It was 2016, and I was just 20 years old when I first started at Rocket Companies. Looking back, it’s wild to think that at 20, I was beginning a career that would grow alongside me through so many different seasons of life.
Today, I work as a Talent Travel and Relocation Business Program Manager at Rocket, helping team members move to our main locations and supporting interview and orientation travel.Inmany ways, the work mirrors my own life – navigating transitions, uncertainty, and the logistics that come with starting over someplace new.
Five years into my career at Rocket, my life changed in a big way. I married my husband and, with that, became a military spouse.Anyone who knows military life knows it rarely follows a straight line, and careers often don’t either. What could have been seen as a disruption or a challenge was instead treated as a strength. Becoming a military spouse is a huge transition on its own, but through it all, Rocket has always had my back.
I grew up in Warren, Michigan, and spent the first 26 years of my life there. For the first time, I was leaving home and moving across the country. It was unfamiliar, uncertain, and honestly pretty scary. But Rocket never made me feel like I had to choose between my career and my life. They supported me continuing my role remotely and gave me the flexibility to keep learning, growing, and pushing my career forward, even as everything else around me was changing.
My career path hasn’t been linear, and Rocket never expected it to be. Each move, each transition, and each adjustment added perspective, resilience, and adaptability to the way I work, and those qualities were valued, not questioned.
Rocket didn’t just give me a career; it gave me life lessons. The ISMs, which are a set of guiding principles at Rocket, became tools I leaned on as I stepped into military life. As a military spouse, you have to be adaptable, resilient, and resourceful. You go through 9 – 12-month deployments, often on your own, away from family and your support systems. You miss big milestones. You learn how to hold down the household while your spouse is serving.
One of my favorite ISMs – “We’ll figure it out” – has become a mindset I live by. Military life will make sure you need it. Whether it’s navigating months apart, adapting to constant change, or managing the unknown, you learn to figure it out. And we always do.
Another ISM that has carried me through this lifestyle is “We are the ‘They.’” As a military spouse, you move every couple of years, start over often, and build new support systems from scratch. Even though I may not see my team every day, I’ve never felt like I’m doing this alone. My team has been the “they.” When my spouse deploys, they’re there to listen. When we’rePCSing and I need a few days to move, they step in and help cover my work. They’ve been encouraging, supportive, and have never made this lifestyle feel like a burden, only something we’re navigating together.
That belief – that growth doesn’t have to be linear, and that people make all the difference – is something I learned at Rocket and carry with me, both as a military spouse and in the work I get to do supporting others through their own transitions.
Maela Zander
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