‘Vishwas, I have a career break of 2 years & not able to get any interview calls even though I’m updated with respect to skills & tools. What should I do?’ asked an engineer after her maternity break.’
I suggested her few things but she had already tried many of those.
I then said, ‘Let’s do an experiment. Take up online tests on HackerRank, HackerEarth, etc. on latest skills. Upload your personal project work on Github. Upload a new resume by highlighting these aspects rather than focusing on employment history.’
‘Will this work?’ she asked.
‘What recruiters look for is a candidate who is confident & can crack the interview. In any case, you are playing by your strength i.e. your skill. Experiment & let me know,’ I suggested.
After 1 month, she wrote back to me-‘Surprisingly, I got 6 calls from recruiters! In that 3 agreed to set up interviews in spite of telling them I’m coming back from a break. They got confidence looking at my test scores & codebase.’
‘Did you get the job?’ I asked, excited. ‘No, I got rejected. But I have to thank you for guiding me. I’m sure I will get a job now!’
Bottomline: Don’t play the victim card when you are coming back from a break. Play by your strength. Your skills are your ticket back to a great job!
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