Putting On a New Uniform: Transitioning from the Military Into Civilian Work

I've just gotten back from vacation and I am working on getting some posts put together this week. But I thought I would put up a wonderfully written guest post to keep things moving right along while I am editing photos and writing in the background. 

Today we've got a post from Emma, who blogs at Smile as it Happens

Between relocating and finding a new job, transitioning from the military into civilian life can be stressful. You might feel overwhelmed no matter how long your military career lasted, but rest assured that you are not alone. Many veterans face these same feelings, but there is hope. A variety of organization and programs exist to help make this transition easier and smoother for you and your family. No matter what your dream civilian job might be, you can do what you love with a supportive network behind you. The important thing is to ignore the misconceptions abound regarding the job hunt, and that's where I come in. I'm going to outline some of the most common job myths and the reality behind them so that you can start your civilian life more confidently.

Myth #1: I won't be able to find a good job because the people who apply most get the most jobs.

Truth: You don't need to send out dozens of applications. You only need to send out strong resumes to the companies who speak directly to your strengths. Employers aren't looking for a huge volume of weak resumes; they're looking for a small pile of strong candidates. If you spend some time crafting a resume and cover letter that outline your skills, offer concrete examples of relevant work experience and reasons why you're the right fit, then you'll get more interviews that someone who simply applies to every position with a fluffy, inflated resume.

Myth #2: My spouse doesn't have any resources like I do when it comes to finding a job.

Truth: The government has recognized the need to provide work opportunities for the spouses of both active duty military personnel and veterans. Because of the instability that comes with a military life including constantly moving due to new assignments, Joining Forces was created to help spouses find steady work. This organization and others like it work to expand job opportunities nationwide for military spouses as well as create a better relationship between employers to ensure continual support.

Myth #3: Requesting a reference from someone irritates them and takes too much of their time.

Truth: Asking for help is never a burden, and most people consider it a compliment to be listed as a reference. If you've got a great military career behind you with lots of support, then there are many who would be honored to give you a strong referral. Top companies are now using platforms like JIBE, a mobile recruiting company to streamline the process. This application lets you upload job documents like resumes and referrals right to a company's social media platform so you save time and energy.

Myth #4: Companies won't want to hire me because of my military-related disability.

Truth: Even civilians are federally protected from job discrimination due to disability. Employers cannot make a hiring decision based solely on disability, and as a veteran, you're actually in an even more protected class. In fact, some companies receive incentives for hiring veterans with disabilities or those who served during certain time periods. The U.S. Department of Veterans offers job training services as well as counseling support and rehabilitation information to veterans looking for civilian work.

Emma is a mid 20-something year old with a passion for life, love, fitness, and helping others. She loves to be active and get involved in as many sport and community activities as possible. Emma is currently studying to become a Career & Life Coach, and loves to network with people from around the world! Check out Emma’s blog at http://smileasithappens.blogspot.com/! 

And I'm Unemployed.

For the first time in almost 2 years I am unemployed, with no job on the horizon. This is a choice I made because I want to be a stay at home mom. It happened a little sooner than I had planned because I was having a real hard time at work, physically and emotionally. Retail is hard, but it's even harder when you are 7 months pregnant. I was always on my feet, so I was hobbling around like I was broken.  I already sort of have a short temper, but a few times in the last few weeks I've gotten visibly mad, or cranky with customers. And some days I found myself angry at more than just the customers. Oh and on days I work I find myself gorging on candy, because that's the only kind of consumable they sell in a movie/video game store. I've eaten more starburst in the last 3 months than I probably have in my life.
Well my last day was Saturday, and at the end of my shift I was able to sneak out with no one really noticing. That's how I hoped it would happen I didn't want any hoopla, or extra attention. I just wanted to go quietly into the wind.
Now that my last day has come and gone I can focus on myself and baby E, finding a house, and getting this house ready to be moved out of, so cleaning and packing, and more cleaning.
It doesn't feel like I don't have a job anymore, I don't feel unemployed. I am not sure what I expected, but I don't feel like I wont to go to work at Hastings ever again.
I only worked for a short time while we lived in Japan, so not working isn't a huge change for me, but I had a social life. Soon enough I'll have a full time job of Baby Mama. I just hope that I don't go crazy like I did the first winter here when I was not working yet, I would go to Target just to be around people. I would go to the grocery and talk to anyone who would talk to me. I was desperate for adult human interaction.
I am sure I will be fine, especially if Pauls hours are better. Also it's likely that we will be living in town, so I won't really have as much of that feeling of seclusion that I do sometimes in this house.

