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Mission: Family: Network links spouses with employers, other spouses

Thanks to the fledgling National Military Spouse Network, Coast Guard wife Kausha Donovan made connections that landed her an interview for a full-time job in Washington, D.C.

The night after the interview, she was working the room at another networking session in Arlington, Va., the second NMSN has had since its launch in May.

“Even if I don’t get this job, there may be other opportunities through this event,” said Donovan, 30, who has been looking for a full-time data-entry position for nearly two years.

“My experience is that you can’t really get a job without knowing someone,” Donovan said.

She signed up for the spouse network in mid-July. A few weeks later, NMSN founder and president Sue Hoppin called her about a job opportunity that another spouse had mentioned. That led to the interview.

Hoppin, an Air Force wife, says she hopes her network will help spouses further their careers by making connections with potential employers — and one another, since employed spouses may know of job openings in their own companies or organizations.

A common theme was the age-old problem military spouses have in trying to build careers while being uprooted every few years for a move to a new duty station. “By the time you build a network, it’s time to move again,” Hoppin said.

NMSN membership costs $97 a year. Hoppin hopes to expand from the D.C. area to the Norfolk, Va., area by the end of October; to San Antonio by early next year; and to a West Coast location after that.

Bart Epstein, Tutor.com’s senior vice president for corporate development, told the group that the free service offers not just much-needed tutoring and homework guidance for students of all ages in active-duty families, but also career-search assistance for military spouses.

“Military spouses need career help that’s as flexible as their lives,” he said. “You’d be amazed at how many people log on at 1 a.m.”

Tutor.com hires military spouses as tutors, Epstein noted.

Two Army spouses were working the room in a different capacity. Jacqueline Thomas and Andrea Hall work for CSC, a global corporation with 95,000 employees serving clients in 90 countries — and about 3,000 job openings in a variety of fields.

The room buzzed as spouses talked to one another about job-searching strategies, and to employers about job possibilities.

The buzz will continue beyond that room.

“It’s not rocket science,” Hoppin said. “It’s about getting spouses in a room with people who want to hire spouses.”

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Questions? Comments? E-mail staff writer Karen Jowers at kjowers@militarytimes.com.