Developing a solid resume when you are a military spouse can be challenging. Maintaining consistent employment is tough when you’ve had to move regularly, creating gaps in your resume.
Along the same lines, keeping jobs within a specific career field can also be arduous because of those frequent moves. You may have had an office job at the Family Readiness Center at one base and then worked at the gym at another installation, making it seem like you’ve ‘jumped around’ frequently on your resume. When seeking employment, the question at the forefront for many spouses remains, “How do I remain marketable?”
Brett Abbas, an employment Community Readiness Specialist at NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen in Germany shares the following tips for making your resume top-notch.
1: Value Your Volunteer Work
This is a great way to ‘fill in the gaps’ when you are in between jobs, but still want to showcase your skills and abilities to employers.
“Spouses tend to undervalue or under-market themselves,” says Abbas. “Many spouses volunteer to get out of the house and/or because they enjoy it, but this can also be used to fill your resume.”
Whether you’ve led spouse groups at your installation or planned school drives and fundraisers, all of these should be listed on your resume as they can demonstrate skills in areas such as management, marketing, and finance, to name a few.
2: Sell your soft skills
Resumes will already feature the hard skills, those qualities that are more finite and quantifiable (e.g., being bilingual). But even if you have jumped around in different jobs, you should still emphasize the soft skills within your resume and your cover letter!
“Even if you’ve held different jobs, those soft skills, such as customer service, are still inherent across all roles,” reminds Abbas.
You can still capitalize on the soft skills you have developed from base to base including, but not limited to, leadership, communication, and organization, which many employers look for.
3: Add your own personality and flair
Employers want to know if you have the core competencies required of the job, but they are also searching for a personality that can fit with the rest of their team. Don’t forget to sell YOU!
“Employers do want someone who has the KSA – knowledge, skills and abilities – but they also want someone who has heart, mind, and passion for the job,” said Abbas.
In fact, this can be a great opportunity to highlight that you have lived in many different places. Those constant moves have exposed you to different states and countries, making you easily adaptable to various environments, cultures, and circumstances. You are a team player no matter where you go!
Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) spoke with Military Spouse for the October 2018 cover story and discussed his experience speaking with employers.
“All around my state, employers have told me that they are interested in what I call ‘success skills’ – team work, flexibility, being a creative problem solver, good communication,” said Kaine. “If you think about military spouses, they move frequently, have to get their family adjusted to new schools, cultures, etc. All these basic skills, military spouses are able to gain from their life experience.”
Don’t be discouraged when crafting your resume. Your expertise, coupled with the unique qualities you have been able to harness from your military lifestyle, can make you just the right candidate employers are looking for.
This article has been modified to meet updated editorial standards at Military Spouse, which may include the augmentation of material that reflects the expertise and experiences of our staff.