Success Story: Pratyusha Sampathirao

Company: Grubhub Position: Data Engineer Pratyusha stepped away from her tech career for six years to take care of her two sons. When she was ready to return to work, Pratyusha found it difficult to get as much as a call back from recruiters, despite her experience and a Master’s degree in Computer Science. After attending a Path Forward webinar with Grubhub, she applied for a returnship at the company,…

Success Story: Kathryn Zaharek

Kathryn Zaharek returned to work after a 3 year break by completing a returnship at Audible, where she now works full-time as a Senior Product Manager. She tells us about how she prepared for her return, how Audible supported her during her remote returnship experience, and explains why returners should always have an elevator pitch ready. Tell me a bit about your career break. What type of work did you…

Success Story: Gunjan Bhatia

Company: Red Ventures Position: Software Engineer Gunjan Bhatia took a six-year break from her software engineering career to support a family move to the US and to care for her son. Gunjan completed a software engineering returnship at Red Ventures, where she now works full-time. She talks about her remote returnship experience, how Red Ventures and her team supported her return to work during the uncertainty of the pandemic, and…

Father’s Friday: Let’s Reimagine Caregiving

Two years ago my friend and a member of Path Forward’s Board of Directors, Gayatri Agnew, started a new holiday called Mother’s Monday. The idea was simple: While we “honor” mothers on Mother’s Day we don’t support mothers, and especially mothers with careers. The expectation is that Mom celebrates with her children on a Sunday but then pretends she has no caregiving responsibilities when she gets to the office on…

Partner Spotlight: Minal Verma, VMware Recruiter

Minal Verma has been a Senior Recruiter at VMware for over 5 years, and her journey with the company has taken her from technical to full-cycle recruiting, as well as a move from Bangalore to Australia. She helped launch and handle recruitment for VMware’s first returnship program in 2019, as well as their second program in 2020, held remotely due to the pandemic. As VMware launches their next returnship program,…

Success Story: Karly Davis

Company: Trimble Position: Financial Analyst Karly took a break from her finance career to spend more time with her son. After six years, she was ready to return to the workforce, but found it difficult to get interviews with a career gap on her resume. That’s when she learned about Trimble and realized the company would be a great fit for her – so she applied and returned to work…

The Bar Has Been Raised: Amazon Commits to 1,000 Returnship Opportunities

Yesterday, Amazon announced a commitment to hiring 1,000 returners through their returnship program. This is by far the biggest goal that a company has set for a returnship program.  We’ve proudly worked with Amazon on their returnship program since 2019, and we’re thrilled to be a part of this major expansion. We know returnships help everyone – not just professionals eager to return to their careers and show off their…

Success Story: Carrie Kirk

Company: Campbell Soup Company Position: IT Project  and Portfolio Management Analyst Carrie Kirk took a 13-year break from her career as an athletics director and lacrosse coach, a job that involved long schedules and weekend travel, when she had her first child. When she was ready to return to work, Carrie decided to pivot into a corporate role, and realized that her skills made her a great fit for a…

Success Story: Alex Karjeker

Company: Meta Role: Data Scientist Like many Returners, Alex Karjeker’s career story-line has many twists and turns and includes employment in a wide array of careers. He worked for over a year as an investment banker, two years as a data scientist, and a year as a lobbyist. In 2017, Alex stepped away from the corporate world to run for public office, and when that was unsuccessful, he traveled to…

Success Story: VMware’s 2020 Cohort

One of the things that makes a returnship program a great way to restart your career is the support you get during your transition – from your company, from Path Forward and from your cohort – a group of fellow returners who are on the same journey that you are. We talked about the experience with six returners who completed returnships at VMware at the same time. This cohort –…