We all have 24 hours in a day, but only a handful of us make every minute count!
A sense of unwavering focus and an unfettered way of living.
A determination that no storm can shakeup.
Belief in their values and ideals.
A belief that one day, it will all come to fruition.
And that’s the stuff women of the mettle are made of.
The story of Neha Bagaria — Founder & CEO, JobsForHer — is as real as it gets, but is also exceptional because of the life-altering decisions she took at the right time.
Like many women do, Neha worked right through till the ninth month of her first pregnancy way back in 2009. She went on maternity leave for 40 days determined to return to her 5-year-long-career at Kemwell Biopharma, a business run by her husband’s family.
She had made strides in the company looking after the HR, Finance & Marketing functions.
But as luck would have it, Neha didn’t step back into her professional shoes for the next 3.5 years!
Finally in 2013, when her second son was still 6 months old, Neha decided it was time to restart her career, and returned to Kemwell, although still uncertain if she will be able to handle it all.
“I couldn’t recognise who I was. But I knew, If I had to be a happy mother, I had to be a happy person and for that, work was important.”
A sentiment that most women go through when they decide to return to a career.
Unstoppable. Invincible
But Neha was not someone to be bogged down by societal pressures. The fact that she started her first venture, Paragon, while studying for her last semester at the Wharton School of Business, proves that she dared to be different from the very beginning.
Paragon was a company that prepared students seeking admission to US colleges through the advanced placement program.
“After two years of running Paragon, my career was hit by the first two M’s that many women face – Marriage and Mobility. I got married and moved to Bangalore with my husband”, reminisces Neha.
The next 5 years of working at Kemwell gave Neha experience in Marketing, HR, and Finance, as well as being part of acquisitions of facilities in Sweden and the US.
That’s when she encountered the biggest M of them all, motherhood, and ended up taking a complete break from her career which lasted for 3.5 years. 2 babies later, Neha had the luxury of a strong career return, with her husband’s family business waiting for her to make a comeback. And so she did in 2013.
But this journey got her thinking.
A Life-Changing Decision
It got her to delve deeper into the various reasons that women all over the country might face when they wanted to return to their careers. And the more she thought about it, the more determined she was to do something to enable these women to get back to their careers with confidence (minus the guilt and the societal pressures that force them to put their professional lives on the backburner.
“I started JobsForHer, an online platform to enable women to restart their careers in 2015, on International Women’s Day. We’ve all heard stories of qualified, experienced, and capable women who step away from their careers to look after their families. I could not ignore the fact that women needed support and opportunities to re-enter the workforce. It got the entrepreneurial drive started in me,” she recollects.
JobsForHer started as a small venture, with six women – all restarters – including herself, working out of Church Street Social, a Bengaluru eatery that encourages young businesses to work on its premises for a small fee.
” A lot of companies, especially MNCs with diversity initiatives, were willing to recruit women who had stopped working,” says Bagaria. “One needs to realise that attrition among men and women is about the same—it’s just that the reasons are different.”
Women face a multitude of challenges ranging from access to employment, choice of work, working conditions, employment security, wage parity, discrimination, and balancing the competing burdens of work and family responsibilities.
And as Neha and her growing team went on to realise many milestones along the first year, they realised that to move the diversity needlewomen needed to be encouraged to rise in their careers to leadership roles as well.
And so in 2019, on JobsForHer’s fifth anniversary, Neha Bagaria announced that the platform will henceforth cater to the career needs of ALL women who are ready to start, restart and rise in their careers.
Today, she runs a 60+ member team with more than 7,500 companies on board, and 2million+ women who are registered on the platform.
About JobsForHer
JobsForHer enables women to accelerate their careers by connecting over 2 million (and counting) women candidates registered on the platform to 7500+ companies across the country. Besides job opportunities, the platform also connects women with professional communities, mentors, reskilling, and events through which they can showcase their skills and capabilities. No matter the stage of career, JobsForHer provides opportunities for women to start, restart and rise in their careers.
-Team WS