- Alana

Lets blog about not blogging!

I've been MIA still, despite my best efforts I've really not been online at all much the last few weeks. I have over 350 (it was 400 this am) blogs to catch up on in Google Reader. I have barely been on facebook except to stalk a few people. And I clearly haven't been blogging.

What do I have to show for it?

A clean house?
no
Laundry all put away?
no
Is the laundry even done?
no
How about the bathroom? That's been on your to-do list of cleaning for two weeks now.
nope.
Dishes, you've at least done dishes right?
only when I ran out of knives to cream cheese my bagel.

But I should have a decent paycheck headed my way because I worked a few extra days this week. And sadly I physically paid for that. I had some uncomfortable contractions off and on this week, plus some really sexy feet/cankle swelling. I have a friend who has never really in her life been on the internet, and she has barely used a computer beyond simple work stuff. So Paul and I visited her to set up her internet and get her iPad online so she can join in on all the social networking and stalk ex's like the rest of us.

Today I was super productive though, I got up and got my newspaper, which to my dismay had no coupons. But the Target ad was nice, and I may go buy a crib this week. I also worked on a project that Paul and I have been working on during our spare time for over a month now. We should finish this week and I'll post lots of pictures then but for now here's a sneak peek.

I also did the dishes (even the hand wash!) and made myself dinner. I need to get back off the computer though and finish some chores, I'm off work for the next week but I have an epic list of things that need to get done ASAP if I want to buy a crib and work on Baby E's room later this week.


Oh and I've been working on Time-Lapse photography.


I have a sunset that's a little better but I haven't put it all together yet.

- Alana

Money Matters

After the baby comes I will not go back to work in a regular setting. I may try to craft and sell my crafts, or baby sit, but we'll see. It's not like I make a shit load now, but I make enough to cover our cellphones and DirecTV. 
Last night I sat down and put together a budget. Using an Excel spreadsheet I put in Paul's Pay and subtracted our bills, some bills that fluctuate, I was a little more generous on, like electric, pretty low in the summer, but it sometimes more than doubles in the winter. 
We also have two pretty credit cards. I have a goal of having one credit card almost paid off by the time baby gets here. Then I would like to  use that credit card as our 'gas card' and pay it off every month. Our other card will take it bit longer to pay off, but I'd like to have it down to a near zero balance by PCS next year. 
I think that putting together a plan is the first step to settling financial woes. 
Paul and I both have a spending problem. We also have an eating out problem. I think the eating out will handle itself once Baby is here and we can't take a crying baby out to dinner once or twice a week. 
Especially with a baby on the not so distant horizon this is something that we need to figure out, and set our plan in stone. 

On a much more fun note: 

Go check out: 

Ramblings of a Marine Wife

True Love Conquers All

Bleu Dress Blues

They are hosing a super-awesome "All Things Japanese" giveaway! 

-Alana 


And while you're clicking on things vote for me-

 

Rough Week

I am sure part of it is hormones, but this last week has been very physically and mentally trying for me.
I've been very stressed and had a very short fuse. I've also been in quite a bit of pain from my sciatic nerve, I feel like someone is stabbing my right butt cheek with a fork.
Work has been beyond stressful, although this has been an ongoing issue, things sort of came to a head this week. I've also been having a real hard time, between exhaustion, ass pain, and frustration with some people, I just want to quit. But I wont, I need to work as long as I can because after December I wont be able to anymore. And things should start getting better as the summer progresses, things are changing, and with change hopefully comes good things.
We've also been stressed as a family lately because we have been waiting on word about Paul's reenlistment. In todays economy, getting out of the Marine Corps really isn't the best idea for our growing family. But he hadn't heard anything and it's been nearly a month. Well today he got word, and tomorrow should be the start of another 4 years. Now if we can just get out of Montana.

That's my little update for today.

ETA:
sometimes you read something that just puts everything into perspective.

Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

My Job

I don't talk a whole bunch specifically about my job, mostly because I don't want anything I say to bite me in the ass later. 
I work (primarily) in the video department of a store that sells entertainment. Movies, books, music, video games and some miscellaneous shit. I say primarily because I often work the other departments too, but I am mostly the video girl. I like my job, I like what I do, and the people I work for. I even like some of the people I work with. 
I often get asked for suggestions. "What's a good comedy?" or "Any good action flicks out?" I feel bad because, yeah I work in the video dept. but I am not by any means a connoisseur of movies. I am not a movie buff. I watch movies because they are cheep, and I get a decent employee discount.
 It's not that I don't enjoy movies, because I do. But I can't think of the last movie I watched that I didn't like. Oh wait yes I can. Ninjas Vs. Zombies.   Terribly shitty B movie. But anyway. I watch movies and I like them, but I don't love them. I just watched Bridesmaids 2 nights ago, and I liked it, but it wasn't amazing. They show most of the good parts in the previews. 
I work with a guy who is really passionate about movies. He was telling me about how Transformers sucks and nothing like what it's supposed to be. I just don't get it. I enjoyed the movies. I thought they were awesome. Well the girl in the most recent one has terrible lips, but that didn't ruin the movie, well not really. 
Sometimes I wish I cared that much, I wish I could retain the information to really get excited about movies. The only time a movie pisses me off is when it's a shitty adaptation of a book, and usually they are pretty good, Even the Harry Potter ones do a decent job. 
So yeah, I this post didn't go much of anywhere. I just felt like typing tonight. 

here's a picture of my dogs. 

Bee Positive

Source: ffffound.com via alison. on Pinterest

Everyone loves positive feedback. It makes employees work harder and people feel better about themselves when they are told they are doing a good job. The last few days I have been getting loads of positive feedback from my immediate supervisor and it feels great. It's great to be told that you are doing a fantastic job at what you are doing, even if what I do is really so mindless a child could do it (just not as good as me). 
I work in retail, and I typically stock movies on shelves. yeah not so hard. But apparently I excel at knowing my alphabet and doing things in a speedy manner. 
It's also great when customers thank me, or compliment me. Another thing I think that makes a person feel good about themselves is compliments from strangers (as long as you aren't a creeper).
I think i've always been a kind person, and I've always tried to compliment strangers. "I love your shoes" or "your hair is super cute!" I hope that when I give out simple compliments that they make a person feel as special as I do when I receive them. 


So this week be nice to a stranger, especially someone in customer service, or retail. Chances are you'll make their day, or at least make them smile. And this world can never have enough smiles. 

Long Wednesday

Today has been a very long day. I was up at 0530 for work, worked until after 1pm, when I was supposed to be done at 11. I found out that something happened at work Monday that I was sort of responsible for, it wasn't a huge deal but it wasn't my fault and It made me all anxious, then I once I realized I wasn't in trouble (mostly because it wasn't entirely my fault) I was mad at the person who didn't do what I asked them to do, resulting in this whole situation. Now I am mostly over it.

I ran tons of errands today and planted a few more plants. Hung my upside down tomoato grower and my humming bird feeder. Now I need to make dinner and sleep it off. I have another really early day tomorrow. Hopefully with much less anxiety and pissedoff-ness.

Here is a pretty little strawberry that I have growing on the back-patio.

Three Posts in one day!

I'm really proud of my accomplishments today, And I feel the need to talk about it.

The first half of my day was wasted waiting for the United movers to come and pick up the empty boxes from the last delivery, finally they showed up and I was able to start my day... at 2pm. I pulled myself together, put on a cute outfit and took off with a 10 resume's and 2 applications to drop off.

So Pretty:

My stops:

• Petco
• Fish & Wildlife
• Century 21
• Northwestern Propane
• some Civil Engineering building
• Chicago Title
• Blue Cross & Blue Shield
• Helena IR (the local newspaper)
• Hastings (movie, book and cd store)
• Office Depot

I just drove down the road and stopped at places that looked like a business that would have more than one admin person, or places that I was familiar with (i.e. realestate)

Tomorrow there are a few more places I want to track down and put my name out there. I also have apps for Sally Beauty and Joanne Fabric I need to turn in, neither of which are hiring but I want to put them out anyway.

