First of all, for me my brain is still processing that I have been able to end my career break. But yes, I have done that, and I am proud to be able to restart my tech career. If you are thinking that I will share some tips and tricks here. I am sorry but there are no tips and tricks in general but here I am telling my detailed story how I started my career after a break. According to me, that is a much better approach that can help any individual.
Why had I decided to have a break in my career?
While living in India so many years, it is difficult to have a break in the career. Back in our mind, we have spent so many hours of studying and hard work to achieve a career goal. And to have a career-break is like ruining it all once. When everybody else was interviewing for other companies or increasing their salaries, I was deciding to leave my job.
I was working in Tata Consultancy Services at that time for the last 3 years. And I was going to leave my job because my fiancé used to work in United States. Everybody around me was asking me to rethink my decision as it can mean mean that I would never been able to work in IT again.
For those who do not have a clue about all this, the type of visa on which he was in USA was H1-B. On this visa, the spouse cannot work till his company apply for green card. He also used to work in the same company (TCS) and they normally apply for green card after spending 5 years. It is a very long period I know but in my case my fiancé had already spent 3.5 years and it was like waiting for approximately 2 years.
So, this was one -reason. Second reason is I love him and finding a soulmate in this world is difficult than finding a job. So, I decided to quit my job and leave for US.
There were very less people at that time who decide to have a break in their career. And most of them are women having career break due to family reasons. Although this proportion is increasing day by day as more people are now leaving their career to pursue another one. Some are having a break to travel more, and it is becoming acceptable day by day. So, let’s discuss my journey here.
My Journey in US
I have done so many experiments in my hobbies, career, and activities during this 2.5 years break. For things other than career, you can visit this link https://www.theexplorerdiary.com/7-hobbies-i-developed-in-a-relationship/ for knowing more. I am talking here about my tech career field.
Taking courses
So, after entering States, it was difficult to mentally accept that I no longer need to hustle, and I have all the time in my life. Then once I did, other than traveling I started taking technical courses related to my field. I remember enrolling in a Data Science Course in Udemy and I successfully completed it. Although I was a Linux Administrator ( IT Infrastructure) in my last role, but I once wanted to learn this to unlock the mystery about the trending data science. But then I realized that I do not enjoy this field as much as I do my previous role.
Later on, I also enrolled in another course named Web Development from Udemy. But I was not able to finish it somehow.
But I would like to recommend exploring other areas in tech to everybody in fact as well as they help in understanding the current area where you are working more. And also, to explore your interests.
Certifications
When I was working , I cleared two Linux certifications related to my role. Then when I left my job as a Linux Admin, the client was introducing cloud in the infrastructure. So, I decided to learn Cloud in this free time because it was the future of my role then.
I started preparing for Amazon Web Services Solution Architect Exam. I enrolled in a course for the same and I was able to clear the certification. So, I think doing a certification related to your field really helps whenever you want to start a career after a break as it adds to your resume.
Language Skills
Working on communication skills is one another thing that can help you start a career once again. I was good in English in reading and writing but staying in USA really helped improving my listening and speaking skills. I also prepared a little for IELTS exam and was able to clear it with good score in the first attempt. It was done keeping in mind that maybe we will require it if any of us plan to study or to shift to Canada in case the US plan did not work as expected. But the communication thing is good for cracking interviews, it helped me there.
Volunteering
After some time, I came to know about volunteering. On my current visa, I was allowed to do some volunteering work but not related to the field that you can get a job for. So, I made a profile on Volunteer Match and sent my resume. I was selected after two interviews. It was not the exact IT work that I used to do in my role but more towards helping people fight against domestic violence. But till the time I was ready to join, I needed to go to India as it was already 2 years away from my family and there was a marriage I was looking to attend. After I came back, I think the position was already filled and the recruiter also shifted to a different role, so they did not reply.
Blogging/Improving the LinkedIn Profile
So, I started blogging after coming back to India. No doubt I was learning working with Instagram from a while. It was challenging to learn building a website for myself. But these experiences have helped me to be bold enough to take the initial risk. I learned and build my website though not from the development point of view. Just used the WordPress template and started writing about my experiences in the States. I used to think that it is ok if I would not be able to excel in blogging as I will be creating forever memories of those adventures.
It took me another 6 months to setup everything and writing articles flawlessly. Though I developed interest in this field, and I am still doing it as a hobby. But it can help in building your portfolio, you can enter your blogging experience in the resume when you had a career gap.
Checkout my Linkedin profile for reference https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepika-kalra-b034627a/
Preparing for the interview
So, it took me approximately two months to revise my administration skills in my previous role and then I just started applying through Naukri(https://www.naukri.com/) . You can go through the interview questions of your role as well. But I would like to suggest that while making resume, you can include some particular keywords related to your field. Like for my role it was AWS, Redhat , Devops etc. It does not matter if you have not worked on all these ,just clear the basics from internet on such topics .Otherwise, your resume will never be shortlisted.
I was actually applying through Naukri and giving interviews when I left my job, so I had some experience with that. And within one month, I started getting calls and I was able to crack four interviews. And that too after 3 years of career gap. I would also like to add that I did not hide my career gap in the interviews.
Other things you can do
Switch to some other field
If you are someone who has realized that why not start a business rather than doing a job, you can take a course from a university or learn from the internet. There are so many YouTube videos that can help you to achieve that. You can do a masters in your field to eliminate the gap further.
In the end, I would like to say that do not stop working towards your goal. If you will stop then you will never be able to achieve it. Nobody around me believed that I would be able to make it except my husband. People suggested me to have a baby during that time as there is so much of free time. But do you think I would be able to achieve it if I followed that advice. And believe me it is hard to find a good partner than a job.
You can also read about how life can be enjoyed without a job also
https://www.theexplorerdiary.com/lesson-learnt-life-without-a-job-is-also-worthy/
