How To Use Volunteering On Your Resume No Matter Where the Military Sends You

Like I mentioned in a previous post, volunteering is a great way to gain skills no matter where the military takes you. In every state, and likely every country, there are organizations who are trying to do good and who need volunteers to accomplish their goals. Whether it be volunteering at your local animal shelter, collecting clothing for the Salvation Army or organizing fundraisers for a local anti-poverty organization, you will be doing great work while also adding some valuable skills to your resumé.

Here are some tricks for women in military relationships when it comes to volunteering to get work experience:

1. You should ABSOLUTELY include volunteer work on your resume. According to a LinkedIn survey, 89% of professionals had volunteer experience, but only 45% included it on their resume. The same survey found that 41% of hiring managers consider volunteer experience equally valuable as paid work.

2. In order to make the best use of both your and the charity’s time, identify the skills you want to develop, enhance or reinforce. You can then offer the organization a specific way that you will be useful for them. For example, if you have some experience in communications but you want to build up that skill on your resume, volunteer to write the weekly newsletter for a local charity. You will get experience in writing, marketing and non-profit work which are easily transferrable to any other position.

3. Pick something that you care about. If you love animals and hope to one day work as a veterinarian, work in an animal shelter. If you hope to become a doctor or nurse, volunteer at a hospital or medical clinic. Similarly, as a woman tied to the military, working for a military organization would allow you to demonstrate something important in your life to employers who are often looking for passion, character and commitment.

4. Even though you aren’t getting paid, don’t slack off.  Maintain your professional presence and work hard, because you never know where your experience might take you. For example, if you are around doctors and nurses all day, and you want to become a medical professional you may be able to network and find a great job opportunity waiting for you at another organization because of your volunteering. Depending on the circumstances, you may even be able to turn your volunteer work into a paid opportunity at the same organization.

Now go find some organizations looking for volunteers in your area, no matter where in the world you are! Go get your foot in the door!

Is Your Career a Jungle Gym, a Winding Path, or a Rolling Wave?

Okay, that title was a bit of a trick question. Jungle gyms, winding paths and rolling waves all mean the same thing when it comes to your career in that they are the opposite of a straight path. When you think of a typical career path, whether it be rising through the military ranks or the corporate ladder, the straightest path always seems to be up. You stay within the same field and the same few companies in order to just slowly work your way up.

When you’re in a military relationship, you don’t necessarily have the luxury of being able to stay within the same field and the same few companies all the time. Sheryl Sandberg and The Daily Muse have provided reassurance that making career jumps and hopping around can actually be beneficial to your career. Guess what? I have another successful career woman who eschewed the traditional straight and narrow career path in favor of more flexibility.

Stacey Snider is the Co-Chairman and CEO of DreamWorks Studios, which means she is in charge of making sure your favorite Hollywood movies get made. Not to mention the fact that she is listed as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the world  by Forbes Magazine. Certainly successful, yes, but how did she get there? She worked her way up from the mailroom to become a major Hollywood executive. However, she didn’t get there on the traditional path. According to Snider, she said she always knew her “career was not going to be a straight shot up, but more of a kind of rolling wave.” Great news for us women who don’t have much choice but to have a career like a rolling wave (or jungle gym or winding path)! Check out the rest of Snider’s career advice here.

 

Stacey Snider

 

Related articles

• ‘Go for It – at Every Level’: Career Advice From the CEO of DreamWorks (theatlantic.com)

What To Do About Your Winding Career Path

If you’ve been making military moves for a while and pick up jobs here and there, or if you are worried about this happening to you when you do start to move around, then I have some tips for you.

Although Sheryl Sandberg said in Lean In that we should view our careers as jungle gyms that allow us to jump around rather than ladders that we need to climb on a straight path, it is still sometimes daunting to take jobs that don’t seem to add up to any specific career path.  If you have been a teacher in one state, an assistant in another state and then unemployed in yet another state, it is important to remember that you can still create a career path for yourself.

