Bridge My Return matches military spouses with employers who understand our skill sets & our realities

I became a military spouse relatively late in my family life and career. At age 32, in the years after 9/11, my husband, Todd, joined the National Guard. In 2004, he deployed to Iraq, returning a year later relatively unscathed. In 2009, he redeployed to Afghanistan. Wounded in that conflict, he came back a different person.

It was on the day of our 15-year wedding anniversary when I got the initial call from the Red Cross: Todd was wounded in battle, had a broken leg and was being intubated.

I know patients aren’t intubated for minor leg injuries, so I braced myself for the worst, wondering over the next 24 hours how I would explain whatever grim news was coming to our then-12-year-old son, Liam.

I soon learned Todd had been in a Humvee patrolling the city of Ghazni when the vehicle hit a powerful roadside bomb and was blown 40 feet skyward. The blast instantly killed the driver and his truck commander. Todd was alive, but trapped beneath the gun turret and roof of the Humvee, which couldn’t be moved by three men. His unit located him, and pulled him out before he bled to death in the sand. All of this happened while the unit was under fire for the next 24 hours. One of the two medics who saved his life removed his body armor to get under the roof and put a rock under it to help get the weight off his punctured lung.

In the days that followed, I gathered more detail about the extent of his physical injuries: his right femur torn apart in three places and nearly amputated; his heart nicked during battlefield triage; his head endured a traumatic brain injury; and his spleen and other body parts damaged in ways that would lead to chronic health issues. The mental injuries were imprinted, destined to show up in the years to come.

Miraculously, Todd came home alive to Texas, facing a years-long fight for his health and a stinging adjustment to a new reality as a catastrophically wounded warrior unable to work and uncharacteristically reliant on others.

I also faced a new reality: My role as a military spouse now included full-time nonmedical attendant. I quit my job at a technology firm, and enrolled in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) caregiver program (and yea, it pays a lot less). For the next 10 years, I navigated surgical and doctors’ appointments; parented, tutored and coached; paid the bills and ran the household; and cared, listened and nurtured.

As a trained journalist, I found ways to keep my brain burning blogging about where military spouses could find helpful resources and volunteering for Veterans’ organizations. In 2017, I became an Elizabeth Dole Fellow, which positioned me to lobby Congress on behalf of military and Veteran caregivers, work that I still do today.

It was so hard, and yet our family is so lucky because we have Todd here, living and breathing. I call him a miracle.

Bridge My Return matches military spouses and caregivers and Veterans with employers

With Todd’s health now stabilized, I recently restarted my career in a new part-time role at Bridge My Return, a Chicago-based organization that matches Veterans and military spouses with real-time jobs and support, for free. Even though I’ve only been here a few weeks, I’m 100% sold on our service.

Being a military caregiver, I knew that maintaining my own health meant sustaining my intellect and identity. I had kept my skills up over the years by doing freelance writing pieces and providing search engine optimization and marketing services to a few clients.

Yet before I came across Bridge My Return, my own job search, which began in January, was frustrating. I was being offered positions that required me to commit more than 40 hours a week or that came with salaries insulting for someone with over 30 years of relevant business and marketing experience.

Many other military spouses who may also serve as caregivers, move from base to base or go with a deployed service member overseas also have huge gaps in what companies perceive as “real” employment on their resume, despite large amounts of volunteer work and/or fellowships.

Bridge My Return only invites military-ready employers onto its platform. For those organizations that need some help getting there, Bridge My Return offers training and education support. We believe an educated employer will covet the untapped skills spouses and Veterans bring to the table once they view them through a different lens.

Bridge My Return employers are willing to invest in people who have the right behaviors. They know that military spouses (and Veterans) stay calm under pressure, handle stress well and are self-starters. And they won’t find a more honest or loyal type of employee.

One sign-on, and the employers come to you if you’re a match

For the military spouse or Veteran jobseeker, the beauty of Bridge My Return is you can use our free skills translator and automated resume builder tools to showcase yourself in front of military-ready employers who know your worth and have positions that match your skill sets.

Let’s say you’re a Veteran whose military occupational specialty was driver but you experienced a battlefield injury that makes the idea of driving traumatic. Bridge My Return has an algorithm that matches the hard and soft skills you learned as a driver to other careers or job openings that require your unique skills. I’ve never heard of anything like this before Bridge My Return.

And Bridge My Return has the coolest interface! No more creating different user names and passwords for each different company’s website and having to upload an unformatted resume, processes I found discouraging and exhausting during my job search.

As long as you take the time to fully complete your profile, you’re done. This is one sign-on, and the employers will come to you if you’re a match. Or, if you like the job match you see and the employer behind it, you can apply with a single click. The resume builder generates a professionally looking document that is kept in our system and that you can save for the future.

If you’re a military spouse or Veteran who needs help updating your skills, we work to connect you with vetted training programs such Victory Lap’s sales boot camp, offered virtually and at no cost to Bridge My Return members.

As I celebrate 29 years with Todd, I look forward to seeing his continued progress and, in my new role, helping military spouses and Veterans thrive in careers they love — and that love them back. At Bridge My Return, we are right here for all of you.

Learn more

Bridge My Return: https://www.bridgemyreturn.com

Dole Caregiver Fellows: https://www.elizabethdolefoundation.org/fellows

LinkedIn Premium and LinkedIn Learning for the military and Veterans, and military spouses: https://socialimpact.linkedin.com/programs/veterans

VA benefits for caregivers: https://www.va.gov/family-member-benefits/comprehensive-assistance-for-family-caregivers