I would venture to guess that most people, when they leave the workforce to focus on caring for their family, plan to re-enter at some point. That plan may be specific or hazy, but almost everyone I’ve ever spoken to about their restart journey says something like, “I always planned to go back to work.” And while I don’t think anyone expects that the search for employment will be easy,…
Gone are the days when networking meant slapping on a name tag at an industry event, glass of self-confidence in hand, trying to make small talk with strangers, and exchanging business cards that would inevitably be lost or tossed. Whew! Glad that’s over. But there is still a valuable role that networking plays in your job search. Many jobs are posted for public viewing, but a lot of them are…
Ranjany Krishnan took a four-year break from her project management career to care for her children after a cross-country move. After deciding to return to the workforce, Ranjany found herself applying to positions she was overqualified for. Then, she saw a returnship opportunity at Campbell that was a perfect fit for her – and applied. She completed her returnship in IT Project Management, and now works at Campbell full-time. Ranjany…
Barbara Miller took a four year break from her long career in marketing to care for her parents. When she was ready to return to work, Barbara completed a returnship at Trimble, where she now works full-time as a Global Marketing Communications Leader. Barbara talks about what she accomplished during her returnship experience, the support she received from Trimble and Path Forward, and what advice she has for future returners. What…
Short answer: Maybe. In April I wrote about LinkedIn’s new feature allowing people to include career breaks, for caregiving and other reasons, to their profiles. I applauded the move — LinkedIn’s profile had been overly rigid and made accounting for time out of the paid workforce very difficult. Making our profiles more customizable to fit our actual lives is an important step in recognizing that not every career follows a…
Varsha Munishwar took a three year break from her software engineering career to care for her children and spend more time with her family. When she was ready to return, Varsha learned about Path Forward returnship program. After reading several participant success stories on the Path Forward site, she was inspired to apply. She completed a returnship at VMware, where she now works full-time as a Software Engineer. Varsha talks…
Aasavari took a three-year break from her career in tech career to care for her family. When she was ready to return, Aasavari found out about Path Forward, and applied for a returnship at Red Ventures, where she now works full-time as a software engineer. She talks about her return to work experience, why she loved the flexibility of a returnship at Red Ventures, and the support she received from…
Mei Wong took a six and a half year break to support family moves to Taiwan, then to Austin, and to care for her children. She always planned to return to work, and when she was ready, Mei upskilled through a bootcamp and applied for a returnship at Momentive. She now works there as a full-time front-end developer, and talks about her returnship experience, and how Momentive supported her remote…
Priti Khattar took a three year break from her engineering career to care for her daughter. When she was ready to return to work, Priti took the time to refresh her skills before applying for a returnship at Momentive, where she now works full-time as a senior software engineer. She talks about all the ways she prepared for her return to work, her returnship experience, and how Momentive helped her…
This Mother’s Day, Path Forward is sending a special shout out to moms – those who are balancing motherhood and career, those who left the paid workforce to care for their families, and those who are now striving to restart their careers. You inspire us every day with your determination and resolve to balance career ambition and motherhood, and to battle the stigma against career breaks. For you, on Mother’s…
