Destination Services
Job-hunting Strategies for Trailing Spouses
By Blanche Evans

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 five stress producers. To be faced with two 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 three out of four transferees has 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.

And job hunting in a new market doesn't have to be frustrating. There are a number of tips that transferred spouses can follow 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 present company competitors as well. They could have a branch or looking to open 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.
• When you arrive in your new city, don't let the grass grow under your feet. Volunteer with organizations that need the kind of professional expertise you have and 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, your child's school and 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 re-evaluate your priorities. Do you want to return to the same kind of job that you had? Talk to a career counselor, if you are in doubt. The evaluation fee is well worth it if it can lead you in a new direction that you will find more rewarding.

Reproduced with permission from the June 19, 1998, issue of Realty Times. Copyright (c) 2000 Realty Times. All rights reserved.

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