Unlocking Her True Passion: Meet Jessica Reynolds
When Jessica Reynolds first learned about The Paradigm Switch, she was already established in a remote career. For the past three years she had worked in remote sales for an international staffing agency, and had the flexibility and autonomy that so many military spouses dream of when they think of a remote position. But Jessica is not one to rest on her laurels, and when she heard about TPS through a military spouse employee resource group, she decided to check it out.
The first thing she experienced was, of course, the TPS Network. As a Navy spouse for seven years, she’s seen her fair share of military spouse Facebook groups, etc. — the good, the bad, and the ugly. She was struck by the real, vulnerable conversations that TPS community members were having, and the support and advice that flowed freely. She soon became one of the most active members of our community, sharing her story, learning from and teaching others, and being a friendly face for so many other military spouses.
“The TPS community is such a diverse and authentic place,” she said. “For me it captures what the military spouse lifestyle is all about — helping each other and building each other up. We’re all in this together, and nowhere does that feel more true than in the TPS community.”
Jessica joined TPS just as we were unveiling our Switch course, the first of the three programs in our Digital Career Bootcamp designed to prepare military spouses to take control of their career by leveraging the power of technology. She jumped right in, eager to see what she could learn and not wanting to miss out on a free opportunity to better herself. Right away, she knew this was a different kind of course.
“The introspectiveness of Switch caught me off guard,” she said. “I’m usually pretty self-aware, but the lessons were thought-provoking in ways I wasn’t prepared for, especially some of the TED Talks. Being challenged to stop defining myself by what I do was particularly challenging, and I really had to think to come up with solid SMART goals. I’ve helped lots of other people write theirs, but it was something I’d put off for myself.”
She was also amazed by the number and quality of resources that Switch, and later Launch, our second program, exposed her to. She quickly went down a rabbit hole, learning the importance of upskilling and how to get started through TPS’s scholarship opportunities. Allowing her natural curiosity to lead her, she discovered a newfound passion — helping employers curb military spouse attrition.
“We know that military spouse unemployment is far higher than the average, but I also learned through these programs that military spouse attrition is similarly much higher,” she said. “Companies and the military spouses they hire are not speaking the same language. These different expectations create unsatisfying work environments, and ultimately higher attrition. There’s work to be done on both sides, but my dream is to work with a recruiting firm to educate companies on how to hire and keep top military spouse talent. The resources I found through the TPS Digital Career Bootcamp have already helped me take steps toward that goal.”
What’s most remarkable about Jessica’s story is the way she has trusted the process all along her journey. Although she started our bootcamp because she was interested in applying for our GreenFig Digital Marketing Science scholarship, she learned as she worked through our programming that this wasn’t the best choice for her goals right now. Instead, she has decided to apply the knowledge she has discovered to her dream of changing the military spouse attrition statistics and being an advocate for the milspouse community in the interview room. This kind of growth and self-development is exactly why we exist, and we couldn’t be more proud of her.
She IS The Paradigm Switch.
