Careers for women in the IT industry often stop with 5-8 years of work experience. But, career transition from programming is possible.

By Sairee Chahal

The Indian IT and ITES industry employs anywhere between 1.5 to 2 million people. Coders or programmers form a big chunk of this pie. While it is one of the few sectors with a decent gender ratio at 25-30 percent, this begins to dwindle as women reach mid-careers.

Caregivers – working mothers, women supporting traveling spouses, taking care of the elderly, army wives leave as they need to assign equal attention to two primary responsibilites. Women professionals with an average of 7-8 years experience and care-giving duties come to a point where work needs to meet life better.

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Are you confident enough? What are the factors affecting confidence in Indian women? Some tips to improve your self-confidence!

By Jaya Narayan

India ranks 113 out of 134 countries in gender parity according to the World Economic Forum’s recent Global Gender Gap Index. This metrics is an indication of access to education and opportunities for Indian women compared to their counterparts in the rest of the world. Sairee Chahal, Co-founder, Fleximoms, shares, “Women not speaking up in family matters, not owning property or financial assets, not taking decisions related to relationships, careers, family and children add to the perception of lack of confidence”.

Priya Chetty Rajagopal, Vice President and Partner, Stanton Chase points out, “Education, exposure, mentoring, family support, organizational context and being an optimist are some factors that determine the level of confidence in people. In a similar cross section of urban and educated professionals, the confidence levels across gender are close, but bring up a crisis, and you see the great divide”.

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Career women today are often compelled to relocate. The story of one young woman, who overcame her fears and chose to begin anew. 

By Chandrima Pal

Gone are the days when women moved to a new city, simply to follow their husbands. Women moving from one city to another for career reasons are not taboo anymore but it is still considered a daunting task that should be avoided if possible. A general lack of safety for single women coupled with the notion that a woman’s destiny is in marriage, only leads to anxious parents. No wonder then that the confidence of single women gets ruined through such overprotective and conservative family pressures. Nidhi S*, 23 is one such woman.

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Choosing to chase your dreams is not always easy. Here are the tradeoffs and challenges that came along with my career shift.

By Anne John

I was living the Indian Software Engineer dream. Selected early on by a reputed IT MNC during campus recruitment even before I finished my graduation, offered a hefty salary, with promises of a friendly and open work culture and exciting opportunities for travelling abroad – it seemed like I had it all. I had every reason to be happy. But strangely, I always felt that something was missing.

Knowing what I wanted from my career

Today, people ask me, “When did you get interested in Journalism?” My interest goes a long way back. When I read Lavanya’s interview, it felt like she was echoing my sentiments! Although I too was a good student, I never excelled at anything; until that fateful day, in 8^th grade, when my English teacher singled me out and praised my work. That is when I began to actually believe, that maybe I was capable of shining at something. But I had still not made up my mind completely, by the time we were supposed to choose our streams in the 11^th grade and so I chose what seemed to be the most popular one – science. As the months rolled by, it became clear to me that this was not for me. It’s not that I found it extremely difficult – rather, I was extremely bored.

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Do the limitations on socializing at and outside work make Indian working women lose out in today’s workplaces?

By Chitra Iyer

Socializing outside office is an important part of one’s career development strategy. There is no doubt that building strong relationships keeps one in the ‘mind space’ of colleagues and seniors who may one day recommend us for jobs, give references or direct critical opportunities our way. The good old ‘going golfing with my boss’, Friday evening drinks at the local bar, or officially sponsored ‘off-sites’ are all good examples of networking opportunities, and participating comes easily to men. However, for women professionals who may also be mothers or caretakers, these could be fraught with reservations and doubts. All of us have probably faced some of these dilemmas at some stage in our career.

To go or not to go for after-work team-building sessions? To drink or not to drink with office colleagues? To dress up or dress down at an industry cocktail event? To discuss ‘personal stuff’ with colleagues or not, and to what extent? Outside the workspace, the boundaries between corporate and social culture tend to blur. Protocol becomes a matter of discretion and judgment. So, what exactly is the relationship between our networking behaviour as women professionals in India and our long-term career outcomes?

