 Today by DOS and special guest Veronica medley a proud military spouse this month is national military spouse appreciation month so Ryan and Veronica are here to talk about employment challenges and opportunities for military spouses and of course how DAV can help we'll also talk about a special virtual jobs event for military spouses happening this thursday may 11th thank you both for being here thank you Veronica can you start by introducing yourself and telling us a bit about your spouse in his military service sure so i'm Veronica medley and my spouse and i have been together for eight or nine years now uh currently we are stationed now at Fort Stewart he is a staff sergeant um and his mls is a 15 whiskey which is a uav operator and can you tell us about some of the places where um you and your husband have been stationed and where he's been deployed yeah so we've been stationed at a couple of different duty stations now we started off at Fort Bragg we were there for a couple of years and while we were at Fort Bragg my spouse was deployed to afghanistan for nine months once he got back we were still at Fort Bragg for a little bit and then went to graffin beer over in germany we were in germany for about three years we rode covid out over there definitely an experience and now we are down here in georgia i already stationed at Fort Stewart you kind of been a little bit of of everywhere what are some of the pros and some of the the challenges of military life for you as a spouse some of the pros are well the traveling is great it's nice to be able to you know see some of the different parts of the world that you know you may not have otherwise seen or you may not have otherwise thought of going to definitely the support system and this unique family this unique bond that military spouses have is always a positive and encouraging force for me seeing it play out in so many different aspects some challenges are the constant moving the constant unknown that just looms in the background you never know when your spouse will have to move or go somewhere or get orders or whatever also trying to maintain a stable career is one of the main challenges and maintaining your own sense of identity as a spouse is one of the challenges as well sure so tell us about what career field you work in and what some of those challenges are in terms of maintaining finding and maintaining employment as a military spouse okay well by training i am in psychology i have a master's degree in psychology but most of my work has been in higher education and it's a pretty specialized field the area of higher education that i work in and because we've moved a couple of times it's been pretty difficult to maintain employment in that particular area i've had to think outside the box when it comes to my skill set and how i market myself to various employers so that they understand the skills that i bring to the table as well i've had to maintain a growth mindset so that you know i can gain new skills at each duty station and it's just all part of adapting and overcoming that that challenge of having to constantly you know move around and sometimes it means that your options are limited and ron kind of we've also talked about some potential issues with licensing as a military spouse when you're moving so much can you talk a little bit about that and then i also know that there's some education that you either want or need that's hard to do or impossible to do virtually sometimes yeah so with psychology you have to have that license if you're not licensed at all you can't you can't practice in some states will allow you to get licensed at the master's level and a lot of states require you to have a doctoral degree and psychology is still a pretty slow moving field it hasn't gotten on board the virtual education just yet so a lot of doctoral degrees have to be completed in person i will say a lot of the accredited doctoral level degrees have to be completed in person and most of them are five to seven years and we are moving in bases every two or three years that you can imagine it's hard to start a program and actually see it through to completion because you're always moving bases so that's you know something i plan to do at some point when i grow up get that doctoral degree so i can get my license and practice as a psychologist or wherever we move next but yeah that's that's been a very big challenge trying to complete my education so i can look at the next level and then we also know that a lot of spouses if they need licensing in their field those licensing requirements can again if you're moving from state to state you might have to constantly be updating um that licensing i want to turn to uh ryan now and ryan if you can talk about dab's different employment resources for military spouses sure thanks for having me um so on jobs dot dab dot or you know we've got a plethora of resources that's available to veterans and spouses alike there's a job board with several hundred thousand vacancies that are currently on there you can also see the different resources that we have for mentorship opportunities also our dab patriot boot camp where we bring in mentors from all over the country to mentor young business owners on how to make their business more successful you learn from my mistakes you're not making the same mistakes that i made um so we have a lot of resources that's located on our website um and speaking about our mentorship opportunities what makes those great is the fact that they can be done anywhere um like ronika said you know she was overseas at some points in time um you can be mentored on a task of your choosing or um a topic of your choosing sorry um it could be interview tactics resume building um it's it's at your discretion when it's going to be how it's going to take place and who that mentor is actually going to be these are free resources that are located on our website um we also have a complete list of job fairs that we have up and coming throughout the year currently this year we've got over a hundred traditional meaning in person and virtual job fairs also um they in fact this week