It became boring when my son started school

In 2007, after working at some top IT companies for over four years, Nithya Mohan decided to quit her job to be a homemaker and a full-time mother. The first few days after her exit, she did feel like a big burden had been taken off her. Nithya says she did not miss work much since there was a lot to do at home. But as time passed and her son grew up, there was less and less to do around the house. That’s when boredom started hitting her.
THE JOB HUNT

When she started looking for a job again, most companies did not want to hire someone with a career break of more than three years. She recalls how even if she sent her resume through a referral, a call back was rare.

So Nithya started taking up freelance projects. However, she soon realised freelance work could not be done if she were to work only when her son was in school.

“I wanted to work because once my child went to school, there was nothing to do. But then, once he got back from school, it was important to attend to him. Just those few hours weren’t enough to complete tasks. Also, a lot of the work included speaking to clients in foreign locations late in the evening,” she says.

Since freelancing was not working out, she joined IIM Bangalore to do a course in business analytics, hoping that would help her.

Even then, it took time for her to find a full-time job. But finally it did come – from Capgemini, through a programme the French IT services company has that focuses on bringing back women who have taken a career break. “I began looking for a job six years after I quit. It took me four years after that to finally find a company that would accept my profile,” she says. The interview at Capgemini, she recalls, was focused more on what she was as an individual than just her technical skills. The IIM course helped her – she could get a business analyst role, which she preferred to a coding role.

GETTING BACK TO WORK

Nithya joined Capgemini during the pandemic. This meant she could work from home. Which was convenient. But there was another problem. Nithya had joined the IT workforce when there was little indication of cloud becoming the phenomenon it has. So, when she rejoined IT, her biggest task was to learn about cloud and knowing how to work on it.

After two months of rigorous training by Capgemini, she was ready to take up a project.

And once offices reopened, getting acclimated to an office atmosphere all over again was a challenge. But then she decided to really push herself – she resolved to work from the office all five days, though the firm did not mandate that. Initially, it was a struggle to balance work and home. In a few months though, she could find a good work-life balance.

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