Military Spouses: You Have Power, and It's Time To Use It

Before we dive in, please note that this article is not meant to offend you, but rather to help you get out of your own head and move on to be successful in your career outside of your spouse's military tenure.

I hear it all the time.

• "I can't get a job because..."
• "I can't go back to school because..."
• "I don't have enough time in my day to learn new skills..."
• "With my husband's schedule, it's just not possible to..."

How many of you have said this or some variation of it, either to yourselves or to someone else?

Many of us have restraints in our daily lives. Whether they are related or completely unrelated to the military lifestyle, everyone has something that can prevent them from accomplishing their goals or taking steps towards their dreams. Everyone has something that could potentially prevent them from moving forward.

The difference is that some people choose to move beyond those obstacles, while many tend to use it as an excuse. My military spouse friends, we do this all the time. All. The. Freaking. Time. We blame it on the military, on our husband's schedule, on their deployment rotation, on the constant separations... however, it really boils down to what we are willing to work past, and what we are letting stop us.

It might be your kids. It might be your finances. It might be your husband's schedule. Whatever it is that you feel is holding you back, identify it, and honor it. But get ready to let that shit go.

I hear these statements all the time too.

• "I don't have access to..."
• "There's no resources for..."

NOPE.

Those are two sentences I want you to eliminate from your repertoire right now, because they are both bullshit.

There are tens of thousands of non-profit organizations whose entire mission and goal is serve military spouses and military families. There are organizations that focus on transitioning veteran job search, eliminating military spouse under/unemployment, supporting military kids through the transitions of military life, and so much more. Many organizations offer free career planning services and job search help, and many offer free webinars and online courses to help you identify strengths and weaknesses. Your local base offers things like free legal and tax services, as well as job search help and resume review. You might not want to admit that it really is that easy to get help, but it's true: resources for anything you can possible need help with are just a Google search or short drive across town away.

At some point, you have to stop being a victim of your situation or your life choices up to this point. I want to share with you the #1 resource that I feel is completely overlooked by military spouses trying to launch a career, re-enter the workforce, or just find something to do with their time if they are not currently working or going to school. Even better, I know many people - myself included - who use this platform daily even though we both work AND go to school.

That platform is LinkedIn Learning.

LinkedIn Learning is a platform that you can access with a LinkedIn Premium subscription. It is $30 a month, but you can get it for free for a year through MySECO when you complete their resume and job search webinar series. $30 a month for unlimited, 24/7 access to hundreds of thousands of videos on everything from how to eliminate distractions to becoming a corporate recruiter or a software engineer. They have thousands of videos by experts and big thinkers who are sharing their hard-earned knowledge with you for FREE.

LinkedIn Premium allows you access to insights into who is viewing your profile, and also presents you as a more desirable candidate in searches. You are able to connect with people who will be able to see more of your profile and therefore you present a more holistic view of yourself as a candidate. LinkedIn Premium also allows for better insights into posted jobs, allowing you to see how your skills and experiences matches up to what the company is looking for. These added insights are also extremely valuable, but by far the best part about the LinkedIn Premium subscription is LinkedIn Learning.

$30 a month, basically $1 a day, for access to an unlimited learning potential, about anything and everything you could possibly be interested in. You could tell me that there's not enough room in your budget for that, or you could re-prioritize your spending to actively reflect your values of yourself and your career.

Because guess what?

That shit is important.

Your career is important. You don't have career aspirations, or you're happy with where you are in your life outside of having a job? That's awesome, but you're not off the hook either, because your personal development is important. Your mental health is important. Your ability to learn new skills and obtain new knowledge is important.

So many of my military spouse friends feel "stuck" with where they are. They feel like they can't complete their degree or obtain a good job in a field they're passionate about. Maybe your duty station doesn't allow you access to those opportunities, and that is absolutely a frustrating reality.

But there's another side of the coin, one that you can control. And that is all about how you choose to spend your time.

Your kids wake up at 6. Why not wake up at 5, pull out your phone, grab a cup of coffee, and flip over to LinkedIn Learning and learn about something you're interested in for 30 minutes? That still gives you time to mindlessly scroll through Facebook or prepare for the day ahead.

You have a 15 minute commute to work. Why not pull up LinkedIn Learning and get a few minutes of learning in? It will give you something interesting to mull over in case it's a slow day at work.

Cleaning the kitchen? Cooking dinner? Sweeping the floors? Taking a bath? Getting ready for work? There are so many small pockets of time in our day that are overlooked because we don't view them as valuable.

Your time is valuable. Your aspirations are valuable. Your learning is valuable.

And those things have absolutely nothing to do with your geographic location or what your spouse's schedule looks like.

You have the power to change your situation, even in the smallest of ways. The question now is whether or not you are going to utilize your resources in order to move forward with yourself.

** Please note that the link is not sponsored or affiliated. I am not being paid by LinkedIn to share this with you. It's just that freaking important to me, because so many people don't realize that this platform is available to them, or how much value it really holds. **