Ashima Bahl

Ashima has 10+ years of experience in the Microsoft Technologies in both Banking & Finance as well as Storage domain. Besides being a Graduate in BSc Mathematics Honors from Sri Venkateswara College (Delhi University), Ashima did her Masters in Computer Application from Indraprastha University Delhi. She loves to read and paint in her spare time when she is not involved in one project or the other with her daughters. She is known as good cook amongst her friends and family.

• Ashima started her career as a software engineer at Nucleus Software exports Pvt. Ltd where she worked for Shinsei Bank, a leading Japanese financial institution and was deputed onsite in Tokyo.
• She took a break of more than 6 years in 2010, playing an Alexa to her two daughters who are now 11 and 7 years old. She resumed career with Wolters Kluwer as a technical analyst then joined Calsoft as Senior Software Development Engineer-Worked for Clients like Tintri and Cisco[Went onsite to USA and presented a POC to Client Cisco].She joined Mastercard in 2018 as a Site reliability Engineer with designation Senior BizOps Engineer – Ashima is a Scrum Alliance Certified Scrum Master® with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. Skilled in SQL, Requirements Analysis, Agile Methodologies, Software Project Management, and C#/.NET .Strong information technology professional with a Master’s Degree focused in PGDBM in Finance from symbiosis college of Distance Learning.

• Women have different reasons to take a break from their careers, Ashima’s was: her husband getting a big assignment in a new city and her daughter being too young to be left at home alone. So while the break was originally planned to be only for two year it got extended into 6 year gap with the birth of her second daughter. She completed MBA from Symbiosis (Pune) in her extended sabbatical. During her break she tried out many things, in short lived her retirement before time. She worked as a trainer, started her own math academy but was not happy with what she had once enjoyed doing during her college days. While she enjoyed the 6 years long break in her daughter's formative years; a part of her started getting restless and wanted to go back to her old life so she updated her resume and started applying but what followed was a frustrating period when she got no calls .Nobody wanted a mom with 6 years gap wishing to code. 
• But getting back was as difficult as the decision to go back. She did get through a couple of intermediate assignments before getting through her current role at MasterCard. While being interviewed in Mastercard  Ashima got a chance to ask her interviewer "How does he feel Mastercard empowers Women" and to this I heard a long monologue passionately delivered about all the great work Women are doing in MC and his current team structure and his women bosses. She inherently knew that she will be joining Mastercard!!
• Ashima feels that on one hand being at the right organisation which ensures to provide flexi timing and other employee friendly policies and on the other hand having a great ecosystem at home helps her create a balance. This balance coupled with understanding team members who are her Man-Allies in true sense keeps her going.
• Her advice to the women looking at second careers is that the relaunch will not be the end of the road; in fact the journey will start from there as, women, re-entering workforce, battle stereotypes about their technical abilities, their age and the length of their break. But keep going on and define your success. Right now you might be lagging behind your peers but aim for the stars and you will definitely reach there.”
• Ashima understands that women looking for a relaunch need a confidante with whom one can air frustrations, request reality checks, and seek advice. JobsForHer is doing just that as she feels that hand holding done at the initial phase goes a long way!!