Caitlin Hoffman

1st Grade Teacher, Thirty One Gifts Independent Senior Consultant

Service Member's Branch - Air Force

Service Member's Status - 12.5 active duty, 4 years reserve and still serving

What has been your military spouse career/entrepreneur journey so far?

In 2009, I graduated with my degree in Education and got married and moved to Patrick AFB in Cocoa Beach, FL. I took a job teaching preschool for 2009-2010. In 2010 I was pregnant and Brian deployed. I returned to CO and my son was born in September 2010. My husband was unable to meet him until February 2011 when he returned from deployment. We were still stationed at Patrick AFB, so we moved back there till August 2012. Prior to that move is when I became a consultant for Thirty-One gifts in an effort to have a job and some income while also staying home with our son.

We PCS'd to the COE in CO. In July 2013, our daughter was born. In August 2013, I opened up my own fully licensed preschool. Brian was slotted to leave in October 2013 but then the financial furlough occurred. I started my Masters in Education with an emphasis in Early Childhood Nov 2013. The following week Brian received a short notice deployment order. He was gone until June 2014. Upon his return, on his first day back in the office, he was notified that he was wanted by name for an assignment at Spangdahlem AFB in Germany. I stayed in CO with the kids so I could finish my Masters. Following my graduation, we all moved to Germany and were stationed there for 3 years. I opened up a preschool in Germany out of our house and taught there for 2 years. After our overseas assignment, we got stationed in San Antonio. I started substitute teaching because I had to get completely re-certified as a teacher. I have been teaching full-time since 2019 as well as running my Thirty-One consultant business on the side.

Tell us about yourself.

My name is Caitlin and I am originally from Colorado which is how I met my husband, Brian while he was at the Air Force Academy. We have 3 kids that keep us very busy with sports, school clubs, and activities. I enjoy working out, baking, and spending time with friends and family. I have been a military spouse since 2009, almost 15 years!

Tell us about a "typical" day in your professional life.

A typical day in my professional life includes waking up around 4:45, working out till 5:45, then getting myself and my 3 kids ready for school. We leave the house by 6:45 and then I spend my whole day with 6-7 year olds teaching first grade. After school, I pick up my middle schooler and head home to cram dinner in before we are off to soccer or gymnastics. During the day, I try to check in on my Thirty One Gifts VIP Facebook group, share a post, follow up with customers, or place orders.

If you've been stationed overseas, how did this affect your career and or business?

Being stationed overseas was incredibly challenging. I gave up my home-based preschool in Colorado and put everything in storage. After arriving in Germany I applied for a few jobs on base, including at the CDC. These jobs were entry level and since I had never been in the GS system and without any family to help with childcare we had to turn the jobs down as we would barely be breaking even on childcare fees. Being in an overseas environment felt extremely isolating. I felt useless since I wasn't working or using my newly earned Masters' degree. It was depressing and hard to live in a foreign country and I begged my husband to let me return to the states with the kids. Eventually I decided that there was a need for preschool over in Germany. I tried to start a preschool on base for children ages 3-5 and went to many meetings including with the Chief of the Base, fire department. However, there were too many AFIs and rules and regulations that prevented me from starting a preschool on base. Finally, after a year I decided to open one out of our house for American children ages 3-5. I had to get a business license and approval from the German village and figure out all of the rules in order to operate it appropriately. For the last two years of our assignment I taught preschool out of our house. However, because I stored my entire classroom in CO, I had to start completely over with supplies and materials for the classroom which was a costly startup investment. During this time, I was still trying to run my Thirty One gifts consulting business from overseas but that was also incredibly challenging due to communication, time-differences, plus I had moved away (again) from my entire customer base so I was essentially starting over. It took dedication and commitment plus some creative thinking on my end to make that business successful. I did earn a promotion to director in the company and a free all inclusive 7 day trip to the Dominican Republic while in Germany.

What has been your biggest military spouse career struggle and how did you overcome it?

