RSSApril 11, 2005
By Karen Jowers
Times staff writer
Military spouses are getting more free, direct cyberspace links to jobs.
Through a contract with Military.com and Monster.com, the Defense Department is providing a Web site, www.military.com/spouse, where military spouses can go to find a job and apply online.
Two other efforts are underway by a private company and a nonprofit organization to offer direct links.
As defense officials have created better products and services for spouses, they have struggled to get them to the spouses, officials said.
“The site is helping spouses by integrating the largest online employment resource with the No. 1 site for service members and their families,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
The site will serve as a central location for links to a variety of spouse employment-related services offered by the Defense Department.
Military.com also will produce a spouse employment newsletter; more than 200,000 spouses have signed up to receive it.
The site”s services are free for military spouses. Monster.com charges its clients to post job openings, but the company is exploring a way to eliminate that charge for companies specifically recruiting military spouses.
Two other initiatives are on tap:
- A nonprofit program that is the brainchild of military spouses, The Military Spouse Corporate Career Network, expects to launch its Web site within a month. Spouses will be able to upload r?m?or build them online, and the site offers spouses the ability to see the r?m?s it will look to a hiring manager. They also can search for job openings with employers that want to hire military spouses.
“We want to wipe out job placement and posting fees for military spouses,” said Deborah Kloeppel, vice president of the network. Kloeppel, the wife of a retired Navy officer, founded the network with other military spouses. She said the idea was born when she was turned down for seven promotions and began working with Navy spouse employment specialist Yonna Diggs.
“Military spouses are tired of being disconnected from our career paths,” said Kloeppel, now a vice president at Concentra Inc., an occupational health care provider.
Spouses will be able to keep their “talent record,” their employment and training history and information, in the network and can continually update it for as long as they choose, even after getting a job. They can reactivate it when they move or start searching for another job.
The network also will track applicants” progress in getting jobs. The network will complement what the services” family member employment experts already do for spouses. The Navy and Coast Guard have signed agreements with the network; the other services are in discussions.
Employers will pay a one-year subscription fee to post jobs and to have access to resumes.
- Vetjobs.com, which has had a spouse portal for five of its six years of existence, is preparing to launch a new format soon.
“We know spouses have gotten jobs through Vetjobs.com,” said Ted Daywalt, president of the company, which is sponsored by Veterans of Foreign Wars.
New to the gateway will be a message-board forum. “This will create a place for them to go to network, share job leads and answers to questions,” Daywalt said.