What jobs suit Army Officers wives????

[Wifey1]

A simple question here:

What jobs can Army Officers wives successfully hold down despite all the joyous compromises which come from marrying an officer???

I keep hearing that teaching is a popular choice, any advances on this

Wifey1 i admire your planning and organisation, however, don't assume that what you embark on now will be what you are doing in 20 yrs time!!
I met my DH whilst at uni. I knew right from the beginning that he was joining the army, we got married 8mnths after he passed out of Sandhurst and within 3 mnths I was living in Germany, laid up with chicken pox and facing his 1st deployment. Now 15 yrs, 11 houses and 2 children later I can take on the world.

As I said previously my current employment is nothing to do with my degree and other formal qualifications but I have always worked and moved my career with me. Working from home requires discipline and I know it might not be for everyone (somedays it's hard to motivate yourself). I often get asked why I'm at home all day and not doing the 'expected' social things. I support my DH when required for his job and it works for us.

Be flexible and be yourself, there is no right or wrong way to be a forces wife. As long as you are happy and content with what you are doing you will manage to fit in work/children/social responsibilities. Good luck!

Toomanymoves Bingo!!!!

I didn't want to let the cat out of the bag as I'm sure some of you might switch off now but Other Half and I still have a year to go for our degrees and will both be 23 when we graduate and he heads off to Sandhurst. I will be establishing my career/skills set when he starts his commission.

I was vague to start as too many people keep telling me I'm too young to concern myself with plans for the future so I have stopped discussing my worries with them. However, I was also "too young" apparently when I went off to sea for two years on my own to provide for my education and future (as the folks couldn't).

vintage the whole independent money focus is a hang-up I have from watching my mother struggle financially all of her life.

So, I realise I will change jobs later on in life but now I have a long summer ahead, the world at my feet and I'm really enjoying finding out from you ladies which skills and jobs you feel are transferable/suitable to mobile lifestyles.

I can take all of this advice and now make an informed choice on the internships I pursue, and work experience I gain.

Thank you.

He has to get through Sandhurst first......

Why don't you do the 2/3 year skippers course and skipper yachts for a living? My godddaughters elder brother did this after a TA tour in Iraq, and turned down Sandhurst to do so, as he didn't enjoy his experiences being shot at, and decided, having wanted to be in HM Forces all his life (military family), that the reality of it wasn't for him.

He now earns a shedload, is all over the planet, and earns more than his Dad did.

I was going to say about the yacht thing too scary but you beat me to it - something she loves and very mobile.

You're not too young - it's very pragmatic to consider mobility - but don't pin everything on it IYSWIM. There is no career which is 100% reliable, the best you can do is what feels right for you. As you have a year left of your degree start talking to PGCE providers if you want to teach and seeing what subject you could go for and what options you might need to take in your final year (most secondary PGCEs have a minimum course content requirement you may need to fulfill).

As you have no constraints like taking time off to retrain etc and you know roughly how long you will have to fit that into try making a few 3,5,10 year plans of what you would like to do and seeing how that would fit into what your future DH might be doing in the next 3,5,10 years.

Second doing the PGCE now rather than once you have kids - if you are thinking of teaching in any shape or form, get it straight after uni while you don't have ties.

Another point re the sailing is that based on your own current level or future level of RYA qualifications you will also be in a position to offer shore based courses (e.g practical/theory)

These are based in a classroom - any 'room' will do and command between £300 - £500 per student for 5 days. Approximately 8 students would be doable. This is a lucrative form of extra income.

Thinking even further ahead you could get your future dh on board - he would be able to obtain all the necessary qualifications through the Army. Then when re retires you and he can set up a sailing school together.

Blimey hf - wish you could have mapped out my entire career that easily . The OP is onto a winner!

With the PGCE, remember that you have to do the NQT year as well, as otherwise you can't teach.

I am a sailing widow - as well as an Army Wife!!

I was sailing this weekend!!!!! Have comp crew at the mo and get to sail with OTC. Also have lots of buddies who skipper yachts for a living - it can be very good money!

You ladies are fantastic! Thank you so much for helping me out.

I just had my housemate try to pursuade me to do the TACC course in the summer and become a TA 2 Lt. like other half, arg!!!! (Maybe not a bad idea though as if I went ETS in the AGC I could get my PGCE course subsidised/paid for and pop out of the army into Civvy world and teach??)

Re: sailing, already seriously considering hitting the sail yachts when I graduate to do something fun and keep busy whilst he is at Sandbags. I could get more quals through my OTC over the summer and I do love being on the water.

