Career And Marriage: How To Balance Personal And Professional Careers, Work-Life Balance

By J. Navarra

Feb 16, 2016 05:53 AM EST

Having a successful work and life balance is crucial for today's modern professional. It's not easy for some to juggle career and marriage. Caroline Ceniza-Levine has a list for you to think about in order to understand the importance of both.

An interactive chart on career and marriage shows that in 2014, Americans' marriage shows a certain relationship and pattern when it comes to their jobs.

In the report, it highlights that if marriage is a goal, job-seekers may want to be a dentist - this is the job with the highest rate of married people (81%), and frequently to those in the same job. This sounds like a promising stability in career and personal life. On another note, mailwomen tend to marry truck drivers while Grade school teachers are most likely to marry each other. How come?

Though these observations from the 2014 survey may be amusing, Ceniza-Levine stresses that marriage plays a critical role in careers. What are the obstacles that may sway a professional's decision? Take the following:

Job offers fall apart if the career requires relocation and candidate's spouse pushes back on the decision;
Career couples whose jobs entail heavy travel would try and juggle schedules so at least one is at home especially if they have children.
When it comes to kids, career couples would need to have one partner in a much more structured role if both have volatile schedules.
Oftentimes, one partner decides not to pursue a career move when the other transitions to a new role, in order to make way for the other person.
One partner remains at a less-than-ideal but stable work so the other can launch a business venture.

To sum up, work decisions affect personal life and it's critical that before big career decisions are made, a candid discussion with your spouse or significant other is important, and ask the following respective questions:

Would you be willing to relocate for your/your partner's career? Under what circumstances and for what type of offer?
Do you have a big career transition coming up this year? Is your significant other willing and able to provide additional support as you transition?
Does your partner have a big transition of his/her own? If you both are transitioning, how will you both juggle? Are you willing and able to provide additional support for your partner's transition?
Are you thinking of having children? If so, have you thought about who will pick-up, drop-off, care for them during sick days, etc?
If you think you're already on the same page about career and life balance when both of you are traveling frequently then ask yourselves - are you STILL on the same page? You need to have a checkpoint.
If you are making a personal transition have you discussed with your partner how you're going to balance each of your careers while you focus on your own personal goals?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine is the co-founder of SixFigureStart® career coaching and a Forbes contributor. She stresses that these are serious issues you need to discuss with your partner and it may need a lot of time to discuss and think about. It's hard to suddenly pounce this information at a critical time. Consider the other person's feelings while you reveal your own. If both of you are open about your career moves and personal life then your relationship can become the work-life balance most people aspire to. Remember, communication and planning is the key.