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T H E H O M E TO W N N E W S PA P E R F O R M E N LO PA R K , AT H E RTO N , P O RTO L A VA L L E Y A N D W O O D S I D E

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W W W. T H E A L M A N AC O N L I N E . C O M

Women unite to bridge

THE RESUME GAP

SECTION 2

S E C T I O N

Community
S TO R I E S A B O U T P E O P L E A N D E V E N T S I N T H E C O M M U N I T Y

Photo by Magali Gauthier/The Almanac

Clockwise, from
right: SparkUp founder
Singari Seshadri discusses
networking opportunities
with Saira Maqvi at a recent
SparkUp meeting; panelists
at last months meeting
included, from left, Vidya
Mallik, Sanjana Anand, and
Lisa Stotlar; job-seeker Katy
Jenkins, who attended last
months SparkUp meeting,
has been told her 32-year
tenure with H-P could be
seen as a liability.

Photo by Michelle Le/The Almanac

Bridging the

resume gap
Women unite to
ease return
to workforce
By Barbara Wood

eeting some of the

women who are part
of a new local group
trying to help women return to
paid employment after a career
break makes one aware that

Silicon Valley may be wasting a

precious resource that has nothing to do with the drought.
The women who have joined
to form SparkUp have advanced
degrees from places like Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia and
Cornell. Theyre lawyers, scientists, MBAs and PhD. They
have decades of experience in
demanding workplaces.
They also have what many call
a resume gap years spent

outside the conventional work

world caring for children or
elderly relatives, or even working on their own businesses.
The women say they are facing
problems they couldnt imagine
when they decided to shift their
focus from work to other priorities, whether a few years or more
than a decade ago. Many have
found that now that they are ready
to return to the work world, that
world doesnt seem to want them.

Photo by Magali Gauthier/The Almanac

Katy Jenkins of Menlo Park,

who in 2013 took a buyout after
32 years with the Hewlett-Packard Company to help care for
ailing parents and a teenage son,
has been told that something
that used to be seen as a laudable
trait loyalty to an employer
is now seen by some as a liability.
After helping her mother cope
with the death of her father,
moving her to assisted living
and clearing out the family
home, while supporting her son
through the transition from
middle school to high school;
Ms. Jenkins decided to return to

paid employment.
The break recharged me, she
says. I have the energy to go
back full-swing.
When she left H-P, she was an
engineering business operations
manager, in charge of incorporating a start-up acquisition into
the company.
With a masters degree in electrical engineering from Stanford
University, a masters of business
administration from the University of California, Berkeley, and
a wide variety of management
See page 19

June 3, 2015QTheAlmanacOnline.comQThe AlmanacQ17

C O M M U N I T Y

Katy Jenkins, with her

son Michael and their dog
Maverick in her Menlo
Park backyard, has tapped
into the SparkUp network
as she looks for a new job
after a two-year break.
Photo by Michelle Le/The Almanac

Kumar to apply for a job in

Bridging the resume gap Ms.
the lab. Although Ms. Kumar
was over-qualified for the entrycontinued from page 17

experience at H-P, it seems that

Ms. Jenkins would be a prized
commodity in Silicon Valley.
Instead, after recently going
through two rounds of interviews at one company, she was
told that the interviewer didnt
like the fact that Id worked
for the same company for a
long time. Another company
told her, despite having both
an undergraduate and masters
degree in electrical engineering,
they didnt think I was technical enough.
Mostly, though, she has applied
for positions that I think are
perfect for me only to see her
resume fall into the black hole,
she says.
At a recent SparkUp meeting in
Menlo Park, a panel of recruiters
and career coaches gave advice
to the standing-room-only
crowd of women in attendance,
including Ms. Jenkins.
Its important to remember
rejection is a normal part of
the process, said Colleen Canney, an engineering recruiter
for Google and a career coach.
She recommended an action
plan that includes talking with
people in a job you think you
might want. Speak with people
and put yourself out there, she
said.
Divya Kumar is someone who
did just that after attending one
of the first meetings of SparkUp,
which was formed only last
October. Ms. Kumar, 39, had
a doctorate in chemistry from

Columbia University and had

done post-doctoral work at UC
Davis when she discovered her
infant daughter had severe multiple food allergies. It was hard
to leave her with anybody, she
says. Day care was out of the
question for me.
With her daughter now in
kindergarten and a second child
who is free of allergies, Ms.
Kumar, who recently moved to
Sunnyvale, decided she could

