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Job-Hunting Strategies For Trailing Spouses
You're moving. Again. And once again, your spouse's career takes precedence and
yours is back at square one. Even if you are in total agreement with the move,
you will still experience two of the highest stress factors in existence simultaneously:
moving and unemployment.
Along with death of a family member, loss of a spouse, and disaster, moving and
being unemployed rank among the top 5 stress producers. To be faced with 2 of
the top stressers simultaneously requires the marshalling of all your survival
and recovery instincts.
You're moving to make life better, but that is only true if moving is best for
both of you and the rest of the members of your family. Your job as the transferred
spouse is to make the best of the transition. Finding the right employment situation
will get you well on the road to accomplishing that goal.
Over 75% of company transferees are married, according to the Employee Relocation
Council in Washington, D.C., which means that 3 out of 4 transferees have a "trailing
spouse."
Although some companies take steps to smooth the transition for employees who
are asked to move from one city to another, few recognize or appreciate the tremendous
stress factors that typically befall the trailing spouse. The transferee is expected
to integrate into his/her new surroundings and "hit the ground running,"
while the trailing spouse is left with the primary duties of finding or moving
into a home, installing children in new schools and other programs, beginning
a new social network, and generally adjusting the family to the culture shock
of a new environment. Add to that the burden of having to find a new job in an
unfamiliar market, and the prescription for adjustment problems is filled.
Many relocating spouses cope by developing or falling back on a skill they can
develop in an entrepreneurial style. ????Deborah Grooms, who followed her husband
to ???Orlando when he accepted a job at ???Disney World, found that she could
return to the photography business she had begun in another city.
????Dave Harland, who followed his wife to ????Orlando where she took a job as
a ????radio DJ. Knowing that every time she took a new job, it meant putting his
career temporarily on hold, he developed a strategy that works for them as a couple.
He began a home-refurbishing business, a career he can take anywhere.
Job hunting in a new market doesn't have to be frustrating. Transferred spouses
can use a number of strategies to help them find the right position:
- Go to your present company and see if the human resources department or your boss can
refer you to similar companies in your new city. After you have given notice, contact the
competitors of your present company competitors as well. They could have a branch or a
satellite office in your new city and you may be the right choice to make the plan happen.
- Contact your spouse's human resources department and see if there are any programs for
transferring spouses and their families. They may have a job search network in place that
can help get the word out your special skills.
- Contact your friends, family and acquaintances for referrals in your new city.
- Contact the local Chamber of Commerce. Many times they will have a Web site and a list
of members will be available for you to call.
- In your new city, volunteer with organizations that need the kind of professional
expertise you have; ask them for referrals to people and companies who can offer you the
kind of work you are seeking.
- Scan the papers and surf the 'Net. Ask longtime residents and business contacts about
the opportunities you find.
- Get to know people in your neighborhood and at your child's school; make yourself part
of the community. Don't live as if your life is on hold.
If you are uncertain what direction you want to take, slow down and reevaluate
your priorities. Do you want to return to the same kind of job that you had? If
you are in doubt, talk to a career counselor. The evaluation fee will be well
worth it if it leads you in a new direction that you find more rewarding. |
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