Akanksha Gupta, born and raised in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, completed her M.tech in Computer Science from Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya but did not find any placement opportunities. Right after graduation, she got married in 2011 and soon became a mother of a baby girl. Caring for her little daughter took most of her time, leaving her IT dream unfulfilled.
She had always wanted to do something on her own, so she began teaching students at home when her daughter was very young and dependent on her. Later, when her daughter started school, Akanksha became a teacher at her daughter’s school in order to be close to her and pursue a career at the same time.
She was frequently the target of taunts and unsolicited advice because she was unable to pursue the job for which she was qualified. She attempted to find work in the IT sector but was unsuccessful due to her lengthy career gap and lack of practical experience.
Determined to make a career in IT, Akanksha learned about the Women in Tech batch of Newton School from her brother, who also got placed through Newton School’s Full Stack Development Course in 2021. In a few months, Akanksha mastered all industry-relevant skills, including different programming languages and tools, like HTML, CSS, JS, React, Redux, Node JS, and MongoDB. She also learned about Work From Home opportunities and that women with career breaks could also join the tech workforce at any age.
After struggling for ten years, she finally got placed at GlobalLogic, an American subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd, as a software developer. It being a remote job gave her the support of staying close to her daughter. Every day, Akanksha inspires and empowers more women to break the stereotype that women should give up their careers after having children.
Newton School is enabling students from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities to get packages equal to IITians. Founded by Nishant Chandra and Siddharth Maheshwari, its goal is to provide a platform to millions of Indian youth and working professionals to build fast-growing and sustainable tech careers.
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