Hyderabad, May 13: Motherhood is a full time job, and for a woman who chooses to take a break from her career to nurture her family, relaunching her career can be challenging for various reasons, such as a gap in employment history, outdated skills, lack of recent work experience, and limited availability for work due to family responsibilities. OdinSchool, one of India’s top upskilling platforms on this Mother’s day is encouraging mother’s to relaunch their career and also announced special scholarship for mothers.
3 working mothers who have relaunched their career share their journey on the occasion of Mother’s Day.
Angelina Daisy, relaunched her career as an Associate Software Engineer at Motivity Labs after a 14-year break. She stated, “Launching my career with a 14-year career gap was definitely not easy; being a mother, I had a whole different set of priorities. But the Data Science Bootcamp at OdinSchool is well structured and has several elements like Career Services that has helped many women like me get their careers up and running again.”
Naga Lakshmi Pothuguntla, who relaunched her career as Associate Manager, Data Analytics, at PepsiCo after an 11-year career gap said, “After a short period of working following graduation, I took a break but didn’t want to waste my potential as a stay-at-home mother. With doubts about re-entering the workforce, I decided to upskill and relaunch my career, now earning the pride of my family for my achievements.”
Visweswari Pitchika who re-started her career as Senior Analyst, Capgemini, after a 6-year career gap said, “As a full-time stay-at-home mother, I realized I could have a sense of purpose beyond my household, and after six years of not working, I wanted to re-enter the industry. OdinSchool’s mock interviews and career services helped me to overcome my fear and gain the courage to face interviews again”
In the Indian corporate sector, there is a significant gender disparity as women progress in their careers. While the entry-level recruitment ratio is fairly balanced, i.e., 49:51. The representation of women declines in managerial positions like CXO and becomes extremely low at the top executive level. This trend suggests that many women leave the workforce within five years, and those who take breaks for family reasons often struggle to relaunch their careers in the core IT sector.
Talking about this gender gap, the CEO of OdinSchool, Vijay Pasupulati said, “We recognise the immense potential that women bring to the table in helping businesses grow and flourish. However, we are also cognizant of the fact that despite starting out well in their careers, many women who take a break for family reasons struggle to relaunch their careers. On the occasion of Mother’s Day, we announce special scholarships for mothers wanting to relaunch their career. These scholarships are available until the 25th of May, 2023. It would be our pleasure to upskill, mentor and guide young mothers and help them get back on their career paths”.
In order to be eligible for OdinSchool’s Mother’s Day scholarship, women should currently be on a career break. They should ideally be from a mathematics or computer science background. They should have had some work experience before having gone on a break. All applicants should take a scholarship test in order to qualify for additional scholarships.
According to another study, only 51 percent of mothers feel that full-time work is best for them, and 19% think that they would be better off not working at all.
Arvind Thoopurani, who heads Corporate Relations and Placements at OdinSchool said, “The industry today is very accommodative of women wanting to return to the workforce. Many of our corporate hiring partners including Uber, Dunhumby, Capgemini, Blend 360, GFK, FORD, S&P Global, and CitiBank are welcoming women and mothers back to work because they value diversity, support gender equality and inclusion and recognize the benefits of having a diverse workforce. We have successfully upskilled and placed several women who had years of gap in their careers”.
In addition to upskilling in the latest in-demand industry skills, OdinSchool’s Career Services boost the confidence among women returnees with assistance on resume and online professional profile, mock interviews, workshops on workplace skills, interaction with industry professionals, weekly job drives and placement assistance.
At OdinSchool, several mothers who have completed the course programs have successfully relaunched their careers and secured good positions in the industries.
