Success Story: Rae Haouaoui

Rae Haouaoui has had an extensive career with more than 15 years in sales and account management and  seven years in marketing and brand strategy, plus small business ownership. When her family relocated for her husband’s career, Rae was seven months pregnant. After 20 years devoted to her career, she made an intentional plan to take a break from the workforce to raise her son. How did you end up…

Success Story: Gloria Marcu

Company: Cloudflare Position: Technical Support Engineer Cloudflare is now considering returnees for all current job openings in any field! Learn how you can apply here. Gloria stepped away from the workforce for more than 10 years to raise her son. She joined Cloudflare as one of their first returnees and has been with them since November 2016. Here’s her story. What type of work did you do before taking a…

Success Story: Lavanya Kannan

Lavanya earned an MBA and worked for more than five years in the technology sector before she left her career to raise her child. After three years away from her career, she found it difficult to re-enter the workforce at the same professional level. She attended a Path Forward Career Restart Seminar and applied for a returnship at Medallia. She now works as a full-time Senior Analyst at Medallia. What…

5 Steps To Creating Time For What Matters Most

Many women lament their inability to create boundaries around their time so they can accomplish what matters most to them. If you find yourself saying, “I have to …” with a sigh for a lot of your calendar items, that’s sure sign that you are spending time in a way that doesn’t bring you joy. Sure, we all have plenty of things we have to do, but many of us have…

How To Network Without Feeling “Icky”

To most people, networking feels smarmy and, well, icky. I think it’s because we fundamentally misunderstand why networking is important and how it helps us. Most people think of the old cliche “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” This very idea is what turns people off. We want to be evaluated based on our talent, not our ability to climb a social ladder. But the fact is,…

Ellein Chen AppNexus

Success Story: Ellein Cheng

Ellein Cheng left her career for four and a half years to raise her children. Ellein was a high-school math teacher, and held a career as a market risk analyst before that. When she started her Path Forward returnship as a product support specialist, not only did she re-start her career, but she changed it completely. After her returnship at AppNexus, (now Xandr), she converted into a full-time role, and…

Anne Smith Cloudera

Success Story: Anne Smith

Anne Smith has 28 years of software engineering experience. After taking a three-year career break to spend time with her teenage children, she re-entered the workforce through a returnship at Cloudera. Despite the fact that Anne had not worked in a hands-on engineering environment for a few years, her understanding of software engineering concepts made her an excellent fit as a project manager within the Quality Engineering team as an…

Hesitant About Returning to Work

The Growing Proof That Returnships Work

If you’re among those who are skeptical about the value of using a “returnship” to re-enter the workforce after a break, you’re not alone. Back in 2012, Working Mother ran an article that opened with the line, “Thinking about doing a returnship? Please don’t.” The article went on to argue that returnships took advantage of women’s feelings of insecurity after a career break, and that placement rates at the end…

Success Story: Chandra Krishnamoorthy

Chandra with Path Forward’s Executive Director Tami Forman at the Path Forward Career Restart Seminar she attended. Chandra admires Tami for her dedication and all her sincere support and encouragement during the Path Forward workshops.  Chandra Krishnamoorthy restarted her career in 2017 at Intacct Corporation in San Jose. She is currently their Sales Operations Analyst. Chandra worked for 15 years as a commissions analyst before she left the workforce when…

Success Story: Stephanie Sullivan

Stephanie Sullivan started her career as an attorney. She spent the following ten years as a professional development leader helping lawyers, law students, and recent graduates succeed in their career. Like many returnees, she only expected to take a few years away from her career to raise her daughters. Eleven years later, she re-entered the workforce through the Path Forward program at Verisk Analytics in their HR department. At the…