After almost a decade in university IT and tech sales, Abby Carrales took a two-year break to care for her three children. After deciding to return to work, she spent two years intensely interviewing and networking at tech companies all over the Bay Area before getting a returnship in security compliance at Cloudflare, where she was then hired full-time as a Security Compliance Specialist. She talks to us about her…
Shikha Singhal took a six-year break to spend quality time with her twin daughters. While contemplating a career return for several years, she kept herself busy volunteering at their school and coaching their robotics team. When her daughters started high school, she decided it was finally time to return to work. After completing several courses and finding a new passion within the software engineering field, she was accepted into a…
Shailaja Tuppad’s career journey took her from software development in India to graduate studies in Durham, North Carolina, to a career break in California. After being out of the workforce for two years, she found it difficult to break back into her previous field. After finding out about Path Forward, she applied for and received a returnship at OSIsoft, where she was then hired full-time as a Software Developer. How…
After establishing her career as a Java programmer in New Delhi, India, Romasha experienced two momentous changes in a short period of time when she had a child and moved to America. With a young child at home, she decided to take a career break. When her son started kindergarten, she felt that it was time to return to the workforce and found a returnship at LendingClub though Path Forward.…
Rae Haouaoui has had an extensive career with more than 15 years in sales and account management and seven years in marketing and brand strategy, plus small business ownership. When her family relocated for her husband’s career, Rae was seven months pregnant. After 20 years devoted to her career, she made an intentional plan to take a break from the workforce to raise her son. How did you end up…
Company: Cloudflare Position: Technical Support Engineer Cloudflare is now considering returnees for all current job openings in any field! Learn how you can apply here. Gloria stepped away from the workforce for more than 10 years to raise her son. She joined Cloudflare as one of their first returnees and has been with them since November 2016. Here’s her story. What type of work did you do before taking a…
Lavanya earned an MBA and worked for more than five years in the technology sector before she left her career to raise her child. After three years away from her career, she found it difficult to re-enter the workforce at the same professional level. She attended a Path Forward Career Restart Seminar and applied for a returnship at Medallia. She now works as a full-time Senior Analyst at Medallia. What…
Many women lament their inability to create boundaries around their time so they can accomplish what matters most to them. If you find yourself saying, “I have to …” with a sigh for a lot of your calendar items, that’s sure sign that you are spending time in a way that doesn’t bring you joy. Sure, we all have plenty of things we have to do, but many of us have…
To most people, networking feels smarmy and, well, icky. I think it’s because we fundamentally misunderstand why networking is important and how it helps us. Most people think of the old cliche “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” This very idea is what turns people off. We want to be evaluated based on our talent, not our ability to climb a social ladder. But the fact is,…
Ellein Cheng left her career for four and a half years to raise her children. Ellein was a high-school math teacher, and held a career as a market risk analyst before that. When she started her Path Forward returnship as a product support specialist, not only did she re-start her career, but she changed it completely. After her returnship at AppNexus, (now Xandr), she converted into a full-time role, and…
