The Relocated Spouse

I received this question from one of our readers in regards to the relocated spouse. What if your husband or wife got relocated to a new City and State? What happens to you? We all keep hearing over and over to network but if you move to a new area what then? How do you go about finding a new job for yourself, especially if there are other key factors in play like your age? That’s right I said it. If you don’t think that age discrimination isn’t happening then you must live on Mars. In this situation you can’t just rely on posting your resume and sending it out. You need to show off your personality to people, so meeting face to face is going to be key in landing a new job.

The first thing I would try is to meet with some recruiters. In these times they may not take the time but they will discuss options with you. The pool of job candidates currently is a small one. Companies are hiring only job candidates that have A-Z in qualifications.

The first question I would ask someone in this situation is “Is there anything that they can do on your own?” Working for yourself is a wonderful thing. It offers flexibility, more money in certain situations, and the best thing is no more office politics. Working for yourself eliminates the age factor.

I know there are a lot of people out there who are convinced that they can never work for themselves but that is usually due to lack of confidence. Just because you haven’t done something before doesn’t mean that you can’t do it. People that fall into this category always tell me that they can’t sell anything to anyone. We’ve all come across the guy or gal that says I just could never sell. Right! You sold me that you can’t sell! So I guess you can.

Another option is tutoring. Go to local schools and see if they need tutors. Put signs in supermarkets and start networking. You may have the ability to recall that algebra and help out with today’s young students. Here where I live tutors are charging around $45 per hour per student, that’s not a bad little gig.

Now back to networking. What can you do when you move to a new location? I myself have recently moved to a different part of the country and in the beginning found it difficult meeting people. We do have kids in school so that was the first place we started. We do live in Raleigh, NC so that is a plus since most of the people here are extremely friendly. It’s not like we moved to New York:) The next thing we did to escape the boredom was to join a Country Club which had golf, tennis and swimming all in one. Now I know not everyone can join due to the expense but there are plenty of very affordable tennis clubs or perhaps workout clubs. Tennis was absolutely the best way we have found to meet new people. We never played prior to joining but with some focus we are now pretty good for the most part and there are so many levels of players you will have no problem finding people to play with. Instead of meeting just 3 people at a time like in golf, you tend to meet everyone who was out that night. There are other places to meet people like the local business chamber or from the church you attend.

When relocating as a spouse the key point that I would suggest is to think outside of the box. In this economy my personal choice would be to find something that you can do on your own if you can. Since I am assuming the main source of income is coming from the spouse who was relocated. Just don’t put limits on what you think and can and cannot do.