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…
Company: Walmart Labs Role: UX Designer Shruti Katyal took a five year break from her QA engineering job, during which she had two children and relocated with her family to California. When she felt ready to return to work, Shruti decided to make a pivot into UX. She completed a returnship at Walmart Labs, which prepared her for her current role as a UX Designer at Adobe. Shruti talks about…
Company: Uber Position: Customer Success After over a decade working in sales, Melissa Evans took a 10 year break to raise her daughter. When she was ready to return to full-time work, she completed a returnship in Customer Success at Uber. Melissa talks about her returnship experience, how she kept her business skills sharp during her break, and offers advice on what truly makes a returnship successful. Tell me a…
Company: Netflix Role: Senior Back-End Software Engineer Swati Sapar took a two-year break from her software engineering career to take care of her kids. She always planned to return to work, and felt ready when her youngest child started elementary school. Swati completed a returnship at Netflix, and now works there full-time as a Senior Back-End Software Engineer. She talks about her return-to-work experience at Netflix, how she slowly ramped…
Company: Volta Role: Director of Tax Cathy Kawamoto took a 13 year break from her tax management career to raise her kids. When they were in high school, she decided that it was time to return to a career in finance. During Cathy’s returnship at Volta, her extensive tax knowledge led to her managing the company’s tax department, and she now works there full-time as a Director of Tax. She…
Michelle Hopkins worked in finance across three countries and opened a women’s clothing store before taking a break to take care of her son. After over two years out and a family move to Seattle, she was ready to start a new chapter in her career. Michelle completed a returnship at Amazon, after which she was hired full-time as a Financial Analyst, and has since become a Senior Program Manager.…
Neema Bollampally had a varied career that took her from finance to non-profit management and corporate philanthropy. After taking a break to take care of her twins, Neema wanted to restart her career in tech. She talks about her returnship experience at LendingClub, how the skills she gained in multiple fields and her break have translated into her role as a technical program manager, and the importance of building a…
Lindo Payumo took a two-year break from his 20-year tech career to care for his mother-in-law. When he was ready to restart his career, Lindo completed a returnship at OSIsoft, where he now works full-time as a Product Support Engineer. He talks about his return to work experience, the importance of soft skills in product support, and how one of his customers got him featured in a company video. Returnship…
Mimi Leinbach had a varied career before her break, working in educational software and running her own children’s clothing company. She returned to work in product management at SAP, and now works there full-time as a Program Manager. She talks about her return-to-work experience and how the soft skills honed in her previous career have come in handy at SAP. Returnship Company: SAP SuccessFactors Returnship Role: Program Manager Tell me…