I'm currently editor of an OTC publication also and other half's dad is a retired diplomat so all of your suggestions are tying in with my interests and contacts:

Teaching, Civil Service, Journalism, Events Planning, PA, Yachting!!!

I guess now I'm more comfortable with the options open to me, the sod will turn around and say "screw my bursary I want to be an accountant". Now that would be amusing.....

On to the third of the day.

Was a sailing widow for a long time, dh went from knowing nothing about sailing (was under rather than on the water) to Offshore Yachtmaster in 18 months. Was not happy, especially when he buggered off to do the South China Seas race from HK to the Philippines on an Army boat.

Now a gliding widow....

Scary - I know the feeling! Ah well it will have a purpose in the end.

Yes, to get the bugger out from under my feet when he retires - he can go gliding and I can read all day!

Sounds like you have some fab options there! I would say it's all academic until the day he actually passes out Sandhurst tbh. The only thing I can advise you to do, is your own thing. Get your training/qualifications under your belt, you'll be living apart during training anyway so don't sweat it. Married life with kids is very different to married life without! Flexibility is the key. I've worked in HR or training for 15 years and just stopped to be a SAHM looking after DS 5 and DD 3. DH is away all the blooming time, and studying at Shrivenham in-between as well as the usual jollies training exercises/team building malarkey. So currently it works for us. But before DC would have driven me nuts! Not sure how long I'll be out of the workplace, but I take each tour as it comes and adjust accordingly!

Sensible advice from Kleftico - Sandhurst is not a given, there is a dropout/kickout rate from every course both from "eek, this is not for me" to injuries and "you're not suited to the life" etc. I went to RMAS in 1985/6, we "lost" about 10% of our intake for all reasons mentioned above.

You can do anything you choose to. All you need is a DH who understands strategic positioning for the benefit of the team (family). DH applied to retour in order for us to extend our posting, went on the right courses to best position him to stay and offered to do extra duties related to his job. This enabled me to study Specialist Community Public Health Nursing (having previously been a nurse) and I am now a health visitor. We requested to stay as no other posting would have a university close enough to study my chosen course. You just have to plan ahead

Subject to the exigencies of the Service of course CaptCroc.

we managed to extend for a year in one post (dd2 has cerebral palsy and was being statemented to start school), but it was noted that it would be a career foul for dh as he would miss another command board (having decided to opt out of his first look to do a specific job).

you can stay in one place, but it isn't always great for the service person's career, even if it helps the spouse. it's swings and roundabouts.

that said, there are a good few bed blockers who've got themselves nicely esconced in the south east with no intention of moving. which is why the rest of us are trolling around the bugaboos. not that i mind, particularly. dd1 is quite enjoying her 5th school in yr 6. but given that we're moving again in the summer, she'll have to learn to enjoy her 6th school in yr 7. and i have to train another lot of therapists for dd2.

there's always boarding school, i suppose, but if i wanted to split my family up, i'd probably have stayed where i was and had a career. and none of them would take dd2 anyway.

Whilst you are considering all these issues of being married into the army you had better consider what will suit being a mother too. As army wives are very good at breeding.

That's why a lot of jobs that have been suggested are suitable for flexibility in themselves.

As of next year when dd goes to school (no CEA for us as will be living in our own house) I will be able to go onto a term time only contract.

My dh has always gone for the career jobs and that will obviously come into the equation for you. Its a great big balancing act and sometimes you will be the one who has to give.

But as others have said he has to get through Sandhurst first.

As hf says, the army for your dh isn't just a job - it's a career.
I chatted to my dh before we moved in together and said that as we'd both decided we wanted to marry and have children whilst we were young, I would put any longer career on hold until later.

Now, his career is very nicely mapped out for the next couple of yearas and after that who knows - but one thing is for sure, it'll be my turn to do the career thing now the kids are older and he'll have done what he wants to do.

Agree about the career thing. I know some people managed to be a dual career couple but it was a compromise that I agreed to make when we got married - his career will come first, I will do what I can wherever we are but at the end of the day he gets a career, I get jobs (and we get to have DCs to keep me busy )

Then again I did vow to obey as well....

whoah - you agreed to obey snap??? I chose the version without obey

What I find funny is how things have changed over the years. I met dh 2O years ago. The CO's wife flower arranged and held dinner parties.

The next CO's wife worked as a care assistant in a nursing home.

Thereafter there was the wife who was also a serving officer.

Next was a GP.

And so on.

Is this a sign of the times? Progression and equality? Or an indicator that life is getting god damn expensive?!