On Thursday I attended a symposium/job fair for military spouses. Anyone who knows me knows that I can have a really piss poor attitude when it comes to attending job fairs. Actually, piss poor might be a bit of an understatement. I'm more along the lines of down-right hostile with negativity oozing out of my pores. I hate job fairs. I know that I'm not great at selling myself to prospective employers, especially when I have no idea what jobs they may have that would be of interest to me. I can hardly figure out if I'm qualified when they post a job opening - I can't begin to figure out what to say when I'm walking up to random booths not knowing what they have available. Job fairs are demoralizing, soul-sucking, drink-inducing affairs that usually put me into a tailspin of self-doubt and self-pity for at least a couple of days before and after. Yes, I'm aware I have issues.
I'm glad to report that this one wasn't as bad. That's probably because I (mostly) skipped the job fair part. [I can almost hear my mom yelling at me through the computer.] The first half of the day was a symposium to help military spouses with issues that many of us face: frequent job changes, gaps in employment, employers being reluctant to hire people that may be moving soon, etc. I was surprised to hear that the national unemployment rate is around 8.5% but that for military spouses it's closer to 26%. I count myself lucky that I have a job, as many of the spouses that I talked to that morning were in the unemployed group. I was also surprised at the number of spouses in attendance that had four-year degrees and beyond. A fair number of them had masters degrees and I overheard a couple of attorneys talking a few tables over. Regardless of the education level, the one thing that I saw that every spouse had in common was a look of overwhelmed frustration on their faces. And I'd say a good half of them just look defeated. The presenters tried to be bright and perky and bring up every one's spirits, but I think even they realized that it was going to be a tough crowd.
The first panel of the morning was comprised of four human resources specialists. They gave a lot of advice on interviewing and how to answer those awkward questions about being a military spouse. A lot of what they shared was common sense: be honest, be upfront. But they did say a few things that stuck with me. One of the panelists said that interviewing is sort of like a being a political candidate at a debate - you need to know your message (i.e. why you're the best candidate) and keep bringing the interview back to your message, even if the interviewer throws a couple of tough questions at you. I hate when politicians do that at debates, but it's true that it's an effective way of controlling the interview and making sure that you get out the information that you want to get out. I was also surprised that all of the panelists said that they didn't care if it was paid experience or volunteer experience - if it makes you look good as a candidate just put it down under the general label "experience".
The panelists also emphasized that if you're not using social media to try and find a job, then you're really not trying at all. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. They said you need to be on these and know how to use them. I was surprised at how much they kept coming back to that. In closing they also reinforced the "one-page resume" and "hand written thank you note" doctrines, which I'm sure would please my mother.
The second half of the morning session was an abbreviated version of a longer training that addresses building your brand. One of the key components of the training is getting you to think of good experiences you've had in life, professional or personal. Not things like, "getting married" or "graduating from college", but things like "The presentation that I made in front of the Board last week" or "putting together the senior class party for my daughter." We were all instructed to jot down some good experiences on a piece of paper and then get into groups of three to share them. I sat there and stared at my paper. I couldn't think of a damn thing, at least not anything related to my job. I do a lot of little things really well at my job - I'm particularly good at finding errors that some people would over-look - but in terms of the good experiences that they were looking for I was drawing a blank.
Then I thought, "Well, I did have a good experience presenting at COMPASS," so I jotted that down. And then I thought about putting together the family communications survey when I was the ombudsman at Zac's last command. That was a pretty good experience too. When we broke into groups each member shared their good experiences while the other members jotted down what skills they heard when you talked about your experience. The other two women in my group were younger Navy wives, I'd guess in their mid 20s. One of the women had a couple of experiences to share, but the other young woman just shook her head. She hadn't been able to think of anything. She look particularly sad about that. I told her that I had a heckuva time thinking of things at first, too, to try to make her feel better. I told her that I bet if she looked at other parts of her life, being a spouse, a parent, a daughter, a volunteer, etc., that she'd find some good experiences she could use.
Besides exposing what skills we have, sharing our good experiences also was supposed to help us figure out what we enjoy doing. It wasn't until we did this exercise that I realized how unhappy I've become with my job and how it lacks attributes that make me feel fulfilled - interacting with people, working as part of a group, sharing information with others. While I enjoy project-based work, performing research and looking for errors, I'm too isolated in my current role. I need to find a job that it outside of my living room. I need to have co-workers again.
One of the other cool things about writing down and talking about your good experiences is that it makes you happy. You feel pride, and excitement, and satisfied. After the good experiences exercise the vibe in the symposium was decidedly more upbeat and cheerful. Attendees were actually smiling and laughing, and more than one spouse seemed ready to storm the job fair with a reinforced sense of self. (No, not me, silly.)
After lunch I did walk through the job fair, just to see what companies turned out. I saw a lot of IT companies, some banks, the Navy Exchange and the Army Exchange folks, Walgreens, Lowes, 24 Hour Fitness and others. All of these companies already post as part of the Military Spouse Employment Program so if I'm interested in seeing what they have available I can always check that website out. While I didn't use the job fair part of the day, I'm glad I attended the morning session. It gave me some valuable ideas on what I need to put on my resume and how I can start figuring out how to articulate orally and in writing what my job skills actually are. Now I just need to keep this good-feeling-train rolling and translate it into a new job.
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