Oracle Career Relaunch wins award for empowering workforce returnees
This article has been adapted from Oracle Career Relaunch expands to India, helps women reenter the workforce by Alex Chan.
Oracle has been named an innovator in career returnee programs by the DivHERsity Awards 2023. This one-of-a-kind award recognizes the exceptional work done by companies in India to promote participation and success at work.
The awards specifically lauded the Oracle Career Relaunch program for its positive impact on people returning to the workforce. It’s all part of a wider assessment of companies that looks at their commitment to diversity, inclusion, and gender parity.
Normalizing career breaks
Since its launch, the program has welcomed participants of all backgrounds who have taken a career break of at least one year. The reasons for these breaks are varied and include starting or raising a family, caring for a family member, taking time out after military service, being a military spouse, and doing volunteer work.
Starting in the US, the program expanded to India in 2021.
“Our mission is to widen the funnel and remove barriers to candidates from all backgrounds,” says Melissa Nicholas, senior manager of diversity recruiting at Oracle.
“We want to normalize career breaks in a resume as candidates have needed to take time off for many reasons.”
Oracle’s regional diversity recruiting lead, Harsha Bhosale, points to the democratic nature of Career Relaunch. The program doesn’t discriminate when it comes to experience and values the willingness to take on fresh challenges above all.
“It’s uniquely an opportunity that offers anyone the chance to restart their career in a full-time position, while receiving support from our intentionally curated program,” she explains.
It all comes down to helping people understand their own potential, then giving them all the tools they need to make the most of it. It’s proven to be a fertile ground for driven candidates.
“The program has helped us discover previously untapped talent in the market,” Harsha adds.
Best laid plans
Arthi Vijay had her career all planned out. After years of studying engineering and working in project management and startups based in Bangalore, India, she got her Project Management Professional certification in 2019. Afterwards, she hoped to go home to spend time with her family for a few months before returning to the workforce. The future looked bright.
Then COVID-19 hit. Forced to stay in Bangalore during the lockdown, Arthi dived into volunteer work, including a crowdfunding campaign for a kidney transplant patient and remote volunteering for the United Nations.
In summer, she began to look for work in software. But during interviews, she said she encountered some companies that saw her eclectic experience and didn’t consider her a serious candidate.
But that changed when she applied for a role through the Career Relaunch program at Oracle.
Enriching experience
“I’ve never felt discriminated against for having chosen to take a different path or having diverse experience,” says Arthi, who is now a program manager working on Oracle
Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). “In fact, they believe that it enriches the work that we do.”
The Oracle Career Relaunch program is like a concierge service for candidates looking to re-enter the workforce after a career pause. Those who apply through the program submit their resume and application for a specific role, and after successfully completing interviews, start at Oracle full time with benefits alongside fellow career relaunchers.
Their first 12 weeks consist of specialized onboarding, orientation, personalized development plans for a quick skill lift, structured job training, a speaker series, socializing with their cohort, and mentorship.
Mentorship, support, and opportunity
Sandhya Kartik spent several years working at Microsoft and a startup before taking a yearlong break after having a child. While she had some apprehension over going back to work, she felt ready to return and applied to Oracle via the Career Relaunch program.
“There were so many questions in my mind, like: ‘Will I be able to do justice to the work as well as my responsibility as a mother?’” says Sandhya, now a member of the OCI technical staff.
“But I wanted to earn an identity for myself so that I could be a strong woman and a confident mother for my child. I strongly felt and believed I had it in me to balance both.”
Feeling supported
As an engineer who had no prior experience in cloud, Sandhya felt supported through the program’s structured learning and job training, allowing her to smoothly transition into Oracle Cloud.
As a working mother, she felt supported by her cohorts in the program, which consisted of about 15 fellow career relaunchers who regularly met for group sessions.
“When you listen to the stories of the other members, you know that there are people at Oracle who are doing great work and balancing so many other things at once,” says Sandhya. “I can take inspiration from them. It makes me feel that I’m not alone.”
Unconscious baggage
Arthi also enjoyed the program’s weekly sessions featuring guest speakers and discussions about the importance of getting back into the workforce, workplace culture, and the reasons people take career breaks, such as parental leave and caregiving for elders.
“I think many of us had this unintentional, unconscious baggage of guilt,” says Arthi, adding that many were concerned about how long they had been out of the workforce and whether they would be judged for having taken time away.
Sandhya and Arthi agree that the inclusive culture and comfort people feel at Oracle is what helps career returners succeed here.
Taking a career break can be stressful for many and the questions pile up. What new technologies have emerged in my absence? Is my experience still relevant? Am I still up to speed with the pace of today’s working environment? According to Sandhya, these questions can make relaunchers doubt their own talent—but here, it was different.
“What Oracle provided was equal opportunity,” she says. “Being considered equal is enough to come back to work.”
Are you ready to relaunch your career with the global leader in cloud technology? Learn more about our Oracle Career Relaunch now and how you can come create the future with us.