Rashmi Kalegowda is expecting her first child in about three months from now. She is working as a Senior Tech Consultant at Perficient and has over six years of experience writing awesome code and engineering great systems. Here is a chat about her experience so far and what are her expectations from the future…
Q: What specific preparations have you made to enable you to give the best to your kid?
Its still a work in progress. In India, all of it is very simple. You have a lot of wanted (and unwanted) advice pouring in. In US its very systematic. We still don’t know what to buy for the kid. We are still figuring it out. When you have a budget, but want to make sure that you are buying the best, it gets really difficult. I get drained and exhausted searching through the online stores, then you have to check it out in the store (just to be sure). There is house work and office work. For instance, we need to buy a crib/car seat. We may need a nanny or my parents (so we need to plan their travel) to help me out. Also, I am moving into a new role in January so things will change.
Q: What motivates you to come to work and do you plan to continue to work?
I enjoy my work. What I do and not the same work but new challenges and new environment. It has its fun — getting to learn something new, meeting new people. I believe everyone needs something in their lives which makes living meaningful. Sometimes, when I see my mother, it quite disappointing. After the marriage of her daughters, her life seems to have lost the purpose. We try to motivate her to pick up a new skill or learn something new. Since she has learnt about the baby, she has picked up knitting as a hobby, it makes me feel happy about her, in a way. So, yeah, I plan to continue to work! I may change the working style a bit. Since my company has a remote work policy, I may work remotely for next 2 years.
Q: What is the maternity leave policy at your workplace?
California’s Paid Family Leave (PFL) allows upto 6 weeks of paid leave. The law mandates a minimum pay of 55%. My company actually pays 65% of the total earning. If the delivery is C-section you can take upto 2 months PFL. but there is a remote employee option.
Q: Did you consider changing job? Do you regret your decision to stick around?
Actually I did and I had an offer from a new company which I was about to consider, when I found out about the pregnancy. The main reason I wanted to change was salary. Also, new projects that were coming in were not challenging. But I found out that I was expecting, I chose to not take the offer. Its difficult to stay onsite for the whole day when one is pregnant. Its like you are not at your highest productivity and in the new company there are new challenges, you need to prove yourself. In my present job, people know me and they have seen me work at the best of my potential. They would back me up in times, also with changes in the management, I started getting new projects. So, no regrets!
Q: What is a typical day for you look like for you now and how do you expect it to change?
These days because of the health I am not 100% productive all the time. Sometimes I rest in the day so I work late to compensate. Somedays I am very active and other days I am not. The feeling is different for every women. Generally, farther you are in pregnancy, the more you are tired.
Q: How do you expect to keep up with your peers after you’ve been on a leave?
I am on probationary Technical Lead position, it was already in process before I declared I was pregnant. I was expecting promotion in October, since I am going for vacation in October now, I hope I will be promoted in December. I am knowingly choosing a slow career. I am not trying to take any additional responsibility. I don’t have the time or energy. Completing even forty hours a week is a challenge. I am aware that it affects my career but its worth it. After my daughter is 1 year, I will work towards getting back on track.
Q: What advice do you have other women in the Tech field, how can they prepare themselves?
Well, for the first five months don’t worry, just hang in there, it is quite early for anything. Actually, I didn’t feel a single thing after I found a positive pregnancy test. Mentally nothing had changed, physically yes changes were happening. But I didn’t feel the baby bonding at that time. I feel a lot good now. Yesterday, when I had beard papa and she started moving inside, it was a great feeling. She got the sugar high! Make sure you understand the challenges that are going to come up. Plan your day around the baby. I have another colleague, she doesn’t work for 8 hours straight. She works for two or three hours and takes a break, then another two hours. She works for a total of eight hours.
Originally published at www.pimothers.com.