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Introspection and realistic self-assessment before making a career shift ensures you make the right shifts, the right way, and for the right reasons.

By Chitra Iyer

Very few lucky souls have the privilege of loving their work! For most of us, feelings of negativity towards the manager, dissatisfaction with the work content, discomfort in the workplace environment, among other irritants, are common. The worst is when the deal seems sweet enough (good pay, good profile, good team, good terms) but the feeling of ‘something’s missing but I don’t know what’ haunts you.

When faced with dissatisfaction, we tend to react by trying to change the present situation. However, will changing our team, job, city or industry really address the real problem? If changes are made for the wrong reasons, it won’t matter where one works or how many jobs/careers one shifts; once the initial excitement of change wears off, the niggling pain-points and the feeling of ‘je ne sais quoi’ tend to return. So, how can we know what really drives us? What the right career changes could be? What would help unleash our true potential?

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Medical writing, Science writing, Business development, IPR, Contract research – here are some alternative career paths for Ph.Ds and postgraduates in Science.

By Dr. Chandrima Pal

Sunidhi Patil* is a final year Ph.D student, one among many unsure about continuing on the same career path for the next 20-25 years of her life. She likes writing or presenting science much more than doing it in the laboratory. She does not enjoy the repetitive, technical, indefinite and time pressing aspect of a  scientific career. She and many others like her are often unaware of alternative yet fulfilling career paths in science.

Besides teaching and active research in a private or government run  institute, there are several other fulfilling careers in science where the skill sets and knowledge acquired during post graduation or Ph.D comes handy. They are all well-known alternative science careers in technology and policy driven western countries. In India these are upcoming fields and need to be  looked into.

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Does motherhood help you gain unique skills to leverage at the workplace? A few mothers share their career tips.

By Jaya Narayan

Being a mother is an intense life changing experience. “Parenthood has changed me as a human being. As a mother, I have experienced expansiveness in myself. I think it would be impossible for this experience to be contained only at home”, says Shonalie Gupta Ray, Human Resources (HR) professional working as a retainer consultant.

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Telephonic interviews might be your first step to getting that dream job. Here are a few interview tips to talk your way through!

By Jaya Narayan

Amrita Samant, 25, Human Resources Executive currently in the process of switching jobs has become a veteran in appearing for telephonic interviews In Amrita’s experience, “All new age companies have embraced telephonic interviewing like never before. In fact, with one prospective employer, I had 7 rounds of telephonic interviewing! Though I understand the benefits of a telephonic interview, my grouse is that interviewing over a telephone isn’t easy”.

There are multiple objectives for which a telephonic interview is scheduled during the hiring process and one needs to be suitably prepared. According to Shyamala Krishnan, 38, Managing Partner, E Milestones India, a staffing firm, “The first telephonic contact is an exploratory discussion with the recruitment manager. The most common purpose for which a telephonic round is scheduled is to evaluate the candidate on their functional or domain skills. For senior roles, an in-depth telephonic discussion with key stakeholders (including their prospective boss) is expected.”
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Motherhood today does not always mean a dilemma of whether to work full-time or stop earning. Some mothers find a creative middle path.

By Dipika Singh

Having a baby is a life-changing experience in more ways than one. For instance, a lot of women discover that it is extremely challenging to go back to a full-time job and career. This can be either due to a lack of support to look after the baby or because they want to devote more time to the child. However, this is not to say that they don’t want to apply themselves to anything beyond the baby. But what are the options?

Ketaki Harmilapi* was working as an Account Director with a leading national advertising agency when she had a baby. While she had planned to go back to full-time work once the baby was 6 months old, she realized that she just didn’t want to. Yet, she missed doing something creative and productive with her day, something for her own self.

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