Job Searching As The Follower

I have been VERY honest on this blog about career struggles and I have mentioned before that when I got married I thought my career would be the one that would accelerate faster than my husbands. WOAH was I WRONG! Not only did Kyle get promoted at UGA before me, but this move to UVa was like two steps forward for him and one step back for me.
As I mentioned in my last post, I had a little struggle with our relocation and searching for a job. What does it mean to be a "trailing" spouse, and how can I turn that to a positive?! What about my five years of professional experience and my masters degree?? I want to use them!

There were a couple of considerations for me in this search. First, I wanted to be in higher education, particularly student affairs/ student services. While Residence Life was my first love, I knew I had transferable skills that would allow me to apply to different function areas in higher ed and still be a great candidate. Second, I wanted to work at UVa. I didn't want to commute to and from work. I wanted to convenience of working at the same place as my husband. As a married couple, working together is all we know, and it works so well for us. So with all that in mind I set off on the search and I learned some good lessons:
1. Reflect- I took awhile to sit down and reflect on my experiences and how to best represent them on my resume. I shared my resume with several colleagues and got advice. I made different versions of my resume that focused on skills that would fit different areas; Human Resources, Student Advising, Housing, etc.
2. Activate your network- As soon as Kyle signed his contract I posted our good news on Facebook. The first person to comment was my NHTI faculty member who told me that she knew someone and would pass along my resume. Several of my colleagues at UGA asked for my resume so they could pass it along to people they knew that might be able to help me. Just knowing I had people to rely on and help me made me feel comfortable. When I was offered a phone interview for my current position I emailed an acquaintance from undergrad that works in the same career field and asked for advice. even though I hadn't seen or spoken to this person in almost seven years, she was happy to give me advice and encouragement.
3. Be flexible and open to new opportunities- Saying you are open to new things, and actually being open are two different things. I struggled a little bit with this at first. I had always seen myself working in a college residential setting. The average person changes their career something like eight times. I needed to be ok letting go of the comfort that went with my planned career path and EMBRACE the opportunities in front of me.
4. No past experience is too small- When I was interviewing I pulled examples from across all facets of my life; from career to volunteering, no experience was too small. If it related to the job, I used it!

I have been in my current job for over a month so far, and I am really happy. I think that everything worked out the way it was supposed to. You have to have a little faith in the process, but also position yourself to be able to make some decisions about what will make you happy in your career.