UPDATE: Diverse City Careers is now Work180. Click here for the new website
For most women I know juggling the demands of work and family has a big impact on career. Military spouses face the additional challenges of having a partner with inflexible and demanding work hours and frequent and/or lengthy absences from home. Frequent relocations can mean career disruptions and missed opportunities for career development. Finding an employer who not only recognises their talent but who also responds to and accommodates their needs can be a career lifesaver for a military spouse.
One of the key pieces of advice I give to my job-seeking clients is to focus their job search on a few companies they’d like to work for. This has the advantage of reducing the amount of effort expended on tailoring your resume to suit the job your are applying for (which has greater ROI than the “spray and pray” approach of sending out hundreds of resumes for different jobs and hoping for a hit) and importantly focuses your efforts on jobs and companies that have a good chance of providing career satisfaction.
Here’s where Diverse City Careers fits in. Diverse City Careers is a jobs board which offers female job seekers access to jobs with companies who support women in the workplace. Diverse City Careers is a job board with a difference. The team at DCC pre-screen all employers wishing to advertise on their job board for their policies and initiatives around supporting women. The criteria used is based on the review of hundred of policies, consultation with industry experts and surveys of thousands of women. If a company makes the cut they can advertise; if not DCC offers them suggestions for how they can improve their practices. DCC doesn’t allow recruiting firms to advertise so when you apply for a job via the DCC job board you are applying directly to the employer. Job seekers can click on the company logos on the DCC website and access information on company policy around flexible work arrangements, parental leave, breastfeeding, coaching, mentoring, leadership development, family violence policy, and much more. Companies range from large companies like BHP Billiton, NAB, and Thales to smaller independents.
Most military spouses in Australia are women and evidence suggests that many are dissatisfied with their careers and many struggle with juggling the demands of family and military life with their career. For military spouse job seekers it is important to narrow down the job search field to companies who are seeking talented staff and who recognise the need for, and are committed to providing, work practices that are supportive of them. Diverse City Careers is Australia’s only job board that pre-screens employers to establish their commitment to supporting women’s careers. The team at DCC have expressed their interest in and support for military spouse employment and I believe provide an extremely valuable tool for military spouse job seekers.
DCC provides military spouses with a great starting point to their job search by allowing them to identify supportive employers that they can connect with directly rather than via a recruiting firm. To register as a job seeker with DCC click here.
About DCC:
DCC is a social enterprise focused on supporting women to pursue rewarding careers across a variety of sectors. DCC is Australia’s only job site that screens employers before they can advertise based on their policies and culture around gender equality and women’s careers. DCC also runs events, campaigns and offer free resources for professional development. If you are looking for a job with a supportive employer, click here. If you’d like to check if your company qualifies to be an Endorsed Employer for Women, click here.
Author’s Note: Career Swag has not received any monetary or in-kind payment for this endorsement. This article is written purely in recognition of the valuable assistance that DCC can provide military spouse job seekers.