JOIN USTaking a break in your career is becoming increasingly common among women, with professionals taking time out from employment for a variety of reasons.
While one can argue that this has been the norm for ages, these days women are looking to come back into the workforce after a few years which is a marked difference from the decades-old practice of putting a full stop to your career after marriage or a child. The reasons could be financial, for self-fulfilment or from a sense of isolation once the child starts going to school or college. Whatever the reason, going back to work is often easier than it sounds. This is where portals like ‘JobsForHer’ and ‘Her Second Innings’ step in.
The main objective of these startups is to enable women regain their footing in the corporate world after a brief hiatus.
Says Neha Bagaria, co-founder and CEO of ‘JobsForHer’, “After I had a baby, he became the core of my being. I decided to take a sabbatical from work and became a full-time mother. After my second child, my perspective changed again.”
“I realised it was time to go back to the person I used to be. I went back to my previous company and regained my confidence when I realised that I could hit the ground running even after a three-year break. As my responsibilities at work increased, so did the quality of the time I spent with my family and friends. I was no longer emotional or needy. I became a happier and more fulfilled person,” she adds.
“This personal journey opened my eyes to the many accomplished women around me who stopped working for whatever reasons and then never returned to the workforce. I found that there were many re-entry challenges for women that need to be addressed.
These range from requiring flexibility, regaining confidence, retraining, overcoming biases and changing mindsets. It made me determined to enable other women to restart their careers and we founded ‘JobsForHer.com’ in 2015.”
She’s not the only one. Manjula Dharmalingam, CEO, ‘Her Second Innings’, says, “It all started when I met my friends who were on a sabbatical. One of them, Madhuri, relocated from Singapore and had an experience of working as a HR Manager and there was Ajita from the private banking sector with experience in middle management. We did a little research on sabbaticals of women and the figures were alarming. On the other hand, corporates were still head hunting for productive and committed professionals. Hence, we started ‘Her Second Innings’ portal to connect women professionals and corporates together.”
Says Neha, “Women used to be advised to hide the gaps in their careers. This is unacceptable because they take breaks to care for their husbands, children, parents etc — reasons for which they should be rewarded, not penalised. We wanted to trumpet the fact that all the women in our portal have breaks in their career and that is one of their core strengths, not shortcomings. ”
Manjula agrees and talk about how such women are a bit hesitant to take the plunge into the world of work again and need a little bit of encouragement. “Ours is a free online service for both women professionals and corporates. For women professionals, we do have an optional assessment process to guide them better. Our platform also provides mentoring and counselling support for women. ”
And from what these lady leaders say, the response has been amazing. “Within one month of launching our new portal, we have over 1000 companies across India posting their job openings to hire from this talent pool of experienced women returning to work,” says Neha.
Neha adds, “Everyday, we hear about matches happening across the country; ranging from full-time technical talent at large IT companies to work-from-home telesales in e-commerce to returnee interns in Pharma. These stories uplift us, motivate us and fuel our efforts to make second careers a reality for all women looking to get back to work.”