2013 MOAA Military Spouse Symposium: The Scoop From Macho Spouse was originaly written for MOAA Spouse Blog: Making it in the MilLife.

When I was asked to participate during this year's MOAA Spouse Symposium, I couldn't refuse. Sure I am insanely busy with work and my travel budget didn't include a 2900 mile trip to Tacoma, but these were the popular kids calling.

I felt like I was in elementary school all over again and the jocks just asked me to play football at recess, no way I would miss this opportunity. (Side note: The jocks did ask me to play football with them in elementary school where I torched Braden Kelly, the most popular kid in school, for an 80 yard touchdown run that day. Great memory.)

Not only would this event be great exposure for Macho Spouse, but it would help give male military spouses some “street cred” while hanging with a great organization at a visible event.

Christopher.Hillman@yahoo.com

Chris Hillman is the epitome of an amateur Renaissance man and has spent most of his days learning several fields. Since earning his undergraduate degree in Business Administration (American Intercontinental University) and a masters degree in Public Administration (National University), Chris has worked in logistics as a manager and trainer, spent time as a sous chef, was an assistant to the Director of Student Affairs at (Western University of Health Sciences) and worked as a freelance reference writer. He is also the co-founder and former Community Project Leader for Phoenix Rising, a non-profit organization created to help raise the GPAs of students from 1st - 12th grade and lower the drop out rate in L.A. County.

n2dabluebbq@gmail.com

Glen Mixon is a Texas native who joined the US Army in 1988 as a Light Wheel Vehicle Mechanicwhere he met his future wife Jennifer, who had just enlisted in the US Air Force.  They married in 1990.  After honorably serving our nation for 4 years, Glen went on to attend Clovis Community College where he was awarded multiple scholarships, made the Dean's List and eventually earned a Certificate in Automotive Technology (1994).  All while supporting his active-duty Air Force wife and raising their one, and only, son Zachary. 

mrbatrick@yahoo.com

Patrick is a native of Australia where he studied Commercial Cookery at Campbelltown Technical and Further Education College.  He has worked in a variety of establishments including private households, hotels, restaurants and corporate boardrooms.  Patrick has also worked and studied in a customer call center where he attained “Associates in Telecommunications: Call Centre Operations.”  At the call center, he started as an entry-level representative working the phones and quickly advanced to an Assistant Team leader and Quality Call Coach.  Patrick has also worked in a variety of other fields including, contract cleaning, landscaping and was an assistant SCUBA instructor. He has also volunteered to assist the Bahraini Coast Guard as a Search and Rescue Diver.

smshep01@yahoo.com

Stephen started out like all other teens and flipped burgers at McDonald's.  After graduating from high school, Stephen set out to find what he wanted to do in life.  College was not on the horizon (yet) so he did what many 18 year old men do, joined the military.

Hiring Our Heroes was launched in March 2011 as a nationwide initiative to help veterans and military spouses find meaningful employment. 

In Gear was started by Career Minded Military Spouses for Career Minded Military Spouses.

As a new civilian male military spouse, you will come to a point when you will have to make a decision about your career. One tip on ho How to make a portable caree is: Think "Portable" at all times.

Making a prtable career requires hard, smart work, but it is possible. There are plenty of guys who have made their careers portable. You can do it, too. Here are 5+ Portable Careers for Civilian Male Military Spouses.

Veteran, military transition, and military spouse employment and training resources for service members transitioning from the military back to living a civilian life, veterans seeking gainful employment, and military spouses seeking employment.

MMSRS - Male Military Husbands - our wives get transfered all the time, sometimes every year. Where do we find meaningful employement that can follow her where she goes?

Host Dave "Old Fart" Etter fields calls from other male spouses on how to build a better resume, the value of volunteering, and other job hunting tips.

Discussion needs to go on further, so, we will continue the discussion next week. Starting next week MMSRS will be weekly at noon CDT Fridays.