It was actually a lot of fun, I enjoyed walking around and just talking to people. I am looking forward to doing it again tomorrow, I think I will double my goal and leave with 20 resumes, maybe.

Hastings was the only place that really talked to me about hours and such, they are looking for someone that will work weekends, and the cool thing about that is it would free up my week to try to get a volunteer job with the parks service or somewhere else.

I found a really cool volunteer opportunity to feed orphaned baby bears, which would be awesome. But I think it's a Yellowstone, which is many many hours away and I can't drive 3 hrs a day to feed bears for 5 hours and drive home.

But most Park Service entry level jobs are volunteer, the people who sit at the ranger stations, and enterances to parks and give you info and tell your kids how to not start forrest fires? most of them are just volunteers. You gotta start at the bottom, for free. But I think I can use those volunteer hours as college credits towards my EM degree.

My Job & My School

So I failed to mention, I have a job. I work for SMI and started in March.  It's a company that has other companies pay them to take care of their stuff in stores (AAFES), things like Loreal, 3M, Twin Lab, Scotts, Ortho, Bicycle (the playing cards), T-Fal, Caphalon, Sony, all kinds of stuff. Each line (company) tells SMI "well this store has X amount of our product so we will pay you (SMI) X amount of dollars and we want someone to work X amount of hours in this store on our product, making sure that its on the sales floor, making sure the display is nice, prices correctly, clean, and so on". Then SMI tells me "Alana we are assigning you Citizen (watches), Precious Moments, Sony and a few other small ones and we pay you so much an hour and you get X amount of hours for each line, make sure it looks nice" 

it's perfect because for the most part I set my own hours, I only work part time (16 hours a week) and the people I work for are pretty cool.  The only days I HAVE to work are Tuesday's because I do Sony's new releases, where if Sony has a new release I go to all the stores in the area and make sure the product is out and you can see it, and I take pictures and send them to Head Quarters so they know that things are being done right by the store employees. I also do Cooking demos for Caphalon, which is fun as hell because i get paid to stand and cook and tell people how great the pans are. (which they are, if your looking for pans to last you a life time, with a lifetime guarantee get yourself some!)

So thats about it for Job, school is much less exciting. I'm Attending University of Maryland University College~Asia, which actually has several campuses on several military bases all through  Europe and the Pacific.  I settled on a major, I'm working towards my Bachelors History & Environmental Management (yeah I'm cool, I'm double majoring) with a minor in English. I havnt started any of the EM classes yet, I will have to take them on line because they arn't offered here, neither are any of the upper level History classes. If we stay here long enough (and i can pull at least 2 classes a term) I should be done with it in about 5 years and i can knock a few years off if for some reason i choose to drop a major.

if you made it through this you will be excited because my next post i promise will contain much fewer words and many more pictures. 

Just an update

my weight went back up today a smidge but i had chili's for lunch yesterday and some beers after dinner, i was at 158.6 and today 159.8 but i'm not too worried, Monday is my 'official' weigh in day and Paul and i just did a 5 mile jog to the beach and back in 80 min so i'm thinkin i killed quite a few calories, i should be okay tomorrow.

we move in one week, we had the mover guy come yesterday and give us an appraisal on moving cost, it's more than i had planned. this is getting expensive, first we decide to move, thats about 5,000 dollars out of pocket just for deposits and renter fee's. then we get a bill for our insurance which was due this week, that was $800 dollars, then we realized we'd have to pay someone to move our shit, thats $750, then Paul's water pump went out on his car, that another $800 dollars, and now we notice my car needs at least 2 new tires, desperately.  at least another $200 dollars. i think it's about time i get a job, or there will be no school for me next term. i'm gonna wait until after we move and then after i get my term paper done for my current classes then i'll find a job. the CDC (child development center) on both the bases close to us are hiring so i'd imagine i'm a shoe-in (i know i'm so conceited when it comes to my job experience and stuff) but i've never been fired and i've gotten EVERY job i've ever applied for(i'm also really picky about applying). people just like me. 

