Milspouses: How To Get LinkedIn Premium (aka How to Play Milspouse CandyLand)

As a military spouse for more than 28 years, I'm used to jumping through hoops. I shouldn't be surprised that at the end of my husband's career, the dreaded hoop appears one last time.

For the last couple of months, I've wanted to try out LinkedIn Premium. I've even started the process only to have the website that proves my eligibility for the program down for the count. It's Murphy's Law.

Today, I thought Murphy was on my side. Not only was I able to log into MySECO* using my DoD Login account, I successfully created a new login and new password for My SECO. For those of you who haven't done this yet, be warned - you will need both logins and both passwords each and every time you attempt to login to MySECO. It's a super secure website.

*MySECO is the Military Spouse Education and Counseling Opportunities Portal operated by Military One Source.

Next, I tried to find information about the LinkedIn Premium sign-up. Let me tell you that searching for the word LinkedIn on their website takes you to some wonderful articles about all that LinkedIn has to offer... but not one of them has the direct link you need. Nope, the easiest way to get to that link is to start over again. It's like playing CandyLand and going down the chute that sends you back to the beginning of the game.

To help save you time, click here to access the LinkedIn Premium for Milspouses.

So now, you've successfully logged in via DoD Login; you've created your MySECO account (including finding the all important number on your spouse's last set of orders), and you are ready to click that button to get that free year of LinkedIn Premium.

Not so fast. All military spouses need to have a 45 minute counseling session before they can get started. Because there are no other ways to learn how to best use LinkedIn Premium on the internet. (yes, that is snark)

Choice number one, schedule an appointment using the chat function. So I click and watch the chat circle spin and spin. Now I feel like I've fallen into a game of Twister. Where will the spinner land and what color circles will I need to touch to get through to win the game?

While that circle spins, I decide to use choice number two, call the 1-800-number. Miraculously, someone answers within two rings and I'm speaking to a very polite young man whose name I promptly forgot as he told me that he couldn't help me but knew who could. That didn't stop him from asking me half a dozen questions before connecting me with Michael.

Michael didn't sound very excited to have me on the phone. I think he felt that 28-year milspouse mojo oozing through the telephone line. He did ask me to call him Mike and then proceeded to tell me that no counseling sessions would be available until October 10th, a good three weeks down the road. For those of us in transition, planning three weeks ahead can be a nightmare. For myself, we will be on the road getting ready to cross the border from Colombia to Ecuador as we work on our business development in South America.

I decide to take a choice number three, sign up for an online webinar. I click the appropriate date, September 27, 2018 and the system tells me to Save and Continue. I click and nothing happens. Mike then tells me that their website doesn't work well with any Apple products. My hand hits my forehead and I thank Mike for his time, tell him to have a nice day, and hang up the phone. At this point, I am about ready to give up.

I stare at my computer screen and realize that the little chat bar window has stopped spinning! Barbara is waiting to solve all my problems. She's asking if I'm still around (which, let's face it, 15 minutes after clicking to chat, most of us would have given up and gone somewhere else). I let her know that I still need her help and proceed to explain all that has happened. Luckily, I had a great typing teacher in 8th grade so I can type a mean chat response pretty rapidly.

Barbara can do a little better than Michael. She can offer me a 45 minute counseling session on October 1, 2018. I will be in Bogotá, Colombia. But that's neither here nor there... she is really trying to help. She takes all my information to make sure my account is complete. I guess the first guy that took that information didn't put it in the computer? And she proceeds to tell me how to sign up for that webinar all over again. I start the process only to find that the system has kicked me out.

Down the chute again! I re-login twice, find the My Transition menu, and low and behold, I am actually registered for the webinar that I may or may not be able to access from South America. I thank Barbara for her help, she tells me to check for the confirmation email, asks me to fill out a survey, and says goodbye.

At the end of the game, I'm left with a lot of questions and no access to LinkedIn Premium at this point in time.

• Why do we make military spouses play these games?
• Why don't we trust that military spouses can already be professional, well-prepared, businesswomen ready to handle a LinkedIn Premium account without a lot of hand holding?
• Why can't we offer the support services some of us need without forcing all of us to jump through hoops?
• Last but not least, why is this process taking me hours when my husband signed up for his LinkedIn Premium in only 8 minutes? Let's face it, he probably needs that 45 minute counseling session far more than his spouse who has been navigating online networking for years.

If there is any chance you can get me out of this 45-minute counseling session (and save the poor counselor some grief), let me know! Otherwise, feel free to take your complaints to the appropriate chain-of-command. There is a slim chance you might help more of us win the game. Otherwise, it's all a crap shoot.

Update September 24, 2018 - This Saturday, I was contacted by a MySECO representative who wanted to help solve my problem. Today, I spoke with a very nice counselor who was able to get me set up in less than 8 minutes. I very much appreciate that this team was able to solve my problem... here's hoping that they can soon put in a better process that solves this for ALL milspouses. I'll be sure to write a follow-up in a few months to let other milspouse entrepreneurs know if LinkedIn Premium is worth the chase.