By Amy Neilsen

I recently interviewed with an organization I respect, and does what I want to do with the population of people I want to help.

I have personal experience receiving benefits and services from this organization when we first retired from the Navy. At that point, we had two young children, a full-time student dad, and I was a full-time stay-at-home mom. This organization works with families receiving federal and state benefits to have better access to additional resources offered by other local organizations. They are not only a source for monetary benefits but also a clearing house for health and wellbeing resources.

It was my first interview in more than ten years. The interview went well. There are three candidates and they have two slots to fill.

I also learned that this office hires interns from the master’s program I eventually want to attend  and that they have a student starting next week. Note to self: See if I can meet the student and find out how they like the program.

I learned that interviewing at age 45 is very different, and very similar, to interviewing at 25. On the drive home I was still kicking myself for talking too much about what I can get out of this partnership, and not enough about what they are looking for and how I can fill that for them.

What I also discovered was the ability to step back from berating myself to say, look at what information I did get out of this meeting and how I can use it to further my path.

Regardless of whether I get this job, I met two really interesting women who are good resources for me to know. One of the women has such a glowing passion for the women she employs and the women she assists in their most vulnerable times it veritably seeps through her pores. Seeing her passion was almost overwhelming. Her spark is tangible. I want to have her focus.

I also met a woman who started her career path at exactly the same place and age in life that I am today. We are both starting later in life, with more life experience, and more than a little fear of 'can I get this done with enough time to still make an impact on the lives of those I want to touch'. She is doing what I want to eventually do, more or less. At more or less my age.

That was a huge nugget from today. That this, this school, this career number four or five, this new me; nay I say this culmination of my paths into one, is possible. And, look there is a living breathing example of someone who has done it!

These are all more stepping stones in the path I am making for myself. The more information I can gather, the more paths I can find to follow, the more options I make for myself to find exactly how to disseminate the information I want to get out.

Looking for summer employment? You should be hitting the pavement, now.

Summer internships and more competitive positions that are career boosters, rather than simple hourly wage fillers, tend to have earlier deadlines and stricter applicant requirements. If you are switching careers or currently in school earning your degree, you should begin looking for these resume building experiences long before the summer sun starts to sweat.

Aboutcareers.com also suggests putting your networking skills to work to land a summer position, especially if you are looking for resume building work rather than a permanent position. Businesses may need help to fill in during staff vacation time or extra help during the busy summer months. Network with friends and neighbors to be the first to apply for positions that may not even be advertised yet.

If you just need a job for the summer, expect to have a lot of competition, and not just from teenagers.

In states like New Mexico where recent layoffs left thousands of people without jobs the need for work is overwhelming. USA Today reported that 10,000 applicants applied for 290 jobs at a newly-opened Cheesecake Factory restaurant.

If you live near summer vacation destinations, your job search should be slightly easier. Theme parks, restaurants, mini-golf courses and retailers near beaches and tourist attractions have already hung the "now hiring" sign out front.

Industry analysts suggest that adult applicants may face competition from teens looking for summer work, but that hiring managers are continuing a trend of hiring the adults versus the teens.

Renée Ward, founder of job-focused website Teens4Hire.org. told USA Today that given the choice of hiring a youth or an adult, most employers "will go with the more mature person, because they feel there is less that they have to do to train them," she says.

Also, fewer teens are also looking for summer jobs.

Slate.com reports that from the 1950s through the 1990s, between 45 and 60 percent of teenagers had summer jobs. Today, just one in four American teens have held a summer job.

Experts suggest that teens are leaving the marketplace in search of volunteer work, unpaid internships and academic studies that will boost their college resume rather than their work experience.

By Amy Nielsen

I want to help families stretch their benefits and dollars and improve their health. I want to teach people to return to simple, ancient techniques and use whole fresh foods to produce maximum nutrient digestion. I want to write a book that will teach families why these foods are important, and how to use them every single day.