I still have that drive in

me I want to use it
ROOPA SHAH OF ATHERTON ,
ON GOING BACK TO WORK AFTER A
CHILD - REARING HIATUS

return to paid employment. At

SparkUp she found that everyone had this common goal of
trying to get back to a career,
she said.
Although it was not part of
her background, Ms. Kumar
decided she wanted to work in
food allergy research. After trying unsuccessfully to be introduced to a doctor she admired,
Kari Nadeau, the director of
the Sean N. Parker Center for
Allergy Research at Stanford,
Ms. Kumar just sent her an
email. I kept realizing this is
what I want to do, and why not
tell this doctor? she said.
Dr. Nadeau not only emailed
back quickly, but encouraged

level job, she convinced them

that she would stay with it.
She was hired. Its so rewarding, she says of her new job.
That type of success story was
what Singari Seshadri had in
mind when she formed SparkUp. The local group was actually
her second, and she says that
after relocating to the Bay Area
when her husband got a new job,
she had no plans to transplant
the organization she had started
in New York state.
In fact, she thought that Silicon Valley would have plenty of
resources for women trying to
return to paid employment. I
didnt think there was an issue
here, she says.
But then an attorney who
wanted advice about what might
happen if she took a break from
her legal career posted a comment about her situation on
the Parents Club of Palo Alto
and Menlo Park website. The
posting struck a nerve in that
community. It brought up this
whole issue of, can women go
back to work? Ms. Seshadri
says.
Ms. Seshadri posted a link
to the New York SparkUp, and
she was urged to start a similar
organization here. A Google
forum led to a coffee in October,
which led to another meeting,
and then a speaker series and
additional get-togethers that
started in January.
For the first speaker, we honestly were expecting 15 people,
Ms. Seshadri says. They had 93,

and had to scramble for a room

to accommodate them at the last
minute. The group now has 300
on its mailing list.
At the core of what SparkUp
is trying to do, Ms. Seshadri
says, is the idea of having this
peer group or cohort to support
you through this journey. The
women keep each other on track
and motivated, and share connections and ideas. Its really
this idea of support, motivation,
accountability, she says.
These women are so intelligent, so talented, have so much
to offer, Ms. Seshadri says.
Roopa Shah, 39, of Atherton
is one of those SparkUp members. With a background as a
research scientist and an MBA
from Cornell, she says shes just
beginning to think about going
back to work now that her second child is 2.
I didnt mind taking a backseat for a while, she says. But
now, I want to do something for
myself, she says. I still have that
drive in me I want to use it.
From SparkUp, Ms. Shah says,
shes learned that figuring out
the type of work she wants to do
and where she wants to do it are
important. Im trying to figure
out what I want to do; what I can
do, she says.
Knowing others who are doing
the same thing helps, she says.
Its good to know there (are) so
many like you who are trying to
transition back, she says.
Ms. Seshadri, the SparkUp
founder, says had an ulterior
motive in getting the local organization going shed like to
go back to paying work as well.

With her family finally settled

in Menlo Park and her son
about to enter middle school, the
42-year-old says shes ready. Im
out there networking, meeting people; trying to figure out
whats next for me, she says.
Since she advises women to
try to figure out what their ideal
job is, Ms. Seshadri has her own
in mind. My dream job is running, or being involved with,
an organization or a fund that
invests in women entrepreneurs, she says. I love working
with start-ups, I love working
with entrepreneurs. I am interested in empowering women.
Since shes been at this awhile,
Ms. Seshadri also knows the
perfect job doesnt exist, she
says, so she would also be happy
to take a job that combines two
of those loves.
Ms. Jenkins says despite her
setbacks, she is not discouraged.
Im optimistic, she says. Maybe its because Im a problem
solver. She now understands,
she says, you dont necessarily
go back to the job you left and
I think thats one of the things
women have to get over.
But theres a world of possibilities out there. A

On the cover

Sowmya Thvar and Aisha

Piracha exchange contact
information after the
SparkUp meeting in Menlo
Park last month. Photo
by Magali Gauthier/The
Almanac.

June 3, 2015QTheAlmanacOnline.comQThe AlmanacQ19