This article from The Daily Muse wasn’t written specifically for military women, but it may as well have been.  Here are their tips about how to explain your winding career path to hiring managers (with commentary from me for your military lifestyle, as always):

1. Have a Target Audience and Speak Directly to It: When you’re making your resume, you aren’t giving it to someone who wants to read a summary of your life. You’re giving it to someone who wants to know what YOU can do for THEM. Tailor your resume for the job you’re applying for by highlighting different parts that show a common thread, which leads to….

2. Find the Common Threads: Look for a theme that runs through the jobs you’ve had and present your resume as such. For example, if you were a teacher in one state and an assistant in another but you want to become a guidance counselor, I would highlight that both jobs required listening to other peoples’ needs and responding to them, multitasking, guiding others, listening, etc. All of these skills will be helpful as a guidance counselor. Show off your skills not just your job title.

3. Showcase Performance. Show that you perform, no matter what job you’re in. Don’t be afraid to brag if you were given an award, promoted, or known for providing the best advice. Put it on that resume/cover letter.

4. Remember Your Best Defense is a Good Offense. This one might be the most important for women in military relationships. According to the article, “say the moves you’ve made along the way make you look, at least on paper, like a bit of a job hopper. It’s best to add a quick statement in each section of your resume that briefly explains the jump.” For example, when you had to take that job as an assistant, list “Following a family relocation due to the military” underneath to show them that you aren’t just a job hopper.

5. Don’t Over-Explain: While its great to let them know that you have built up skills through your multiple jobs that lead you into a certain career and to explain that you are moving around with the military, don’t be overly anxious about it. Explain yourself in the ways above and then remain confident that your best traits will shine through.

 

4 Strategies for Military Couples to Balance Both of Their Careers

1. The See-Saw: This is the strategy that my boyfriend and I are planning to use once we start living together. The See-Saw relationship would go back and forth on whose career takes preference at that time. For example, your military man wants to be stationed somewhere that does nothing for your career but that really furthers his. You would agree to this station for the years required and then agree that next time, you would both go for the station that provides you with more career opportunities even if it means less for him. You go back and forth with career preferences, each person getting a turn. Of course, it really only works if you keep your word and give your partner their turn in picking when the time comes. Keep your promises and accept the method and it should allow both of you to go for your goals. I learned this strategy from the great Anne-Marie Slaughter.

2. The Across the Board Cut: This strategy acknowledges that it might not be possible for both people to work full throttle while also maintaining their relationship. The Across the Board Cut relationship is one where both you and your military man agree to slow down the pursuit of your professional goals in order to also maintain your relationship. For example, you work less hours to be home for dinner with your military man and he also picks assignments where he knows he won’t be as busy (to the extent this is possible). Yes, you are both accepting “cuts” but you are accepting them in equal amounts so that nobody is getting any preference and you are both putting equal amounts into the relationship.

3. The All and Nothing: Well, this one isn’t good but it should be said. In the “All and Nothing” relationship, one person’s career always gets preference. It is all about where they want to move, what they want to do and when they want to do it. The other person just follows them. I think that this sometimes becomes the default for military relationships, with the women being expected to give up their careers to follow their husband’s.  I’d like to avoid this strategy if possible. However, if anyone needs to use this strategy, think of it more as putting one career on “pause”.

4. The Just Go For It: This is the strategy that my boyfriend and I are currently employing. In this relationship, you both “just go for it”. You both pick the locations, jobs and paths that further your professional goals even if it means that you are living apart. We are using this now because we are both in the early, defining stages of our careers and don’t want to waste any opportunities given to us at this point. Yea, it really stinks being far apart but I know eventually we will both be glad we both “went for it” at this time so we can both be satisfied later on. This strategy hopefully isn’t a long-term solution for anyone but would be a temporary solution for people who are being pulled in opposite directions.