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…
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…
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 –…
I’m thrilled to announce the appointment of Cindy Guerra Robbins to the Board of Path Forward! Cindy comes to us with an impressive resume and an even-more impressive history of championing the cause of gender equity in the workforce, most notably at Salesforce where she led a study that motivated CEO Marc Benioff to rebalance gender pay across the company—generating acclaim for Salesforce and positioning the company as a role…
Company: Meta Position: Technical Program Manager “Taking a break to focus on raising my kids was a decision that was well worth it over the sacrifice of my quitting my professional job,” states Zandra O, a Technical Program Manager at Meta. However, after 3 years away from her professional career, Zandra experienced feeling “like I was not maximizing my potential to its fullest – I had a feeling I needed…
Company: Allstate Position: Software Engineer Aarthi Karnawat took a break from her software engineering career to care for her newborn daughter and her own health. After 5 years, she felt ready to return to work. While completing a Master’s degree, she returned to work at Allstate, where she now works as a software engineer. Aarthi talks about how Allstate’s work-life balance and supportive, learning-oriented culture helped her transition more easily…
Heidi McAllister took a break from her 20-year career in software development to spend more time with her young children. After seven years, she was ready to return to her career, and had just begun a returnship at Amazon when her team went virtual due to the pandemic. She completed her returnship remotely, and now works at Amazon full-time as a software development engineer. Heidi talks about her extensive preparation…
Bridget Kelly was ready to restart her career after taking an eight-year break from her sales operations career to raise her children. She found a job posting for one of Path Forward’s first-ever returnships, a customer success role at SendGrid. Intrigued by the concept, Bridget applied and completed her returnship in 2015. Below, Bridget discusses the ways her team at SendGrid, now a subsidiary of Twilio, supported her return to…
Path Forward and Twilio are excited to announce a new returnship program aimed at helping finance and accounting professionals restart their careers after time away for caregiving. Twilio is looking for Accountants and Payroll Analysts to participate in 16-week returnships that will start in April. These roles are open to professionals with five or more years of experience, who have taken two or more years off from their careers for…
If you have a career break of a decade or more, you might be wondering how to present your skills and experience as relevant to hiring managers. Will employers accept that your professional experience is 10+ years old? Do your volunteer and caregiving experiences count for anything? First, you should take some inspiration from the many Path Forward alumni who’ve successfully restarted their careers after a break of more than…