You know, I started Macho Spouse because I couldn't find a job in my career field during our last PCS. Most of us military spouses have probably gone through similar depressing job-searches. But after two years of unemployment, here I am, back in the job market and gainfully employed. This time, however, I have a whole new appreciation for what it takes to land that next job. The following is a short list of what I learned during my latest employment drought.

Civilian male miltary spouses can volunteer and build their resumes with actual work experince and professional skills through the CASY and MSCCN Career Corps Training Program. This is not a typical volunteer program!

So, you have a job offer and the employer offers you employment as either an independent contractor or an employee. You figure that since your wife is in the military, you don't need the insurance and your paycheck will be bigger without all that withholding taken out.

I write about military financial independence, but Im getting a lot of e-mail about navigating the drawdown and starting a bridge career. Im also hearing from Reserve and National Guard servicemembers about balancing their military careers with their civilian employers. Veterans (and military spouses) know that their transition to a civilian career will be like transferring to a duty station in a foreign country. Theyll spend lots of time explaining their military skills and achievements to civilians and translating their military culture into a foreign language.

Job hunters know LinkedIn as the social network that caters primarily to job seekers and recruiters. Users create professional profiles and highlight job experience, internships and educational achievements. Yet there is more to leveraging the power of LinkedIn than merely creating a profile.

Hey guys, have you taken this survey yet?  Stuff like this is important because it may help you find work in the future, as well as, future generations of military spouses!

Article by Craig Gilman, Faculty Member at American Military University

Joining the military means a life of training exercises and deployments away from home, not to mention periodic transfers with little choice of duty stations that can be found in countries half a world away. What comes with all that is a career, even if only for a few years, that provides opportunities for personal growth and satisfaction, professional challenge and reward, career development, and leadership opportunities that build a stronger resume.

Earlier this year I attended my Transition Assistance Program (TAP) class ahead of my planned 1 August 2014 retirement.  After completing the week of training with 25 other military members (both officers and enlisted), I was left with some thoughts about the program and life after the military.

Hiring Our Heroes has hosted more than 220 hiring fairs in 48 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia; more than 10,400 have gotten jobs.

We know that many male military spouses are military veterans who are looking for meaningful employment in this tough job market. That is why we're highlighting MilitaryVetJobs.com, a website designed to help veterans find employment opportunities and get hired.

My mom was looking to make a holiday donation to a trustworthy non-profit organization that supports military families, but she had no idea where to give.  I told her about this medium-sized non-profit doing great work putting military spouses and veterans to work, I believe they've placed about 7,000 veterans and spouses in 2015 (maybe more/less, I don't have access to the up-to-date numbers).

Military spouses make amazing employees, and entrepreneurs. If you have skills in things like professional development, or how to start a business, consider mentoring a military spouse!

November is Military Families Appreciation Month, and the 2014 Armed Forces Insurance Branch Spouses of the Year (Branch SOYs) want to help everyone, everywhere participate in thanking and honoring military families.

Americans love our military, but many people don't quite know how best to express their gratitude. As National Guard Spouse of the Year Dr. Ingrid Herrera-Yee notes, “saying "thanks" to our military families is something that many want to do, but are at a loss as to how to do it –or in the case of Guard and Reserve, how to find us!”

So the Branch SOYs created #30Ways of Thanks to help. Each day in November, the Branch SOYs will release a video with an action item that people around the country can participate in virtually or locally, individually or in groups. Participants can hash tag #30Ways so that their messages, photos, or videos are spread far and wide. Hash tags #GratefulNation and #MilFamsRock can also be added as a short-hand way to say “You are amazing, military families!” Best of all, the entire #30Ways video collection will be stored on the Branch SOYs' YouTube channel so that it can be repeated in Novembers to come, or whenever someone is looking for a way to say “thank you” to military families.

Hiring our Heroes Military Spouse Event!

Location: Quantico, VA

Date: September 6th

Search millions of job listings from across the web. Find local jobs, salary comparisons, and employment trends at Simply Hired. New jobs added daily.

