This question originally appeared on Quora: How can women who did a career shift (MS or MBA) and then became mothers find employment in the SF Bay Area after their children are in school?
Answer by Shuba Swaminathan, Passionate about entrepreneurship and innovation, on Quora
Let's clarify a few things at the outset - it is not a matter of having too little experience or educational pedigree or in my case, location. I live(d) in Silicon Valley and am an engineer, about as good as it gets from a location/profession match POV. I found myself unemployed after 8+ years of work experience after graduate school, having earned said graduate degree from a highly reputed school/department and doing work that earned me 12+ patents and counting. I wasn't able to find a job when I took just twelve months off to enjoy my toddler, leave alone three years. Sometimes, it's pure bad luck and timing.
Here is how I got out of it.
I started my first company based on a personal pain point and the arrogance of a young engineer who believed that "if you build it, they will come". I was a decade ahead of my time and my startup failed spectacularly. But I learned all kinds of things very quickly - things that only the school of hard knocks could teach this sheltered and naive engineer who believed "selling" was a dirty word.
I parlayed that experience into admission at a top B-school. Between my first and second year, when rest of my classmates pursued well paid internships (that turned into lucrative offers upon graduation), I turned down a very generous offer from a famous big company to launch my second startup. That fizzled out by the end of the year when new legislation was passed. When I graduated, the startup bug was as strong as ever, and I founded my third startup.
This time, I was luckier than before and had a reasonable exit, though the company didn't head in the direction I was hoping for. By now, I had two kids, and I was wracked with guilt at missing out on their childhood. I therefore decided to look for non-startup employment and landed a position by submitting an application on the company's website. I knew no one and applied by submitting a form on their jobs page with no internal referrals, something most people - job hunters and head hunters alike - will tell you is a waste of time. I applied because the work sounded very interesting. Besides, my commute would be less than ten minutes. I got the job.
Reflecting on my experience, I think a few things made a big difference.
1. Luck (timing) - both when I couldn't find employment with stellar credentials, and when I did find employment by submitting my resume on a company's job page.
2. What I did with my time in between when I quit my last job working for someone else, till I started looking again for employment. I learned a lot from launching and scaling 3 startups, and the experience plus education enriched and rounded me in so many ways.
3. Resilience - it does a number on your self esteem when you fail to find well paying employment that you are well qualified for. In my case, I was considered "too start-upy" by non-startups (exact words of a person who interviewed me) and the startups that wanted to hire me believed Silicon Valley nannies could be compensated with startup stock in lieu of a paycheck. I received offers to work for a pittance that I declined. Some days were harder than the rest, but I kept at it. I tried my best to not take the rejection personally, and continued to apply to other jobs even if my experience didn't directly match everything in the job description exactly.
This last part especially, is critical. Women tend to be very conservative and only apply to jobs where they can check off every box. This is the wrong job hunting strategy. Apply instead to jobs that you find interesting, even if you are not completely qualified. That's what many men seem to do, and some actually go to the other extreme and apply for jobs that they are completely unqualified for - don't do that. If the job plays to your strengths, go for it. You will pick up what you need to know if you have the right attitude, enthusiasm, and interest. A smart manager knows to hire for aptitude and growth potential, and doesn't seek the unicorn.
A friend of mine did something else very interesting when she was in the same position. She bought a franchise and invested her time developing it till her children returned to school. By the time she interviewed, she was a successful business woman, and that made her much more attractive to potential employers. Today, she not only has a great job, she also has a steady side income from her franchise.
So my advice in a nutshell - keep the faith. Know that if someone won't employ you, you can certainly employ yourself and use that to your advantage in terms of flexibility when you need it and a success story for when you are ready to be employed by others.
How can women who did a career shift (MS or MBA) and then became mothers find employment in the SF Bay Area after their children are in school?: originally appeared on Quora: The best answer to any question. Ask a question, get a great answer. Learn from experts and access insider knowledge. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions:
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