Let me start with a story.
Pallavi Bhaskar, a postgraduate in Biotech never thought that she would actively start applying to internships at the age of 30. After working for more than 5 years, her husband's transferable government job took her to Hyderabad.
Her first job was as a Client Lead in Bangalore and she thoroughly enjoyed her work.
Apart from learning the intricacies at work, she also learnt a lot about life. Right from managing clients to managing finances, as an independent working professional, Pallavi had carved out a steady career for herself. She also became responsible and took immense pride in the fact that she was proving the entire ideology of girls being a burden in the Indian society, wrong.
On the other hand, her parents wanted her to get married. She was flooded with doubts about whether her partner would be supportive when it comes to her career. However, when she finally did got married, her husband and in-laws were very supportive and wanted her to continue working. For the next one year, she worked in Bangalore while her husband was working in a distant city in the north of India. He got transferred to Hyderabad and Pallavi decided to shift from Bangalore. This meant that she would have to leave her job and start job-hunting soon.
As soon as she landed in Hyderabad, she started searching for organisations matching her preference and previous work experience. But, it soon turned out to be a daunting task for her. Even after 2 months and sending in countless resumes, she wasn't getting any response for interviews. Soon, the 2 months break which she thought would pass off easily after 5 years of continuously working turned out to be not so smooth. She grew tensed and started looking for opportunities online.
A chance Google search for virtual jobs landed her on Internshala. She had heard of internships but wasn't sure if she was up for it. After all, with 5 years of experience, isn't it easy to get a job than go the internship-way? She scrolled through the website and got to see a diverse range of internships. Creativity was something which had always enthralled her but she wasn't sure if she should explore it as a career option. She decided to take a plunge and started applying for internships in the fields of writing and digital marketing.
To her surprise, she started getting a response from multiple employers. One employer asked her in the telephonic interview why she was applying for internships despite having 5 years of work experience. She replied that learning never comes with an expiration date. She soon got hired for a content writing internship with a travel startup, Weekend Thrill.
Her job was to write articles on travel and tourism. Now, Pallavi had a keen interest in travelling and her husband's job ensured that they moved from one location to another on a frequent basis. This helped her a lot while she was interning with Weekend Thrill.
Her next internship was with Venera Technologies Private Limited. At Venera, she started working as a video curator intern.
It was really a big shift from her previous experiences but she had a lot of doubts. However, the Venera team answered all of her questions, gave her constant feedback, and she immensely enjoyed the work. A few weeks into the internship, she saw her name on their website as one of the notable curators!
(Also Read - Here Is How Women Can Restart Career After Break, With Internship)
Virtual internships across different cities in India helped Pallavi take off her career. According to Pallavi, there is no dearth of knowledge in the ever growing world and no one is too young or too old to learn something new! She feels that age is not a barrier for success and irrespective of whether someone is a school or a college student, a professional, or a homemaker, should never let age or circumstances from uncovering the best in themselves.
This was Pallavi Bhaskar's story, however, not many women in India are able to continue with their jobs once familial responsibilities begin to streak in.
Once married, women often find themselves stuck in household chores and looking after their children and in-laws. This poses a hindrance in continuing with their career and they end up quitting. However, it so happens that after settling into their new lives, they manage their chores more efficiently and find themselves with enough time and desire to return to the workforce. The skill gap, however, makes it extremely difficult for them to resume their career.
Another common reason due to which women find it difficult to pursue a full-time career is the frequent relocation required in their husbands' jobs. Since they can’t make long-term commitments, employers are usually apprehensive of hiring them.
Also, in some cases like that of the wives of defence personnel, the transfers are so sudden that they don’t even get the chance to serve the notice period before leaving a job and move to another place which is most likely to be a remote area not offering enough opportunities. Here, internships can help them keep up with their professions and in many cases, revive their careers.
(Also Read - Couldn’t Start Your Career After Graduation? Here’s Your Second Chance!)
There is no dearth of opportunities if we know where to look for them. For ambitious women who want to follow their professions but are unable to do so because of frequent relocation, internships could be the answer. The immediate question is, how? Here’s how:
Internships are short-term work opportunities, typically with a duration ranging from 2 to 6 months. This makes them the perfect alternative to keep your career going when you can’t make long-term commitments usually required for jobs. Also, after doing a number of internships, you become more adaptable to the nature of the work you do change every time you join a new internship. The earned experience and adaptability along with other work-related skills you pick up during these internships, make you confident enough to take complete ownership of your work. And maybe after some time, you can even start working as a freelancer so that you can work as per your own availability across different cities.
It’s probable that you may have to move to a remote city where you might not find enough opportunities to continue your profession. Here, you can go for internships as they often come with part-time and work-from-home options. In fact, even if you are relocating to a tier-1 city, moving your life from city to city often brings along a hectic routine for you and having flexible working options can turn out to be immensely helpful in maintaining the work and life balance.
While you are not able to pursue your job, doing internships can save your career from being impaired by a skill-gap on your resume. You can pursue various internships which will keep you up with the constantly advancing technology and work methods. Plus, having these continuous work-experiences and updated skills can come in handy while applying for a job when you are finally able to settle and continue your full-time career.
Internships with their short-term and flexible nature offer you the perfect opportunity to explore various fields and at times rediscover your true passion. As a matter of fact, not just different fields, you can even explore various aspects of your own field. When you are in a full-time job, you have delegated work responsibilities and therefore, it’s difficult to find time to learn new things. So, now that you have time, you can create your own learning curve.