The Veterans Job Bank powered by NRD.gov provides Veterans with a central source for identifying Veteran-committed employment opportunities and assists America’s employers in identifying qualified Veterans. A key part of the White House’s ongoing commitment to improve access to employment opportunities for transitioning Service Members and Veterans, it facilitates access to hundreds of thousands of private-sector job openings specifically targeted at Veterans.

chris@MachoSpouse.com

Chris Pape, a 1995 graduate from the University of Cincinnati, is a multiple, national award-winning video producer with over 15 years of experience developing educational video productions for public school systems, large corporations, small businesses and state governments.  He is also a civilian male military spouse and has been for over 10 years; in those 10 years Chris has been through three military moves, two deployments, countless TDY's, six job changes, one career change that quickly brought him back to his original career, and a few months of un-employment in between.

Check out the December 2012 Military Service Employment Journal from MSCCN.

Career Advice: PCS Job Search Tips - An employment search can be very daunting, especially in a new area. Here are four tips that really helped me find a position
after our last PCS.

Ask The Experts: Sometimes there are issues with your
job search. You feel like you are spinning your wheels and not really going anywhere – and you wonder why and how you can change it. Below are some questions we have had asked in the last few months that we felt would be helpful to everyone in their job search. We are here to
help should you need any further information or assistance!

'Tis the season to start your job search? Try filling your stockings with cash by landing that dream job going into the New Year. “What do you want for Christmas this year?” If you are answering this age old question with “Dear Santa, I want a new job!” Give yourself an early
gift, just make a visit to MSCCN and CASY for an early present of no-cost employment readiness, on the job training, direct connect, and one-on-one job placement services.

Check out the November 2012 Military Service Employment Journal from MSCCN.

Career Advice: Do you look at yourself as a business? If you want a successful business, you first have to have a business plan. The same rules apply to a career plan you should apply to your "Professional Self".

Portable Careers: Tired of Changing Careers? Try just moving it! What is the definition of a portable career? A portable career is a career in which you are not bound to stay in one location. It's a career that allows you the freedom to decide where you want to live, be it a new city, a new state, or a new country! It's a job that goes and grows with you.

As a military spouse, you are not guaranteed to be in the same place for a long time. Duty calls, not just for the service member, but for the entire family. The spouse is the one that needs to be able to hold it all together and keep things running right.

Once you get a job, you dread the day that you have to walk into your boss's office and explain to him that orders have come in for your entire family, because that's the way it is. Your children have to say goodbye to their schools, friends, teachers, and you have to say goodbye to your friends, co-workers, and job. But why say goodbye? Wouldn't it be better to say “Out of the office, will be back in a week”?

Lucky number seven. That's what this year's annual MOAA spouse symposium was – though it was a lot more than luck that made the day great. It was the 300 military spouses from across the Pacific Northwest who made the cold trek through Seattle-Tacoma traffic to spend a day at MOAA's 7th Annual Military Spouse Symposium. Here's what we learned, what made us cry, what made us laugh, and who made a special appearance.

This Friday, Macho Spouse Chris Pape will represent male military spouses at the 7th annual Military Spouse Symposium hosted by our friends at the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA). Chris will be one of the featured speakers at the event to talk about the support network for male military spouses we have here at Macho Spouse.

Military spouses, service members and veterans are invited to attend the 2013 MOAA Military Spouse Symposium “Keeping a Career on the Move,”  hosted by the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA).

If you need some talking points for your next interview, check out CompTIA's blog. There's a post you will find helpful as it effectively answers the question, "Why Hire a Military Spouse?"

DVIDS

TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. - Spouses of service members are often faced with unique challenges like raising children while their partner is deployed and frequent relocation each time the next permanent change of station come around. Focus is placed on the service member's career, leaving the spouse's employment aspirations to be placed on the back burner. Programs like Hiring Our Heroes not only work toward finding meaningful employment for veterans, but for spouses as well.