And this is the short list of what I hope to achieve as I set upon building my non-traditional career.

Every step of my life as a military wife, as a child who traveled the globe with her family and as the mother of a medically complicated child has sent me down this path. Now, I want to teach others.

And, I am going to create a non-traditional career, in a non-traditional way. I need this journey to fit within my current lifestyle where my family comes at equal value. I want to be able to maximize our family time while still supporting my business and my passions.

Education doesn’t have to follow a standard path. However, we must be certified by someone to practice what we choose to preach. And I am creating a practice from the ground up.

My hope is that I will come out of this at the end with a master’s degree in nutrition and a license as a registered dietitian and nutritionist. In order to teach the people I want to teach, I will need to have not only a master’s degree, but I will also need to pass a state licensing exam.

In order to do that, I will need to focus on not only my non-traditional studies, but also work towards my traditional degree and license. I expect my journey to take between three and five years, depending on how things play out.

Luckily, I have already built a solid foundation of life experience.

First, I come from a long line of excellent home cooks who taught me well. And, I am a first generation American. The time I spent traveling as a child opened my eyes to smells, tastes and sights that most people will never experience. I spent as much time in Europe as in the U.S. between the ages 5 and 18. I have visited urban and rural China and India. I have eaten in the roadside stands of Mongolia and at the Four Seasons Hotel in Paris, at Mackie’s on the North Shore of Hawaii and at The Barking Crab in Boston. I can cook and always have been able too. I can taste too. 

I first tried to follow my passion as I headed to college. I considered hotel management but decided instead to follow my other passion, lighting design. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my career as a lighting designer, I had some great experiences and it is still my preferred art form. But I also wanted to do something with food. 

I wish then some of our family and friends had told me that it could be a super classy and high end career to be a micro hotelier or personal concierge, but alas, people kept their mouths shut, even while staying at these kinds of places and using these services regularly!

Note number one: speak up if you think you have a rabbit hole career that you might like to try out! If you have family and friends who are in the business, talk to them! Ask them to intern with them, bug them for a job, offer to carry their suitcases. But be prepared to risk and just do it. If you take one thing away from this whole process it is that you have to stick your neck out.

Seven years after I began working in lighting design the company I worked for folded. I had to decide what I really wanted to do with my life, again.  

I took the summer off, got divorced, and went camping. I applied to and was accepted to a small culinary school with local connections. I learned very quickly that I was overqualified for the classes in technique and that I should have chosen a bigger school with better connections to the wider culinary world.

Granted, there were many world class chefs that were local connections who taught guest classes, but the drive of the school was to produce upper end sous chefs for the white tablecloth industry in the greater Boston metro area.

I did land a job doing kitchen stuff, as the assistant director of dining services at a multi-campus K-12 private school in Cambridge, Mass. It was sort of what I wanted to be doing. But not really. I loved being in the kitchen every day. But it wasn’t the sort of food thing I really wanted to do. 
 

Then I met a Sailor. Thanks, Universe.

And, I moved to Virginia. Then, life in the Navy with two children, three deployments, seven moves, retirement, two more moves and a new career for my husband happened.

And again, seven years later; what is it with seven years? I am finally starting back down this path again. This time older and wiser and more focused on the ways of the world. I think I had to live through this much life and see enough to be able to be ready to take the steps with the stick-to-it-ness I will need to come out the other side of this with the career I want to have.
 

Of course, I am also at the point in my life that if the universe tosses me another curve ball or a shinier baubble, I might just follow that too.

Now, I don’t want you to think that I spent my time as a Navy wife sitting on my dependapottomous. I met a bunch of really amazing spouses who opened my eyes to a whole bunch of life choices I wasn’t even aware were out there. I started learning more about herbology. I started changing how our family eats. I started reading the good, bad, and ugly, of all holistic health guru works. I started picking out who I had an affinity to and whose words rang true to me.

I didn’t know it then, but I was setting the seeds for this endeavor. 

