NextGen MilSpouse is going beyond traditional career tips and tricks for military spouses! We are sharing the real stories of working military spouses (just like you!) and their professional success stories on Wednesdays.
Name: Julianne Evans
Years as a military spouse:
1
Tell us your profession:
I am a Senior Manager of Product Marketing at PayPal Inc.
Is this full-time, part-time, hourly, contract or freelance work?
Full-time
How long have you been working in this career field?
Almost five years
Do you work in an office, telecommute from home (or Starbucks), or a little bit of both?
I work out of a home office in our apartment outside of Fort Bragg
Tell us one thing you love about your job.
For context, my husband enlisted at 33 years old with an 18x contract. Once he made it through SFAS, I moved down here to Fort Bragg.
PayPal is a truly inclusive company. I was working out of their Manhattan office before my husband entered the Q course. They were aware of his enlistment/training, and when I told them I needed to work remotely from North Carolina for a couple years, they made it happen for me.
Now I work out of a home office and travel about one week out of each month – sometimes more, sometimes less.
That’s a long way of saying: what I love about my job is the flexibility it brings.
How did you get this position? Was it a resume, referral, job fair? Spill your magic.
I gained this position with PayPal well before my military life started. I started with PayPal as a contractor five years ago and was hired full-time about six months after that.
How do you feel about failure?
It’s painful, but it’s the best way to learn and grow.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced while trying to maintain a career while living the military lifestyle?
Fearing that I am passed over for promotion because I work remotely. Having face time with executives is always a good way to be top of mind, and that is challenging when working out of a home office so far from a PayPal hub.
What is the best piece of career advice you’ve ever received? Tell us the worst too, while you’re at it.
Best piece of advice: Be on a constant quest to deepen your knowledge and understanding.
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. If you’re prepared, you can walk through the door once it opens.
Worst piece of advice: “Why don’t you just get a good waitressing job?” – a family member to me while I was filling out graduate school applications
Who is in your support squad and what role do they play in supporting your career?
My mom, my sister, my best friend. They listen to me, let me bounce ideas off of them, and encourage me when I’m feeling alone and lost.
My spouse does his best when he’s around.
Do you and your spouse or partner split household tasks? How do you do it?
I mostly do everything because he is gone a lot.
When he’s home, we divide cooking and cleaning and home maintenance tasks. I’m lucky that my husband actually loves to cook.
Share your best life-hack for saving time or sanity during the work week.
I would say my No. 1 life-hack is knowing when your brain is the most active during the day and maximizing that. For me, it’s the morning. So I try to get all of my most complicated work done between the hours of 6 a.m. – 1 p.m.
After that, I do the stuff that requires less brain power.
Tell us one piece of tech you couldn’t live without that isn’t your phone.
My Outlook calendar.
What’s your favorite app for making the most of your day?
Spotify…classical music helps me to focus.
Must-have song on your productivity playlist?
anything Brahms
If you had an extra hour in your day, what would you do?
Read for pleasure!
If you were a superhero, what would be your super power?
To know when people are lying or telling the truth.
What is your No. 1 tip for a military spouse on the hunt for a job?
Find a company who understands and is accommodating to your military circumstances. And then hang on for dear life.
