BSF Blog: The Workforce | Blue Star Families

Practical Job Application and Interview Tips | Post date: 01/06/2010 - 21:17

By Alison H., MSCCN Technology Support

Over the years, I have experienced many ups and downs in my job searches and while employed, I have witnessed many interesting “teachable moments” when dealing with job applicants. Here are some practical tips from my personal experiences to help you when you apply for a job.

The job announcement states you need to apply in person.

- When applying for a job in person, be sure to dress nicely but not over-the-top. After all, you are just applying for the job; you are not at the interview stage yet. Keep your appearance clean and don’t wear too much makeup, jewelry, or perfume.

- Have a copy of your resume along with a cover letter. Keep your paperwork (resume, etc.) in a binder of some sort. Too many people just take the paperwork without thinking it will get bent or even misplaced. If you have a folder or binder to hold all your paperwork, you will likely feel more organized and the paperwork will be less likely to be damaged or wrinkled.

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This Emotional Life on PBS | Post date: 01/04/2010 - 21:14

Blue Star Families members,

Tune in tonight to watch the first installment of "This Emotional Life" on your local PBS station. Blue Star Families is an advisor to the project and has worked closely with production team on military family outreach. Check out BSF's listing under resources: http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/resource-finder

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To Be or Not to Be a Job Hunter through the Holidays | Post date: 12/10/2009 - 23:51

By Anne Wight, GCDF, CFLE, CCRR

Military Spouse Corporate Career Network

I’ve always considered the “holiday season” to be from mid-November to just after New Year’s Day, but Lisa Miller, Executive Director of Career Connection, writes in last year’s November-December Career Connect newsletter “The holiday season officially starts October 30 to January 15th (approximately 77 days of networking ).” Whatever holidays you celebrate or however long your holiday season is, the key thing to remember is that your job search is a full-time job in itself and should be intensified over the holidays when competition is lower and networking opportunities increase.

In researching recent advice from career professionals, I was pleased to find that the consensus of advice has remained constant over the last decade about the importance of using the holidays to expand networking and recharge a job hunt. Why has this advice stayed the same for so long? Because informed job seekers know that job openings happen year round, yet many job seekers take a break from their job search because they want to enjoy the holidays and focus on their job search after New Year’s Day. That means that competition for job openings usually declines significantly in the last quarter of the calendar year. Some employers with fiscal years starting in January may be interviewing for positions that start in their new fiscal year in January. Anyone waiting until January to compete for those openings will be too late.

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Creating the Perfect Resume | Post date: 11/30/2009 - 22:22

by Renee Kale, Military Spouse Corporate Career Network Volunteer

A resume is a vital tool in the job search process. Creating a resume that clearly describes your skills that match the employer’s needs seems to be a challenge to some. Here are some guidelines that should be considered when creating your resume:

Target Your Resume! The resume should always be targeted for the specific job for which you are applying. A targeted resume will show how your skills match those for the position. Try to use key words but don’t just reiterate the job announcement. Leave off things that don’t apply. The only exception to this guideline is when you are posting to a job site or going to a job fair. Although these two exceptions are not targeting specific jobs, you should try to target specific occupations.

Page Length - Given the amount of resumes that employers are receiving today you should try, whenever possible, to keep your resume to one page. Normally two pages is acceptable but because employers are receiving hundreds of resumes for every job opening, keeping your information brief and concise will really help you in the long run.

Font Size - Your font needs to be large enough for the reader to see. The guideline I recommend would be no smaller than 11pt. and no larger than 12 pt unless it is your name. The largest I would recommend for the name is 14pt. You also want to use a basic font. Don’t get fancy and use Comic Sans or something that is “creative.” I recommend Times New Roman, Arial, or Courier New. Remember certain fonts will take up more room than others.

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BSF Celebrates Veterans Day with Michelle Obama and Dr. Biden | Post date: 11/12/2009 - 22:47

On Wednesday, Blue Star Families joined with Service Nation to celebrate Veterans Day, write letters for BSF's Operation Appreciation, and pack hundreds of thank you care packages for the families of deployed service members.

Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden were on hand to help launch Mission Serve, a network of 36 initiatives partnering military and civilian service organizations to support the needs of our troops, veterans and military families.

Here are the remarks of BSF founder, Kathy Roth-Douquet, explaining more about the Veterans Day event:

Two months ago today, on 9/11, I sent my husband to Afghanistan for a year. It’s the fourth combat deployment of my daughter Sophie’s eleven years. She’s seen seven schools during her daddy’s absences too – hers is the life of a military child. She - and I - are a different kind of veterans of today’s war. We’re unspeakably proud of my husband, but there’s no hiding that its hard too. The group I’m involved with – Blue Star Families, and all these groups here, are about solutions for the hard parts of military life. In Blue Star Families we believe as Service Nation does that solutions come in part from our own action, and it comes from the help of the larger community. Many of you here today have helped us with that – packing our ThxBox to the families of deployed servicemembers – these today will go to Kansas National Guard, Virginian individual augmentees, and to North Carolina regular families. The Operation Appreciation letters you all are writing today will go around the country, including to the shaken community of Fort Hood. MissionServe has shown wonderful leadership in helping groups like mine connect to those who care in the larger community – in ways that makes us all activists, all agents in our own solutions. Its terribly fitting that we celebrate those partnerships today, on Veterans Day, a day that recognizes Americans – veterans – who serve so selflessly. Here’s just a smattering of the partnerships engendered by the leadership of Be The Change:

Blue Star Families is partnering with PBS to create reintegration toolkits for families, ones we packed in the ThxBoxes today, and to connecting Greater DC Cares to the National Guard community around the Capitol region. Student Veterans of America are joining with Big Brothers Big Sisters to mentor youth. American Legion Auxiliary is engaging with Operation Homefront’s adopt a military family for the holidays programs. Sierra Club is partnering both with the National Military Family Association’s Operation Purple® to offer a free week of summer camp fun for military kids with parents who have been, are currently, or will be deployed, and with Armed Services YMCA to provide post-deployment family reintegration camping trips. MCEC and America’s Promise Alliance are working with military-connected schools to ensure their kids are adequately represented in the Gallup Student Poll, a nationwide survey of 5th through 12th graders measuring hope, engagement, and well-being.