The presidential primaries are upon us. It means more than endless television ads and front page coverage. It could mean a new job for you.

Sure, campaigns are staffed by lots of people, including professional political organizers who actually run each candidates bid for the presidency as well as hourly volunteers who man the phone lines and knock on doors.

But, there are jobs to be had outside of the candidate's war rooms. Lots of them.

On job search site, indeed.com, a search for "presidential election" jobs brings 48 opportunities, including software developers to maintain the machines that count the votes, research assistants for media companies as they cover the votes, and sales coordinators to manage the selling and purchasing of ad space offered during prime time election coverage.

Local election offices are also hiring workers to help manage the thousands of local elections and ballot counting nights that are schedule over the next year. The starting salary listed in most of those offices came to $32,000 a year.

And, those local political groups are hiring too.

Another search on the job listing site, Monster.com, shows that the republican party of Pennsylvania is hiring field managers. Several local board of elections were also hiring staff to test the voting equipment and monitor it on election day. Type the word "election" into the site's search and more than 700 jobs appear.

Want to be more in the thick of the elections? Work for a group advocating for voter outreach. Several organizations in California who list on Monster.com are also hiring people to collect signatures for petitions to place items on the ballot.

 This election season, don't focus on the political mud throwing, focus on building your career.

For more listings on election jobs, visit these sites:

https://www.electioncenter.org/job-openings.html

http://www.monster.com/blog/b/election-jobs

http://www.essvote.com/career-center/

There is one big reality check staring me straight in the face as my husband nears retirement after 26 years in the Army: How am I going to get a job?

I worked full-time throughout the first half of his career, from Hawaii to Georgia to North Carolina to Okinawa to Korea. Then we had kids, and coincidentally started moving more frequently. My work in the past 13 years has included freelancing and part-time jobs, with a couple of years of full-time employment here and there.

There are also vast swaths of emptiness on my resume, years at a time where I did very little professionally.

I’m a journalist by trade and have had my work published in close to 50 different newspapers and magazines, ranging from small weekly publications to the Washington Post. I’ve covered major news stories in a dozen different countries.

Back in the day, before kids and two wars and the constant deploy/PCS/deploy/PCS cycle my life became, I was good at what I did. I had a lot of contacts throughout the industry, and jobs offered to me in several locations.

Then I dropped the ball. I didn’t keep in touch with those contacts. I lost interest in writing when I wasn’t getting paid much (or anything at all). I didn’t follow up well with those who did still express an interest in my work.

The last full-time position I had was four years ago, working as a social media specialist for the U.S. Army in Germany.

Now, here I am, staring my husband’s retirement dead in the face and kicking myself for not keeping my contacts, my resume and my job skills current.

I have six months to a year to get back on the horse and get myself set up for something, anything, that might bring in some income. After a lot of internet searching (and pretty deep soul searching), I came up with a plan.

I enrolled in a continuing education course in social media management. I am re-engaging with long-lost friends in the business. I am volunteering with an organization with no military affiliation, to do work in my career field. 

I’m looking at more freelance work, short contracts for special projects, anything I can do to get my name out there.

This would have been a lot easier had I just kept up with my career field over the last decade.

Whether you are in the military with a long a career ahead of you, married to someone who is, or are navigating life in the civilian world, do what you can to keep current in your industry throughout any periods when you aren’t working.

Don’t wait until the last minute.

