In India and across Asia Pacific, more women are embracing a career in technology. At the same time, many may still need to take a career break for personal or family reasons like maternity, elder care, or relocation. These can make it more difficult to further their careers in technology.
But taking a break does not have to mean sacrificing their professional growth. With the right support and guidance, women can return to the workforce and resume their dream careers in tech.
The Visa Returnship Program was built to help women do exactly that. A six-month, work-based upskilling program held in Visa, it combines on-the-job training and targeted classes that help women ease back into the workforce with support from Visa’s deep expertise in payments and technology.
With the Returnship Program back for another edition, hear from three graduates from the last cohort on how the program has helped them transition seamlessly back to work.
Prerna Misha: From Quality Assurance to Automation Test Engineer
Prerna enjoyed a fruitful career in Quality Assurance in the Information Technology (IT) sector for seven years, before taking a nine-year break to take care of her children at home. After her children grew up, she discovered the Visa Returnship Program which gave her a pathway to pursue her passion in technology.
“The Visa Returnship Program was a wonderful opportunity for me to restart my career. In six months, I got the chance to learn essential skills in Selenium Java Automation, Spring Boot, and Hibernate which are critical for today’s engineers . While I was learning new skills, I was put into projects that let me use what I learned immediately.”
Today, Prerna is a valued member of the Visa Corporate IT team in Bangalore, where she tests and automates services that improve the digital lives of everyone in the office.
Hareesha Kona: From Relocation to Senior Software Engineer
Hareesha had been a software engineer for nearly ten years, before taking a break to move to Germany with her husband in 2019. But that did not douse her interest in a career in technology, especially back home in India. This was why she was thrilled to learn about the Visa Returnship Program, which gave her a new chance to progress in her career.
Hareesha was pleasantly surprised by the proactive, hands-on approach of the program, which refreshed what she learned before and added new skills to her arsenal:
“From day one, I was assigned real work. That helped me greatly in refreshing what I already had experience in and sharpened what I learned in the two months in the classes. I was fortunate to be hired as a senior software engineer at Visa, and I hope to become a lead software engineer so that I can further develop the skills I have.”
Shweta Patil: From Maternity to Software Engineer
Shweta was a software engineer before taking a 2.5-year maternity break. As she looked for a path back into the technology sector, she was offered the chance to join the Visa Returnship Program and today, she is a Senior Software Test Engineer at Visa’s Bangalore office.
Shweta credits the mix of theoretical and hands-on training for accelerating her transition back to work. In her own words:
Visa Returnship is designed in such a way that it does not directly jump into on-the-job training. It includes classroom training where I spent two months levelling up my Java and Selenium capabilities. I could quickly contribute to my team at Visa, where I improved my skills by developing real-world APIs and testing automation solutions for the company.