Thank you all for being here today, for caring, and serving.

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Military Spouses Push Residency Relief Act through Congress | Post date: 11/06/2009 - 18:08

Please welcome guest blogger, and longtime activist for military families, Karen Francis.

A few years ago, two military spouses, Rebecca Poynter and Joanna Williamson - entrepreneurs and businesswomen - decided that they had just had ENOUGH of the tax differences, the standing in line to change their drivers licenses, voting in a strange place or not voting at all, not having their personal property with joint title because of tax issues, and the myriad of other consequences of having to change their state of residency every time they PCSed with their military spouses.

They went to Congressman John Carter (R-Tex) who represents a very large place in Texas - Fort Hood. He was very surprised to realize that the SCRA covered those in uniform, but not their spouses. This was the common reaction from all of the Senators and Congresspeople that were contacted by the large group of spouses who made call after call, emailed, snail mailed, door knocked and contacted the Military Aides of every legislator who would accept calls. During the first cycle, it didn't pass through all the committees in time. But this time, it worked. Now, in the Month of the Military Family, so proclaimed by the President - military spouses got a present.

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Weekly News Round-Up for October 27, 2009 | Post date: 10/27/2009 - 21:55

Weekly News Round-Up

All the Latest in Everything Blue Star Families

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

HEADLINES - Welcome to our newest Board Member Connie Milstein! iParticipate is out with a new Public Service Announcement featuring Matthew McConaughey thanking military families for their service. Check out all the Freebies and Discounts for military families below!

Remember, if you want BSF info and links to articles and events more than once a week, join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and check out our Blue Star Families Blog.

If you received our Weekly News Round-Up from a friend or co-worker, please join us today. Blue Star Families is an exciting new way for military family members from all ranks and services (and our supporters!) to Connect, Support, and Empower one another. Just go to the JOIN US page on our site BlueStarFam.org.

There's a lot of excitement about Blue Star Families and the best way to make sure you are in the middle of it all is to join your local chapter. Just shoot Vivian a note at members@bluestarfam.org, and she'll get you connected.

Enjoy! Heidi & the Blue Star Families Team

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School of Hard Knocks or Going to School: Which Pays Off the Most? | Post date: 10/20/2009 - 21:30

by Dep Kloeppel, President and CEO of MSCCN

Are college degrees worth it? Add up the cost of your education then total the income generated from your degree to determine if your college degree has paid off. How about a variety of work experiences and assorted training? Do they add to your earning power?

False Start Syndrome

Military spouses have to start and stop everything they do multiple

times, often in a short amount of time. If a military spouse developed a start-and-stop ledger that calculated lifelong career management costs, the ledger might look like this:

            Four moves in five years                                   $50,000.00

            Nine completely unrelated careers                   $100,000.00

            Eighteen years of education and no pension    $250,000.00

             ~ BEING A MILITARY SPOUSE ---- PRICELESS ~

What you may consider to be a false start in your quest to be better educated, may really be a fresh entry into your destined calling or purpose in life. Trying new areas of work or taking courses in untried areas exposes you to new areas that you never considered in a more direct path. Once focused on your main career path, you can still use those non-career experiences while adding specific expertise in your chosen field.

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Weekly News Round-Up for October 13, 2009 | Post date: 10/14/2009 - 05:00

Weekly News Round-Up Oct. 13

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Welcome to our new Advisory Board members Deborah Mullen and Babette Maxwell! Deborah Mullen is the wife of Adm. Michael Mullen who is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Babette Maxwell is one of the founders and the Executive Editor of Military Spouse magazine.

Remember, if you want BSF info and links to articles and events more than once a week, join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and check out our Blue Star Families Blog.

If you received our Weekly News Round-Up from a friend or co-worker, please join us today. Blue Star Families is an exciting new way for military family members from all ranks and services (and our supporters!) to Connect, Support, and Empower one another. Just go to the JOIN US page on our site BlueStarFam.org.

There's a lot of excitement about Blue Star Families and the best way to make sure you are in the middle of it all is to join your local chapter. Just shoot Vivian a note at members@bluestarfam.org, and she'll get you connected.

Enjoy! Heidi & the Blue Star Families Team

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Mentoring the Masses | Post date: 10/02/2009 - 18:01

Stepping into military life was completely new to me. It definitely took some getting used to. I had a college degree in one hand and my military man’s hand in the other. I was eager to start my professional career and my married-to-the-military life simultaneously--- but it was an era when many women made the choice not to work outside the home, putting their own potential career greatness on the back-burner in the name of supporting their Soldiers.

Instead of working for monetary pay every day, they spent countless hours attending military-related events, volunteering, and supporting fundraiser after fundraiser after fundraiser. How was I going to support my soldier and still work full-time? Thankfully, I had been given a heads-up about navigating military life from a military wife of my then boyfriend’s professor in ROTC. She shared with me the real deal about ‘the life’: the good, the bad, and the ugly---about what to expect and how to manage those expectations.

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