 Here’s a few tips I’ve learned in trying to jumpstart my working life:

1. Maintain contacts, and not just on Facebook – This sounds so easy, but when you move constantly and social media is ever-present, it’s easy to forget that one-on-one personal communication trumps random FB posts every time. Reach out to former bosses and colleagues on a regular basis. Ask them if they have any advice for you, freelance or work-from-home opportunities, or if they know anyone in the area where you currently live.
2. Join professional organizations – Especially if you are in the U.S., nearly every location probably has some sort of professional organization you can join. If there isn’t anything specific to your career field, look for business or networking groups like Toastmaster’s or civic clubs that do community service.
3. Add volunteer positions to your resume, but only certain ones – Yes, volunteering can be a positive addition to your resume. But only if it relates directly to your career field. Being an FRG leader, for example, is valuable to the unit and might be personally rewarding, but I have yet to find a career field that translates to. Search for specific volunteer positions that match up to a job you would apply for in the real world, and something where you can show tangible results from your work.
4. Continue your education – There are dozens of ways to continue your education, improve your job skills and keep up with trends in your industry. You can take college courses, attend seminars, read trade publications. Any of those can be done online. Take note of new requirements you see emerging in your career field and do whatever you can to hone your skills in that area.

You need to write your resume. For many job searchers, this task can be daunting.

There are professional resume services, that are happy to charge you between $80 and $700 to

not only edit your resume, but to write it completely as well as draft your cover letter and the thank you notes you should follow up with after each interview. Shooting for an executive position? High-end resume services that include interview and salary negotiation coaching can cost you a cool $2,500.

And if you are out of work, chances are, you probably have enough in your budget to print a few dozen copies of whatever you decide to type, and that is all.

 Writing your resume does not have to be stressful or scary.

We've compiled the best tips the internet has to offer. So if you are looking for work, and ready to write that resume, start by reading this, first:

1. Free resume templates - Military spouses can use free resume templates courtesy of the Military Spouse Employment Partnership. No more guessing. They have five sample resumes on their sites that can easily fit nearly any type of job search and job history. Check them out here: https://msepjobs.militaryonesource.mil/msep/content/resume-templates

2. Re-read it - You do not need a professional editor to point out typos and errors. Most computers come equipped with a spell check feature meaning a spelling error in your resume screams computer illiterate. Most word processing programs will also happily highlight your grammatical errors as well. If you can't figure out what is wrong, Google it. Once your page is free of highlighted errors, read it backwards, slowly. Then check each punctuation mark. And then, have your spouse read it. And maybe your mom and your best friend.

3. List what you've achieved, not what you've done - You worked in an accounting firm where you were responsible for processing weekly payroll, annual taxes and tracking freelance accounts. Great! Who cares, so has everyone else. You should list what you achieved that makes you stand out from the crowd. How many payrolls did you process each week? What kinds of tax documents did you file (show how you are capable, that you know the information), how many freelancers, spread out over what distance? How large of a budget did you manage? Describe (briefly) how you saved the company money. Explain what you have done, not just what your job description says you should be able to do.

4. One page? Nope - Despite what your high school guidance counselor said, resumes do not have to be limited to one page, especially for military spouses who have worked a series of fantastic jobs over a number of years. Just be certain to include only the jobs that show the depth of your ability and experience. You do not need to include every single job, especially those that may have just be fillers between career moves.

5. Revise your resume for each job - Do not ever send out one resume to every position you apply to. Look closely at the job description and requirements. Then, look at your resume and determine how you can highlight your skills and experience to meet those requirements. This may mean expanding your description of some jobs you've held and shortening others. It may mean leaving some jobs off the resume completely if they do not fit the parameters of the new job. Employers want to know how you can be an asset to their company and why you are the perfect fit for them, not just for any old job.

Whether you are starting out or starting over, a trade career could be the most flexible, fastest, financially feasible route to a career that you love and from which you can make a good, no, a great, living.

“Believe it or not, 77 percent of all women in the workforce are segregated into 20 occupations out of the 440 occupations out there,” said Lauren Sugerman, National Policy Director and co-founder of Chicago Women in Trades. In fact, those 20 occupations have a least 80 percent female workers.

So, why try to squeeze into such a tight situation when there is plenty of room elsewhere?

The Manpower 2015 Talent Shortage Survey indicates for the sixth consecutive year, skilled trades were the hardest jobs to fill nationwide and for the fourth consecutive year they were the hardest to fill globally.

