Segment 1: Ambiguous Loss: Never Any Closure.
It is rare that we think about how military life can disrupt the career aspirations of its servicemen and women and how coming home from war zones and returning to normal life is difficult for all involved. On this edition of The Doug Noll Show we speak with Stacy Swearengen, founder of www.portablecareerplanning.com, a website to help guide military spouses in their career choices and professional goals.
Stacy tells us that there are a multitude of unique challenges to being a military spouse, the most obvious being having to manage a household single-handedly. According to Stacy, when a spouse first leaves there is a learning curve during which you have to learn how to do everything yourself. Then you start to develop the independence, and then the spouse comes back. Finally, there’s the whole process of adjusting to them coming home. Everything feels temporary and there is never any closure. As soon as they’re gone, they’re coming back again, but even when they’re back, they’re not really back (they’re in training or on leave).
Segment 2: Emotional Inconsistency.
Military spouses endure great emotional inconsistency. They are very resilient — there isn’t any choice. The homecoming is extremely emotional, and there is no routine or sense of closure.
Segment 3: A Portable Career.
Portable Career Planning is like a moving company for your career. A career is part of a person’s identity. We can pack up our personal things and our household belongings, but what about the intangible things? Every day military spouses choose to put other people first instead of connecting with themselves. It’s easy for them to start losing track of who they are and what they love to do. Stacy discovers what her clients’ passions are and how those passions can translate into a portable career. A “portable career” doesn’t necessarily mean you work from home. It could mean being able to move from city to city, state to state, or even country to country.
Segment 4: Passionate Employees.
Stacy is always on the lookout for companies that have telecommuting available or international locations. Statistics show that Military Spouses stay at companies longer than non-Military folks. Generally speaking, Stacy has found that smaller start-ups are technologically savvy and they see the benefits of flexibility or telecommuting. They just want passionate employees, they don’t care if they are military or not.
To listen to the entire interview:
