About the author: Meha Rusia is a data science student. She shares her story of working in the education field before her career break and then rejoining the workforce through a course in a new field and internships.

Soon after I completed my graduation, I started working as an assistant professor of digital electronics. I taught first-year students and worked in this role for two years until I got married and moved to rural Rajasthan with my husband when he had a job transfer. Once there, I started looking for other work opportunities as I did not want to put my career on a hold. One of the job roles that I applied to was teaching science to school students. Upon getting shortlisted for this job, I went through an interview round and gave a trial class after which they extended me an offer letter. When I started the job, I realised that teaching school students required different skills compared to college students. Initially, I struggled with this change but slowly I got accustomed to it, and it turned out to be a great learning experience.

A few years later, I had to take a career break due to health issues, which got prolonged to 2 years because of the Covid outbreak and another job transfer that my husband had. This break left me with some spare time, so I started taking courses on Python out of interest. This interest was sparked during my time as a school teacher. I had maintained databases for students and teachers on MS-Excel, which I quite enjoyed. On researching a little more about it, I realised that there’s something called data analytics. This prompted me to learn Python. Gradually, I got more interested in it and also talked to a friend who guided me on making a career in this field. Hence, I enrolled in a data science course. Once this course started, I got more serious about resuming my career and started searching for jobs.

I was unable to land any job because I was new to the field and had a career gap. Therefore, I began looking for internships but could not find any. Then on a cousin’s recommendation, I tried Internshala. Although I was shortlisted for one of the internships, I got rejected after the interview round. However, the company I interviewed with shared feedback on improvement areas that helped me get my first internship. The feedback consisted of preparing for specific topics that were bound to be asked. I incorporated this feedback in my internship preparation. When I read one topic, I would search for interview questions related to that topic and do some assignments. I would also go through the job description properly to understand the company’s requirements and prepare for my interviews accordingly. Eventually, I got my first internship as an R programmer at Sirpi Visualize and Decide.

Since this was my first work experience after the break, it took me some time to settle in. I started interning with 3 other interns who were in their early 20s. I was nervous at that time because they had good technical skills and were speedy in carrying out their tasks. I felt myself lagging comparatively. In fact, I was the last to set up my laptop on the first day. I was uncertain that I would survive one month of the internship. But gradually, I got better and felt more confident in my role so much so that the internship got extended to 3 months! I have also improved my communication, time management, and other technical skills. Moreover, I have learnt how to ask the right questions, which is a significant part of the job. As I was eager to learn more about the field, I asked my team lead if I could join the client meetings to ask a few questions.

This internship has helped me gain experience and bridge my career gap, which will lead to more career opportunities once I complete my course.