But that was the past, right? What about the future?

A McKinsey report from 2014 estimates there will be a shortfall of 85 million trade workers by 2020. http://mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Education/Education-to-Employment_FINAL.pdf

If you aren’t at all familiar with trade careers, consider this: according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, among the top 20 fastest growth projections is wind turbine technicians.

The projected change in employment between 2014 and 2024 is 108 percent, compared to the 7 percent average growth rate for all occupations. These workers, who install, maintain and repair wind turbines, are projected to earn a median income of $48,000 per year or $23.46 per hour after technical school or community college coursework and on-the-job-training. Certifications are not mandatory, but they will make you even more marketable.

You may not have ever heard of wind turbine technicians, but similar occupations include electricians, electrical installers and repairers, heating, air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics, plumbers and pipefitters. All of which had a median salary between $44,000 and $53,000 in 2014, are projected to have growth of 12-14 percent and will add between 39,600 and 85,900 jobs during those same ten years.

Those numbers are enormous, considering the average growth of all occupations is just 7 percent.

Can it get any better? It sure can!

“Apprenticeships in the trades offer the opportunity to earn while you learn,” said Sugerman. “I call it ‘the other four-year college’ because you don’t come out with a big tuition bill,” she added. “With an apprenticeship, you can earn 50 to 90 percent of what a journey worker would make in unionized skilled trades."

Chicago Women in Trades cites this example in its handbook:

(http://chicagowomenintrades2.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Participants-Guide_2014_lowres.pdf)

The median pay for nursing assistant professionals is about $9-12 per hour (or $24,000 per year), you pay for the training and there are few opportunities for advancement.

A bricklayer, on the other hand, could make about $15 per hour as an apprentice and can increase to $30-40 per hour ($76,000) at the end of four years. The training through an apprenticeship is free and provided on the job, so you earn while you learn. Over a 30-year career, that could mean the difference of $1.4 million.

By now, you are probably trying to figure out which skilled trade job is the right one for you. Sugerman, a former elevator constructor, advises the women she works with that the best trade career for any woman is one that matches your skill sets and interest – where can you see yourself spending eight to 10 hours a day? It should also be a good fit and be one that is available in your area.

“If you get into a trade that you enjoy and that you can handle, you’re going to love it,” said Jackie Townsend, a bricklayer in Chicago. “ The pay increases are great. Right now I am at an 80 percent apprentice. I get a raise every six months (roughly $3-4 per hour). Once I top out at journeyman, I’ll still get a $2 raise every year. You’re always guaranteed a pay increase, and you get great benefits. You also get a pension.”

Of course, everything in trade careers is not peaches and cream, just like it isn’t in any career.

“Women are scrutinized more as are racial minorities,” said Sugerman. “We have a different set of challenges because we are not part of the good-old-boy network. That’s why we will keep working to create policy for equal pay and equal access to apprenticeships and to improve cultural competency to help women working in the trades.

For more information, resources, videos and stories from tradeswomen, visit http://www.chicagowomenintrades2.org. Policy and regulations can be found at http://www.regulations.gov and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship.

Editor’s Note: Please Welcome Army spouse Nadia Hurtt to Salute to Spouses! The self-made photographer is building a business she started while her family was stationed in Hawaii. Now, while her husband attends college fulltime, she is supporting her family and growing her business, learning all about success and setback along the way. Check in every month to follow Nadia and learn more about the art of being a small business owner

Being a business owner is great, exciting and awesome.

And then, some days, it’s not everything it’s cracked up to be. 

Everyone loves the idea of being their own boss. Everyone dreams of doing something they love every day instead of slaving away at work for someone else. It’s pretty much the American dream to make it big with something you built with your own hands. 

At least that’s what I thought when I first started this journey five years ago. 

I worked for the government in some way, shape or form over the last 10 years while my husband was in the Army, but, always had a love for photography.

