Tami explained that a returnship, like the more common college internship, is “all about showing what you can do, and meeting new people, and gaining new skills. But it’s predicated on the idea that you had a prior career, you’re using all that experience, and putting it to work in a new way.”
Abby Carrales, a Path Forward program alumna who completed a returnship at Cloudflare and was hired there full-time as a Security Specialist, shared her story and struggle returning to work after taking time off to raise her children. “I took a career break intentionally for two years, and then I was looking [for a job] for two years,” she recounted. “And when I found Path Forward, I was very excited about the opportunity. I applied through the Cloudflare website and was accepted, and I couldn’t have been more thrilled.”
Path Forward returnees like Abby are highly skilled and educated, with an average of 11 years of professional experience, and about half armed with Master’s Degrees. “But companies are overlooking them because of bias in the hiring process – about that gap,” Tami explained. “The returnship gives [companies] an opportunity to tap into that workforce today, and bring in amazing people like Abby onto their teams.”