“As a military spouse, resilience is something I know well. UPMC helped me adapt this strength into a new career where I can stand on my own.”
For Tiffany P., being a military spouse has been a “wild ride.” As a wife of 20-plus years and a mother of four (two daughters and two sons), she’s juggled family life with frequent moves, deployments, and everything in between.
But one thing eluded her: a career of her own.
While living in Hawaii, she earned her bachelor’s degree and trained to become a child life specialist. She had an internship lined up, but she soon found out she was pregnant with her son, RJ. Ten days later, her husband, Rob, learned he’d be leaving for Japan in 30 days for a year-long deployment.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s crazy,’” Tiffany recalls. “It was a pivotal moment in my life.”
While she had to put her career on hold, she continued to pursue her education. Her family later moved from Hawaii to Pennsylvania, and she obtained her master’s degree.
But even as the first member of her family to graduate from college, reentering the workforce wasn’t easy.
“Rejection letters from jobs that I had applied to kept rolling in,” Tiffany remembers.
After her husband found success transitioning to a civilian career through the UPMC Pathways for Veterans program, she decided to give it a try.
Launched in 2021, the program aims to increase veteran hiring by providing a personalized approach to the job search and application process.
“Pathways for Veterans is an amazing opportunity,” Tiffany says.
Through her husband, she met Erik Orient, director of Military and Veterans Affairs, UPMC Health Plan. Tiffany mentioned the difficulties she faced in returning to the workforce.
As fate would have it, Erik had already been thinking of ways to extend the program to military spouses. A few months later, he called and asked Tiffany if she was ready to go back to work.
“Erik really takes the time to understand you as an individual," she says. “(He) helps you identify what your strengths are and learns what you want to do and finds places for you with people he thinks could help you.”
Tiffany’s six-month paid internship, through a new collaboration between UPMC Health Plan and ULEAD, was crafted to her interests in pursuing a career in human resources.
After being out of the workforce for 17 years, Tiffany was nervous at first. But she was reassured by a colleague and mentor that she had valuable skills that translated well to the workforce, such as problem-solving and outside-the-box thinking.
During her internship, Tiffany gained valuable experience across several departments at UPMC. The last portion allowed her to work more directly with employees. That experience helped her decide what she wanted to do in the long term.
“They let me run with it, and I really enjoyed the opportunity of being in the moment with employees,” Tiffany says. “At the end, I was like, ‘This is where I want to be.’”
She applied for a role as a human resources consultant and instantly clicked with her soon-to-be manager.
“She saw something in me that I didn’t see, and I’m so glad she did,” Tiffany says. “My team is amazing, and I’ve been working here ever since.”
For Tiffany, her journey from a military spouse and mom to a new career hasn’t been just about passion and dedication, but also about resilience.
“As a military spouse, resilience is something I know well,” she says. “UPMC helped me adapt this strength into a new career where I can stand on my own.”
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