VMinclusion Taara — A New Hope For Women –On a Career Break
Divyashikha Verma is a graduate of the VMinclusion Taara program who has landed up with her dream job through this program. And this is her inspiring story as she begins a new journey towards the second innings of her career.
It’s been a year since I took a year off to look after my family. The circumstances under which I took this decision to quit my job were compelling, and I held out hope that finding a job when I decided to return wouldn’t be difficult owing to my rich professional experience.
Just a year later, as I sat across from my interviewer in a wide transparent windowed cabin, I realized that re-joining the workforce was going to be a lot tougher than I had expected. The technology landscape had changed in just one year leaving my skills outdated and experience irrelevant. My interviewer was not convinced about my responses, and worse, I was not either. That one experience shook my faith in my abilities. My confidence had taken a beating and I must confess there were some sleepless nights when I drowned myself in self-pity and doubt. But I emerged stronger from this experience and with a razor-sharp focus on upskilling myself.
I soon realized that the only way to get back in the tech industry was through retraining and upskilling myself and started looking for suitable training courses. One day, I came across a unique program meant for women like me called VMinclusion Taara. The program started by VMware in association with Women Who Code aimed to help women who had taken a career break re-join the workforce with updated new skillsets via certification programs in the latest digital transformation technologies.
The best part was that these industry-leading courses from VMware were offered online and hence I could work, learn and upskill from a remote location. All that was required was self-discipline and focus to diligently go through the courses and pass the assessments with flying colors. I must add that the courses are extremely interesting, so staying motivated is not a problem. The program includes advanced training on leading certified courses on digital business transformation, professional-level training courses on virtualization software for multi-cloud and hybrid cloud platforms, infrastructure and advanced tracks on data center virtualization, cloud management, and automation, network virtualization, and digital workspace technologies.
An important point to note here is that the courses are available without any costs attached. I must say, this really earned my respect. As an industry leader, VMware takes its commitment to diversity and inclusivity seriously and had paid close attention to the needs of talented dedicated women being forced out of the workforce due to their personal circumstances. Taara is their way of helping us find our way back. There are different kinds of return to work programs offered by IT companies in India and I am thankful that the industry is open to accommodate women who have taken a break. Having said that, I believe Taara is a unique program that focuses on a gap that few other programs have focussed on. Apart from being unique, it is also selfless as Taara aims at training and upskilling and giving a woman wings to pursue her dreams. It is indicative of the strength of their conviction that only a diverse workforce can drive a nation’s economic growth.
You may have heard this before, but I will say it here again — the struggle is real for women! A career break could mean the end of the road for most women, and more so for those of us in technology.
It is a shame, especially because in recent years, India has seen more women pursuing STEM careers than anywhere in the world and yet we also lead when it comes to women dropping out of the workforce to never return at all. A research by Harvard Business Review has indicated that bringing more women into the workforce can benefit not just their lives or the organization’s growth, but the economic growth of the country. It is critical to try and retain women in the workforce and facilitate their return after a break. After the completion of the VMinclusion Taara program, I’ve even got a new job and I can proudly say that I owe the second innings of my career to Taara. It has allowed me to dream of a second chance and I hope more women take advantage of programs such as VMinclusion Taara and try and enhance their careers and lives.