i'm nervous about moving, the dog is going to a friends house but i dont know what to do with the cat, i might see if said friend can lock him in her spare room for the day, because i have school that morning so i can supervise the animals.  i'm also terrified that once we get into the new house that the cat will get out and excape into the jungle (which is right next to our house) and become a jungle cat, or a tiger(<-- thats me making light of my fear, trying to deal with it).  but i'm seriously afraid  he'll run away, or the dog will get out. and we'll never see them again. 

i miss you blog

i know i need to post more, alot has been going on but nothing too terribly interesting.

i have been baby sitting alot, making pretty good money, well pretty good spending cash, nothing to live on or anything. i adore the kids i sit for, they are the most adorable little turds ever. if/when i have kids i hope they are like these two. they are very smart, polite nice kids, the girl is about 4 the boy is about 2 years, both are so sweet and love me. i love when they smile when they see me, it makes me love what i do. its not a 'real' job per-say but its something that i love, and i enjoy and it doesnt take much effort to play with kids all morning, change the occasional diaper and help the food make it down the mouth and not on the floor. 

besides that we got a doggie, Aiko, lots of picutures of her to come, and i have been trying to knit but i am slow and get bored easily so i cant keep one thing going for too long. 

but Paul wants me to play rock band so i must go now!

Tomorrow, tomorrow

tomorrow mommy and daddy will be here, oh and its my last day of work.....

4 days to go

then no more work and mommy is here!!!

boring

well vacation is over, back to reality, back to work, but home to kitty. that i have decided is the only good thing about comming home from vacation is being back home with Taco. i hate work, i hate this state. soon it will all be done, and we can move on. yayness. okay well i am already bored. going to go knit.
oh and work sucks because they blocked blogger so i cant blog at work any more. fuckers.

work sucks

okay the whole reason i got this stupid thing was to blog at work on my boring dull never ending sundays, and guess what, for some unknown reason i cannot access the sign in page at work, but its weird its not like it gives me that "this page has been blocked' message that i get with myspace and porn, (not that i look at porn but you know when you find accidental porn) well i get the 'internet explorer cannot load this page so you are shit outa luck' message. it sucks. so i guess i will have to limit my blogging to when i am at home, so unfortunately for my audience that means that you will not hear as much from me. okay i have to go finish dinner, i will make a real post afterwards, if i feel like coming back to the hot sticky basement.

i think today was that day

today was a good day i think, it started last night. i got hubbs to come to bed early and cuddle and i fell asleep in his arms, it was so nice, this morning i woke up refreshed and happy, went to work, got some reports done, got the sales floor picked up, got some items priced. all in all it was a good day, i think part of this is due to my decision that i am going to put in my notice this week, and work until August and then call it quits, with us leaving in December, i want to see my family and i want to be able to see his family, and quite frankly i want to quit hating what i do every day. i want to quit hating my life. dont get me wrong i dont hate my whole life, just the work part of it, and no i am not a lazy ass, i just hate this particular job, its draining, causes way too much stress, and its causing a strain on my marriage, becuase i am always depressed. so now i will knit. yay! and clean house! and thats about it. become a master chef and a master knitter. things will be great!

one good day a month

each month i have about one day that goes well at work, one day when i go home and don't want to cry. today was not that day. maybe tomorrow

Working Sundays

I work every sunday and i dont really like it, i used to work saturdays and i envied the sunday manager, then i got promoted to sundays, and i must say though having Friday/Saturday off is nice, working sundays blows, all the good things happen saturday night. and since my realization (thanks to my husband) that i am boring and dont like to have as much fun as i used to, i have started to do more with my spare time, last weekend we went bowling and then to the rumbleseat with Megan. this weekend we went to the rumbleseat again and we went to Enfield, CT for dinner. i wanted to go bowling but poop head husband didnt want to go, plus we were going to go with Tiffany and Mike but Mike had duty & Tiff hurt her back. Yesterday was a wonderful day though, i loved it. Webbs had an Anniversary sale and i got so much freaking yarn it isnt funny. I think i got about 40 skeins for about $1.75 each (i can do math!!) it was great. then i napped for a few hours and played bubble bobble until 10ish.

I started a new book last night i only got through the first chapter but so far its about a woman who moved to japan for school and her mentor has passed away, she left her a trunk full of wine one bottle for the last 30+ years. and there is writing on all of the bottles in calligraphy so she needs to get a translator. so far its good.