How virtual internships helped me rebuild my career after a break of 6 years
About the Author: Momita Upadhyaya is a homemaker who left her job to take care of her son. She shares how she restarted her career after 6 years with virtual internships and found new dimensions in her career.
I worked with Genpact for 9 years starting my career as a process associate and moving up the ladder to becoming an assistant manager. There, I handled a team of 30 members along with maintaining the SLAs and preparing MIS reports. My job also required me to engage with the clients for monthly reports, execute people engagement plans, process transactions, and handle lead generations projects. It was all running smoothly, and I was enjoying my work. Little did I know at that time that I’d have to quit my job. It happened in 2010; my son was too small to be left in a daycare centre or with a household helper, so I left my job to take care of him. As time passed by, I started feeling the need to get back to work. I was, however, well aware that this long career break of 6 years would definitely be a hindrance for me to start again. Initially, I tried to look for career options like teaching, wherein I could return home by the time my son came back from school, but it was difficult to continue them for various reasons.
Finally, in 2016, my niece and some newspaper ads introduced me to a few internship sites, one of which was Internshala. I was quite excited to use this platform which provided various virtual internships but the thought of dealing with the question of not being a student and still looking for an internship haunted me. Keeping all these thoughts aside, I registered on Internshala and started looking for internships that matched my area of expertise. I knew it could be difficult to find an opportunity in one particular field, so I kept my options open. Operations, human resources, content writing – I applied to them all and faced rejections one after another. Just when I was losing hopes of finding work, I ended up getting a content writing internship in a startup named Erimak. I had a telephonic interview followed by a week’s probation wherein they judged me on the basis of my writing abilities – cohesion, brevity, and speed – and the choice of images. Usually, the candidates were authorized to publish articles only after the probation; however, I was given the authorization within just two days. This gave me a sense of achievement and encouraged me to do better. Since Erimak was a news app, my job was to write precise and compact articles giving insights on the news from around the globe. I had to write at least 25 articles in a day ensuring they followed the SEO parameters. I’m grateful to the team of Erimak for believing in me and guiding me through this journey. Though it was only a two-month internship, it helped me discover a career option that I could pursue from the comfort of my home and balance with my household responsibilities easily. There was no looking back after this!
Immediately after completing this internship, I applied for another internship at Postrays.com. I gave a telephonic interview there and shared some sample write-ups. Next, I was asked to write an article on a particular job profile after which I was hired as a content writer. In this internship, I used to write about various government and private jobs available for different streams of education. I also wrote about various professional courses youngsters in India could pursue. Currently, I am involved in HR recruitment with Dreamlabs Technologies Private Limited. I was selected for this internship purely on the basis of my previous experience in recruitment that I had gained through freelancing.
I’m glad that I am able to utilize my free time and render my services to these organisations. Not only have these internships elevated my confidence but also have embedded in me a sense of content and joy! I have been able to maintain a healthy work-life balance, and I am certain that this exploration of newer career dimensions will take me a long way. I’d like to thank Internshala for coming up with such opportunities for women to (re)start their careers and build their own individual identities.
Did you also take a career break to look after your family and wish to join the workforce again? Apply to these internships for women and balance your work and personal life effectively.
