Founder, JobsForHer: Why I Am An Entrepreneur?

The declaration of a female entrepreneur

Her voyage towards entrepreneurship began during her days of graduation. However, the entrepreneurial spirit in her was afresh ever since her girlhood. Here’s presenting the story of Neha Bagaria, a womanpreneur at mind and heart. Her venture ‘JobsForHer’ is an aid to all female folks who had a career break sometime in their lives.

The portal currently offers services from over 3000 companies, with over 10,000 jobs in the full-time, part-time and freelancer projects.

Gairika Mitra speaks to Neha Bagaria to find out more about her motivations for being an entrepreneur. Check it out!

First realization of being an entrepreneur

I took a three and a half-year break in my own career when I had my children. Slowly, I became aware of the various difficulties a woman faces. This also opened my eyes to all accomplished and qualified women around me who stopped working for personal reasons such as marriage, motherhood or elderly care, and then never returned to the workforce.

I started delving into the reasons behind this female brain drain. It became clear that there are many re-entry challenges that need to be addressed in India. These range from requiring flexibility, regaining confidence, retraining, overcoming biases and changing mindsets. It made me determined to enable other women to restart their careers and connect them with whatever they require to do so. And so I founded JobsForHer on International Women's Day, March 2015.

The step towards entrepreneurship

I’ve always been a social entrepreneur at heart.  During my last semester at college, I founded my first company Paragon to introduce the Advanced Placement Program in India, becoming the College Board Representative of India, which is the body that governs the SAT and AP examinations worldwide. After marriage in Bangalore, I started working with Kemwell, a pharmaceutical services company, in the fields of HR, Finance and Marketing strategy.  The growth and development that I experienced at Kemwell was immense, but my passion for social entrepreneurship continued to stay ignited within me.

Why 'JobsForHer' only and not 'JobsForHim'?

Female enrollment in colleges leapt from 10 per cent of total admissions at the time of independence to 41 per cent in 2010. However, this has not translated to equivalent gains in women’s employment. Indeed, in the past few decades, the percentage of urban and educated working women has fallen. Overall, only 20 per cent of urban educated working-age women actually work. Further, nearly half of those drop out mid-career.

Neha Bagaria

The path to the top is very different for men and women, and particularly so in India. While most men enjoy a linear career growth path, women tend to experience a zig zag journey because they are the traditional caregivers - for children, aging parents, and in-laws. This makes the career path a strenuous one for women, because they juggle many balls at the same time as their personal and professional lives grow and evolve.

Out of the working women statistics, 50 per cent drop out of the workforce in three years, resulting in approximately, 1.8 million women on a career break in India who have taken breaks for reasons like maternity, relocation, burnout, elderly-care, etc. Hence, men outnumber women particularly at the middle management level and above - because this is the time that women are more likely to cut back or drop out, when they get married and have children. Hence, JobsForHer is exclusively dedicated for women on a career break.

The Unique Entrepreneur

Our engagement services include online webinars and expert chats to offline workshops and mentorship events. Our recruitment services include online recruitment drives, hot jobs and reskilling opportunities.

There is no other portal in India that is exclusively for women on a career break, thus putting us in a unique position to solve the distinct challenges a woman has when she wants to get back to the workforce.

Entrepreneur: Dil Se

I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart.  During my last semester at college, I founded my first company Paragon to introduce the Advanced Placement Program in India and now JobsForHer is my second entrepreneurial venture.

For a woman entrepreneur to succeed in the competitive business landscape, it is imperative that we become comfortable giving equal weightage to our careers as we do to our other obligations, roles and responsibilities. And for that we need to build a thick skin and a strong support system.

Because until we don’t, we won’t be able to create the ecosystem required to support this challenging journey to the top of the corporate ladder.  We will need to rally the troops and have our backbone structure in place - parents, in-laws, extended family, friends, and yes, husband too.  We will need to make sacrifices and compromises about being there for everyone all the time and having everything perfect. And we will need to stop feeling apologetic about it.

What inspired you to become an entrepreneur? Do share your story.