Military life demands sacrifice, not just from those in uniform, but from their families. For military spouses, constant moves, long deployments, and disrupted careers are part of the deal. Michelle Penczak knows the struggle firsthand. After being repeatedly turned down for jobs despite being overqualified, she didn’t just find a solution; she built a company that now employs over 400 people, most of them military spouses just like her.
Michelle never expected to marry a Marine, but life had other plans. Just six months after meeting her husband, they were married, and she quickly encountered the unique challenges of military life, especially when it came to building a career.
“I lost count after 20 job interviews,” she recalls of her early days in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Her qualifications were never a problem, until employers learned she was a military spouse. “They’d start asking about my husband’s aircraft instead of my experience.” Most saw her as a short-term hire, unlikely to stay long.
But in 2013, she landed a virtual assistant job with Zirtual. It was flexible, remote, and perfectly suited to the unpredictable rhythm of military life. She thrived at her job until one day Zirtual abruptly shut down. The timing couldn’t have been worse, she was pregnant with their first child and her husband was deployed.
It was a crushing blow. But instead of starting over, Michelle held onto her clients. After some time one of her clients asked her to expand with them, she realized she couldn’t do it alone. She started hiring fellow military spouses people who, like her, needed remote, flexible work and had long been underestimated.
“I wanted them to have something I never had,” she says, “a company that supported them for who they are.”
That vision became Squared Away, the virtual assistant agency Michelle founded and now leads as CEO. Today, 385 of its 400+ team members are military spouses.
She’s tackling a staggering problem: military spouse unemployment is five times the national average. Employers assume these candidates won’t stay long. Michelle’s business is offering them the opportunity that they need to find and stay employed.
“I never thought I’d be a CEO,” she admits. “But I knew how to support clients, and I knew these spouses had what it takes.”
Squared Away is built on four key pillars: proactivity, over-communication, outside-the-box thinking, and teamwork. These aren’t just values they’re life skills honed through years of juggling deployments and parenting solo.
“When you’re solo-parenting 95% of the time, you learn to make things work.”
Her company is more than a workplace; it’s a support network. Team members become each other’s emergency contacts, sounding boards, and surrogate families. From resumes full of gaps to lives defined by constant change, they share not just jobs, but a bond.
“Some of the most resourceful people I’ve ever met are military spouses,” Michelle says. “They just need someone to believe in them.”
From jobless to CEO, Michelle Penczak is proving that with grit and a clear mission, military spouses can do more than survive the challenges of military life, they can build something extraordinary.
