasp your chosen pathway with resources for self exploration, readiness, and the small business administration’s resource partner network. The second milestone structures your approach to building a network and includes helpful resources from Hiring Our Heroes and CareerOneStop.
Phase 2: Prioritizing Professional Options
Deciding to use your skills and expertise is half the battle, but you also need a solid plan to follow through and find a job that works for you! In the second phase of your pathway, each milestone provides a structured approach to make it all happen. However, each pathway will require a different approach to prioritization.
Becoming Your Own Boss
The first milestone offers guidance for deciding between entrepreneurship or self-employment. The second helps you navigate details like start-up costs, business needs, professional development, and technology requirements. In both milestones, the roadmap helps with resources like Google Primer, Market Finder, and SCORE’s business needs assessment.
Working From Wherever
To help you decide if remote jobs for military spouses are right for you, the MilSpouse Roadmap includes a detailed checklist and resources that help career builders find their fit. While many of the resources shared in this milestone help, Top Applicant also offers in-depth resources related to finding successful remote work. Learn about working remotely with these related reads!
- Remote Jobs We’re Watching
- Is a Part Time Remote Job Right for You?
- The Case for Work From Home Jobs
Leveling Up Your Skills
While the upskilling and reskilling pathway only shares 1 milestone in this phase, refining your focus on education is a complex process. The guide outlines how to evaluate your educational opportunities, find financial aid, consider your ROI, and align coursework with your desired career.
To help with this, the roadmap provides resources like CareerOneStop’s Scholarship Finder, SECO’s labor market outlook, and keys to student success as a military spouse. Regardless of your chosen pathway, the MilSpouse Roadmap focuses on helping you build a successful balance between your career and your life!
Phase 3: Finding Your Rhythm
After getting the basics down, it’s important to hit your stride personally and professionally. The third phase of this pathway helps milspouses find their groove. To meet this milestone, each step focuses on building community, navigating obligations, and taking care of yourself. The resources focus on time management, coworking spaces, and self care.
Phase 4: Permanent Changes of Station
Preparing your family for a PCS move is one thing, but moving your career is a completely different endeavor! The final phase of this part of the MilSpouse Roadmap shares important insights to help you plug in to your new surroundings successfully with 4 milestones.
Milestone 1 discusses important details, like how to move your life across state lines and professional intricacies. Milestone 2 focuses on family needs like schooling, child care, and navigating day-to-day demands. In milestone 3, the roadmap asks some deeper questions to help you determine what success means to you. Finally, milestone 4 encourages you to build a healthy work/life balance and continue growing through every PCS. Every phase of the MilSpouse Roadmap uses real-world experiences to help everyone experience personal and professional growth—regardless of their work arrangements!
How Employers Can Help
Employers can also use this roadmap to learn how to offer more inclusive jobs for military spouses. Hiring Our Heroes partners with thousands of businesses through the US Chamber of Commerce to connect active duty families and veterans to career opportunities. As businesses look to support military families, the roadmap shares 3 recommendations.
Expand Remote Work and Seek Out Milspouses
So many roles that can be done remotely in companies of all shapes and sizes. By empowering military spouses to apply, you present these opportunities to one of the most talented, disciplined, and driven demographics of the workforce! Remote work opportunities also help retain more employees that may face frequent changes of station.
Prioritize Flexible Work
In addition to offering options for where to work, promoting flexible arrangements for when to work supports the milspouse workforce! Part-time opportunities can help employees juggle personal and professional responsibilities. Temporary work arrangements also empower employee success regardless of where or when they’re available.
Offer Online Coaching and Mentorship
As a business, you should always keep a lookout for ways to expand your pipeline of employees and empower professional success. To do both, you can facilitate online learning to help potential applicants learn about your industry. Taking part in sponsored organizations like Amplify not only expands your talent pool, it can shorten the training time required for new employees. Helping our military and leveling up your recruiting sounds like a win-win to us!
Honored to Help Military Families
Top Applicant proudly supports our armed forces with professional profiles that put every applicant’s personality on display. No matter where life takes career builders, we’re here to help with advanced features and fully integrated personalization to share the best opportunities possible. Ready to level up your career? Sign in, build your profile, and find a job that works for you!