Due to being a military spouse we moved 8 times in the course of 10 years. This greatly affected my career as I kept having to find jobs and then leave them after only a year or two. Not only that but my professional teaching license expired while we were stationed overseas. I knew it was going to expire while we were there because they are only valid for 5 years. When I called to ask how I could renew it I would tell them that I simply couldn't because I wasn't attached to U.S. school district and wasn't going to professional development. There were no online options available and the only advice they gave me was to update it when I moved back to the states. Because each state has different licensing rules, moving to Texas proved to be even more challenging. Essentially I had to start over as if I hadn't been certified or licensed initially which meant I was unable to teach for the first 1-2 years we lived here while I went through the process of getting re-certified again. During that time I was able to sub here and there but it wasn't a substantial impact to our finances. I finally got certified to teach in Texas and applied for a full-time position.

What role did mentors and sponsors play in your journey?

My dad was in the Air Force and so my mom was a military spouse for over 20 years. I constantly sought out their advice with all the moves and decisions. They were able to help and be there for our family when I had my babies without my husband present and let us live with them for short periods of time. As a military family they understood the unique challenges, demands, and timelines that the Air Force places on us and I am eternally grateful for their support throughout the years. I also sought out other military wives that had managed to also have careers around their husband's careers. We leaned on each other for support, advice, friendship, and emergency contacts when our family and friends were far away.

How does your career path differ from what you imagined for yourself?

Initially, as a college student I thought I would graduate and start working in Colorado where I was from and all my family and friends were. Having gone to school there, all of my service hours and student teaching was done in Colorado. I had my connections and job offers lined up post college. However, when Brian and I got engaged, he had already graduated from the AFA and was stationed first in Oklahoma, then Del Rio, and then finally Cocoa Beach. So instead of getting an apartment and job in Colorado, we got married so we didn't have to be long distance anymore and right after graduation I immediately moved to Florida leaving all of my job offers, and my family and friends. From there, my 'career' was anything but typical having to work around new assignments, deployments, and children.

How did military life (PCSing, deployments, trainings, etc) factor into your career decisions?

My career decisions were 100% based on military life. Even prior to being a military spouse my major in college was impacted because initially I thought I wanted to be a doctor and be pre-med. Thinking about that decision and life choice, I knew that it would be hard or even impossible to go the medical route as that meant medical school, residency, and maybe fellowship assignments that wouldn't necessarily line up with Air Force life and PCSing etc. When I realized that I didn't think pre-med was for me, I went into education and I remember thinking that with a military life, the good news was that they would need teachers everywhere, no matter where we were stationed. While Brian was active duty it was extremely challenging to maintain a career. I was constantly choosing between a job and childcare, factoring in the costs, and having to move after 1-2 years and start completely over.

Have you ever had to geo-bach due to your career/entrepreneurship?

What resources have you found to be useful in your career/entrepreneur journey?

Mostly friends and family and other military spouses that could share their journeys with me.

Final word: what are your top tips for other military spouses about navigating a career within the military lifestyle?

Being a military spouse is no small feat! You have to be truly committed to your spouse and be extremely flexible with your own goals and ambitions, often putting them on hold or changing them all together. You need to follow your heart, dig deep, and ask for help when you need it. As a milspo you have to get really good at making conversation with strangers and developing friendships quickly in order to feel plugged in to the community. Each base we went to I would tell myself that it would take about a year to really get situated (and sometimes we would move right after!) Unbox your house and put it together quickly--don't let boxes sit in the garage or walls be left blank. Make your house your home as quickly as possible when you do PCS so you have some sense of home and normalcy. Rely on other milspos and families and try to get involved in something whether it's volunteering, kids activities, key spouse, or other groups where you will meet people that are all in the same boat that you are. Make time and plan visits to 'home' and to see friends and family and invite them to come see you as much as possible. Keeping up with those connections is super important.

Always keep the bigger picture in mind and know that it won't last forever and try to see it as adventure!

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