we've got a military spouses event which fits perfectly with uh ronika um that that event's going to be held on this this coming thursday at 11 a.m to 3 p.m eastern time so we're just encouraging every every military spouse that's out there to attend um it's open to veterans as well however this particular event is geared towards the strength of military spouses and can we talk about in general how great job fairs are geared toward military spouses or what makes it different from any other job fair that's not necessarily for this this community sure um so the organizations of businesses that are coming um they're aware of the value that military spouses bring to the table they they understand that military spouses the backbone of the family um these individuals are are excellent managers of the family they've got to do things and change on the fly like like nobody's business so i'm sure verona can can understand that the value that that has um then when it comes to changing on the fly it's not easy um so these employers know that value that they're bringing to the table and they want that part of their organization so verona kind of that you utilized um some dav job fairs and virtual job fairs can you tell us um what that experience was like for you sure it was a very positive experience very easy very uh there i say relaxing experience to experience those to go through those virtual job fairs i personally used them a lot for networking and for um just kind of staying grounded in the new trends like i mentioned before i try to have a growth mindset when it comes to secure employment at new duty stations and i like i like to see what new skills um employers are hiring for um and and and what may be coming on the pipeline not only for myself but also for um whoever i may encounter one point in time i was doing some career counseling so you know going to those job fairs and such enabled me to better advise the soldiers i was providing career counseling too at that moment um but i definitely um used them for for networking um i try to get as many connections as possible for interviews in the future um and opportunities as well that's great um can you talk about actually i want to go back for a second it when you utilized um the virtual job fairs i believe you were in germany at the time and you were about to come back to the states you got back to the states and you were waiting on your on your vehicles that kind of uh got caught up in some logistics so seems like um that that virtual aspect was really a big asset for you given your military lifestyle yes it definitely was we i'm shipped our vehicles i think i should mind like december or something like that and it didn't get here until january or february sometimes so as many virtual events as i could attend i did um simply because i was trying to find employment and as you can imagine trying to manage things when rent a car was extremely difficult um so definitely that virtual aspect going into the chat rooms and just simply being able to chat um with the various employers and just to not resume was extremely helpful um and and just finding something uh to get started with when we got back yeah when we spoke before you compared um the chat room experience kind of like if for those who can remember like the aol chat room so it's also nostalgic if if you're looking for that it's truly it ronica what advice do you have for military spouses out there who are struggling to to figure out their own careers and how to navigate that i would advise them to consider their own identity what they like to do their hobbies how they like to spend their time i would advise them also to remain flexible and you know maybe think outside the box as to what your career might look like i have a very non-traditional career both in higher education and in psychology i also have other skills that i've acquired through um just having to move like career counseling that was never on my radar at all however when we got to germany that was a position of that became available an opportunity was there so i became a career counselor for a little bit um so really flexible considering your own identity i'm thinking outside the box having a growth mindset as well as use your resources there are a lot of resources out there for military spouses for veterans for the military family in general and so being aware of your resources and utilize them to the fullest uh can really help you in in finding your own niche and maintaining that niche wherever you are yeah and uh again we spoke before you had i thought this great advice about um showing up as your authentic self right because you want to find what's best for you and a good fit for you and so you might as well you know show up um authentically as your as yourself so i thought that was great advice and also you know ryan brought it up before and said military spouses are many of them are managers right they're great managers because they've had to um you know manage so many different moves and household things as as a military spouse and i think that goes back to you know marketing yourself and and thinking outside of the box um and and how to you know sell your your experiences um ryan how can job fair attendees be best prepared and set themselves up for success in general and and maybe for this thursday's event sure so um we call them keys to success um so whether that be a in person traditional job fair or that be um a virtual job fair like one coming up this thursday i want to dress for success um so our virtual events um in some occasions they are doing on the spot interviews or doing on the spot hiring um you have the ability for the employer to see you and you to see them via webcam so dressing for success is key um just because you're in a virtual environment does not mean that um you can you're not dressing for success the second thing is knowing your 32nd elevator pitch you know at front and back know who you are what you want to do and know the value that you're bringing to the company um and being confident in that um you know your value um as as a project manager um or in the mental health field