Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS
Career
‘I couldn’t re-enter the workforce. So, I helped 40,000 women restart their careers’
Excerpts from article by Yoshita Rao, published in The Better India
Gayathri Tharanipathy, 33, didn’t anticipate that it would be five years before she could rejoin the workforce when she took a career break in 2016. A Javascript developer, Gayathri says her many attempts to get back to work were all in vain. Either her confidence was lacking during interviews, or there were not enough companies willing to hire women with a gap in their professional career.
“I was working with Tata Consultancy Services from 2010 to 2016 after which I went on maternity leave. The leave extended into a career break, but I began actively looking for jobs as soon as I could,” says the Chennai resident, adding, “I gave a few interviews when I realised my knowledge of technology was lacking. So, I enrolled myself for an internship with an e-commerce platform to get hands-on experience of working with new technologies but soon after that, the pandemic hit and my hopes of finding a job dwindled further.”
This may well be the story of millions of women trying to rejoin the workforce. In 2017, World Bank estimated nearly 20 million Indian women missing in action from the workforce during 2004-2012.
But it was at this low-point in Gayathri’s professional career when she found Avtar — a diversity and inclusion platform that helps women get a jumpstart on their second career paths.
Having experienced the difficulties of rejoining the workforce first-hand, Dr Saundarya Rajesh founded Avtar in 2000 and has since helped over 40,000 women find successful careers.
‘Deep-rooted mindsets about women coming back to a career after a break’
A couple of years after her break in mid-1995, she decided to seek opportunities to re-enter the workplace. “To my shock and disbelief, I found that organisations had deep-rooted mindsets about women coming back to a career after a break. I also realised that conscious inclusion of different kinds of people, with different orientations towards life, work, families, etc. which was a great booster of a positive culture, was starkly missing,” says the 52-year-old.
The miniscule number of women who did manage to find their way back to the daily grind was nothing to write home about. “Even if companies did hire second-career women, they were treated as second-class citizens. The empathy was lacking. And it was not because corporations at that time were filled with anti-diversity folk, it was simply because there was no awareness,” she says.
A second shot at a career
“It was my husband who first mooted the idea that I become the solution to my own problem,” Dr Saundarya says, adding, “Mine was not such a capital-intensive enterprise. I needed money to rent a small office, some computers, and salaries for my team for a few months. The seed capital for which was given by my mother-in-law.”
“We found that women were unclear about their role identity – they were educated yet were not encouraged to pursue a career. They were urged to be aspirational in their studies, but when it came to creating an independent identity of their own, the family stalled,” she says.
Conflicting demands, especially on younger women professionals, leads to huge workforce drop-offs. She explains, “Even as we convinced organisations to relook at their hiring and create more welcoming workplaces, we also felt that the intentionality was missing in many women. We asked ourselves this hard question — do women really make the most of it when given opportunities? The answer lay in intentional career pathing. This is a technique that helps women manage both the half-circles of their life.”
(Click here for the full story)
Education
6 exam time tips for better concentration and focus
Article by India.com Lifestyle Staff
The exam season is here. Now that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has announced the date sheet for Class 10th and 12th, many students across India are anxious and feeling the pressure.
Exams bring a lot of stress for the students, which often takes a toll on their mental health.
Focus and concentration play a pivotal role in scoring good marks. Lack of concentration can make it difficult for students to understand basic topics too.
Let’s look at how you can improve your concentration and focus during exams:
Yoga and meditation
You must have heard that meditation helps in improving concentration. Meditation can calm your mind; all you need to do is sit in a quiet room away from the humdrum of life. Just 5 minutes of meditation can do wonders! Yoga is touted to be the best form of exercise for mental and spiritual well-being.
Digital detox
If you lack focus and spend too much time on the phone surfing the internet, then it’s time to do a digital detox. Before you sit down to study, turn off your phone and try to focus, it can be a challenge but is also the best way to improve your concentration.
Choose your Study corner
Make sure you sit in a room that gets natural light. Also ensure that noise from outside does not enter your room. This will help you focus better.
Fix a routine
It is important that you make a timetable and stick to it. If you are studying for two hours, it is important that you give your 100 percent in those two hours. Sticking to a routine helps you improve concentration. You don’t have to study for eight hours if you can properly focus for 2-3 hours.
Set your goals
Make weekly, monthly, everyday goals, so that it helps you stay motivated. Breaking down your larger goals into smaller ones makes them more achievable.
Take breaks
It is important to take breaks. Studying continuously can make your brain less receptive. Let your brain unwind and breathe.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article mentioned above are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)
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