I dabbled in it here and there and my friends knew I enjoyed taking pictures. While my husband was on a 12-month deployment, my friend asked me to take some maternity pictures of her. Of course I said yes but never realized this would be the first stepping stone in launching my business.

She posted the images on Facebook and within days, my message box was full of people requesting sessions of their own, some even willing to hand me $20 for it. 

Wow! So this is how photographers are made, I thought.

Except, it’s not. 

I quickly realized that photography, like any other business you choose to run, requires you to have a solid head on your shoulders and some tough skin if you want to make it work. No one ever told me about taxes, the cost of goods calculations, the cost of doing business analysis, projected sales, marketing plans and all the other menial, difficult tasks you do after you do the fun part you love! 

Being your own boss and running a business is stressful. It’s an 80-hour work week, dealing with unhappy clients, making sure you are operating correctly in the eyes of the law, and not really knowing when your next paycheck will come.

But, it is also one of the most rewarding things you will ever do. You can make time for your family and loved ones, you can run a business the way you see fit and change what you don't like about it. You can choose who you want to do business with.

But the biggest perk, owning your own business gives you an immense sense of accomplishment. 

My business went from making a few hundred dollars a year allowing us some family extras like a nice dinner out to now supporting my family of three while my husband attends college fulltime after serving in the military.

It’s amazing to know that my heart, sweat & tears has allowed my family to live a pretty nice life after the military. 

It can be done. It can provide you with the job you have always wanted to do, whether its photography or opening up your own clothing boutique or selling your handmade creations online. Building a business properly from the ground up can lead you to success. 

Thousands of military spouses are slowing growing their own businesses. They are crafting, selling, marketing and counting. They offer a full range of services and products.

And when they face a challenge, often they face it alone, especially when their spouse is deployed or training.

What many of them don't know, is there is an organization to help them grow their business, offer advice and an ear to listen.

The National Association of the Self Employed was created to help entrepreneurs manage their businesses, seek advice and have a voice in Washington D.C.

The annual fee,$120, gives members access to the organization's professional consultants who can advise them on topics such as taxes, finances, retirement plans and general questions about running their business.

Members can also apply for health insurance plans through the NASE, apply for credit cards, order office supplies, get help with website design and receive discounts on business travel. 

The NASE also gives members grants and scholarships to help with business expenses. You can apply for up to $4,000 to attend training, educational seminars, purchase business supplies, licenses or other needs that will make your business grow.

For military spouses who move every few years, this is a solid organization that can help you stay grounded through each move.

Check out their website here: https://www.nase.org/become-a-member,

Ask most anyone what would be the best thing about having his or her own business and you are likely to hear: Being my own boss.

But, when that business is a franchise and you have to follow someone else’s rules on almost everything, are you really the boss?

“If you get into a good franchise, the franchisors will listen to you and take suggestions,” said co-owner of three Philly Pretzel Factory stores in Lebanon and Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. “But you also have to remember that franchises can have hundreds (or more) combined years of experience gained through trial and error and they know what works and what doesn’t.”

Franchisors have a brand to protect and they do so for your and their success.

“When you see the golden arches, you know what it is and can almost taste the food,” said Breault. “If someone goes rogue and changes the shape or color of the arches, you would have no idea that is the business you know, so it’s very important to stick to the plan.”

Like most other bosses, franchise owners pick their teams and manage them based on the individuals and the situation. Sure, you may have to follow a training plan created by the franchisor but as the boss, it is you who motivates, directs, and supervises those individuals on a daily basis.

“As the owner, you are the one who will ultimately determine if your franchise will be successful,’ said Breault. “You choose your location, implement your marketing plan and directly impact your customer service, which is huge in this business.”

“You have to put everything into your business, time, money and energy,” said Breault. “Just like in the military, this is no nine to five. You may work 80-hour weeks, late nights and holidays. And your family is the number one support you need to make it work.”

The boss is the one who makes the biggest investment, and it’s the boss who gets the biggest return on it, financially and otherwise.