like like Veronica is you know you know what you bring to the table give that 32nd elevator pitch and make them want you and make them understand why they need you part of their organization um and the second thing like we tell all of our job fair attendees you know you want to make sure that you do your research on the on the job fair prior to going know the companies that are going to be present you know have your list of employers that you want to see whether it be five six or just that one but don't do yourself that disservice and bypass all the other booths and say oh you know i i don't think i want to work for this company you know we always encourage everybody to touch every single employer you could be not clicking on that one booth or not walking up to that particular recruiter that's there that day and that that could be a dream job if on the other side of those on the other side of those doors so don't do yourself that disservice so i think those three keys are the biggest things that for anybody to to pay attention to yeah and i just want to note so folks can go to jobs.dav.org to find a list of job fairs um when they go to register they can see all the employers that will be attending that specific fair correct yes they can um so in fact whenever you go to jobs.dav.org you click on it's called job fairs that's the second tab that's on there um and whenever you click on it brings up another screen where you can actually register for the event um once you register you upload your um all your credentials you can put your resume on there so whenever you enter the job the virtual job fair um employers will be able to click on your name and pull your resume and i can say interact with you face to face as if you were there in person yep and it's also i i note that because you talk about you know it's great to do research beforehand so that information is there you can see what employers will be there and get a jump start on that um on that research and and being prepared um i'll throw this out to um uh to both of you what do you and we talked a little bit about this but what do you think makes military spouses uh good job candidates good workers i'll just echo what ryan said earlier about uh military spouses being able to adapt very quickly and think quick on our feet we can adjust whatever situation when the situation changes we can make a plan and change it up very quickly i think that um ability to very quickly adapt is one one thing that we bring to the table um i also believe that military spouses are very loyal hardworking people in general we have this sort of grit determination perseverance that you really simply can't find in other candidates i think we also um have a thirst and a longing for community that can assist in building a very positive culture um in any job space that we enter those are all great points ryan anything you'd like to add kind of sure um i kind of want to echo what ryanca said as well you know um and just add to the fact that like i was saying earlier you're military spouses are the backbone of the family um when you're in the military the service members coming home stressed out um and more oftentimes they're stressed because they're away from their family um so that that military spouses has the ability to dissect the situation figure out what's going on and and be that that strong individual for the military the service member to come home to um and being that backbone um just to echo again you know that they are awesome project managers um and kind of you're towards what ryanca's doing of me being in the mental health field um i'm sure your husband can appreciate that and you can kind of understand a little bit more where he's coming from at times and and kind of dissect it why he's acting certain ways and kind of kind of feel for him and understand his stresses a little bit more absolutely ryan i also want to ask um what advice you have for employers who are looking to hire military spouses sure so for all the employers out there that's watching you know um pay attention to what we've said throughout this entire um live event if you're going to take one key away from it just understand that if you're looking to grow your company and you're looking to make your company more successful hiring a military spouse is going to be second to none um they they can be the backbone of your organization they can provide a a sense of of wholeness for your organization as well so um military spouses where it's at let's let's get them all hired as much as we can and um they're yes they are the military spouse but they're serving right alongside that better um they are the reason why that that veteran comes to work every single day and is able to do the things that they do for this country absolutely and Veronica as a military spouse yourself what advice do you have for employers i would advise them to remain flexible we need a lot of flexibility uh because we never know what we're going to face day to day uh so remaining flexible would be a huge asset to the military spouse coming on board as well as providing mentorship and training uh mentorship programs have been um phenomenal and um a key part in my own journey in me in me getting to where i am today uh so mentorship and flexibility would be the two things i would advise employers to offer uh military spouses yeah again i love how you put it when we spoke before that military spouses have to be flexible every day and so if employers can can meet them there um uh everyone benefits from that um thank you both so much Veronica thank you for being here thank you for your service and your support um of veterans and of course your own family uh please uh give give our thanks to to your husband as well again for those watching all dav job fairs are for service members veterans and military spouses but there is a special virtual career fair this thursday may 11th from 11 a.m to 3 p.m est that is uh geared toward military spouses in particular learn more and register at jobs dot dav dot org and be sure to follow dav on linkedin facebook twitter and instagram for the latest news and events thank you