Career Paths of Restarters

It is often found that women’s careers are fundamentally different from men’s in that they are non-linear and often circuitous. There are on-ramps and off-ramps and scenic-routes to a woman’s career, and we navigate this highway – by virtue of society, or nature, or both – by adapting to different roles during different phases of our lives. Women’s careers are an amalgamation of not only our professional lives, but personal ones as well, several times course-corrected because of marriage, motherhood, elderly care, or several other personal reasons. But women are resilient. No matter the obstacles, we find a route around it and keep going. Sometimes we might lose our way and feel that we will never reach the light at the end of the tunnel. But it is important that we keep persevering – even though it might not seem like this is how we had imagined our careers would play out.

We are thus launching a series called Career Paths of Restarters, to showcase the career paths of several women who took these scenic routes and continue to win small victories every day, both in their professional as well as personal lives. These are stories of women who placed the needs of others above theirs – their spouses, their children, their ailing elders – and still managed to reclaim their rightful spot in the workplace. These are stories of women who once wondered if they would ever get back to work but managed to pull themselves out of the mire of self-doubt and move forward. These are stories of women who are not only committed to their careers but also devoted to their families. And for that, they are being rewarded, not penalized.

Through these journeys, you will meet women like Kiran, Sucharitha and Schonali – all accomplished women who stepped off the carousel for compelling personal reasons and then stepped right back on once their reason wasn’t compelling enough to stay away from professional fulfillment.

Kiran – who took a break in her career after getting married to focus on her move to Bangalore and her new life with her husband. Today, she’s back on the career track as a freelance social media expert, managing SEM and SMM for several start-ups.

Sucharitha – an Accounting & Finance professional with 10 years of field-experience at companies like AXA, Reuters and Soceite General, took a sabbatical to tend to her grandmother who was diagnosed with cancer. Today, she is a fill-time member of the SmartOwner team as their Manager-Sales.

Schonali – who took a 2-year break to be a full-time mother to her darling son, is now happily employed as a content writer at JobsForHer.

Through this series, we hope you will realize that re-entering the workforce might be difficult, but it is far from impossible. There are multitudes of women globally who take breaks in their careers and then get back to work as soon as their situations change. An article from the Harvard Business Review citing a wealth of data and research on the subject, had this to say about off-ramping and on-ramping of American women in 2005 – which still holds true for the majority of professional women in India, today: “Many women take an off-ramp at some point on their career highway… Of course, in the hurly-burly world of everyday life, most women are dealing with a combination of push and pull factors—and one often serves to intensify the other. Among women who take off-ramps, the overwhelming majority have every intention of returning to the workforce—and seemingly little idea of just how difficult that will prove… Many of these women find deep pleasure in their chosen careers and want to reconnect with something they love.”[1] [2]

Our Career Paths of Restarters will chronicle everyday Indian women, in today’s India. Women with hard-earned educations, hard-won industry accolades, and real-life issues. They are learning that there are on-ramps back to the highway of their careers to drive forward their dreams. Their professional lives have been and continue to be successful, but they are by no means effortless nor do they rise in a fixed, unwavering, straight line. And that’s OK.

Is your company looking to diversify? Then look no further! JobsForHer connects companies with women restarting their career after breaks for life events such as marriage, motherhood and elderly-care. Sign your company up on JobsForHer TODAY!