PayPal Invites Customers to Recharge and Get #BackToCode

PayPal, the global leader in online payments, today announced the launch of ‘Recharge’, a unique six-week program to empower women technologists to return to work after a personal career break. The program is designed to increase diversity in technology, while also giving individuals who want to return to work an opportunity to expand their experience and network.

Today in India, close to 50% of women drop-out of work before they reach mid-career, many of which are for personal reasons or to start a family. Studies have found that about 90% of them do want to return to work after a break, but on top of societal expectations, many are unsure of where to start and worry about whether they’ve fallen behind the industry in their time away from work. This is especially so in the fast-paced, dynamic technology industry, where the gender ratios fall far behind other sectors in the country.   

PayPal’s Recharge program is designed to put some of these concerns to rest, and help women technologists in India jumpstart their return to the workplace with the confidence and skills that will make them trailblazers in the industry. 

Recharge will be rolled out in three phases, beginning with a half-day launch in Chennai on November 19, 2015. Up to 100 women will have a chance to network with leaders from PayPal and the industry. They will also learn about the key first steps of getting back into the workforce, from updating their resumes to interviewing effectively for jobs.

After the launch, PayPal will interview these technologists and shortlist 30 of them for a three-week technology boot camp at the PayPal India’s Technology Center in Chennai from December 1 to 18, 2015. The boot camp will include technology and business-oriented training to help the participants get up to speed with the latest in the industry. This includes introductions to mobile app development and Node.js, as well as mentorship sessions with PayPal leaders in the center. 

PayPal will then offer full-time jobs and internships to up to 10 of the women for the following roles (in Chennai or Bangalore):

• Software Development Engineer
• Software Development – Test Engineer
• Scrum Master
• Release Engineer
• Risk Analyst Team Leader
• Customer Service Operations

“Recharge is a one-of-its-kind initiative that demonstrates PayPal’s commitment to building a strong and diverse organization, and to support women in India to pursue technical careers to their full potential.” Jayanthi Vaidyanathan, Director, Human Resources, PayPal India. “Women are a driving force for the economy in India. Recharge is another programme that PayPal has launched to help bridge the gender gap at work, which if we can address as an industry would create $2.9 trillion dollars in additional annual GDP in India by 2025.”

Recharge is open to women who have taken a personal career break for a period of 1-3 years, with at least 5 years of work experience in product development and analytics, with backgrounds in Java, J2EE, PEGA, scrum master, test automation, release engineering, risk analytics or operations. Interested applicants can submit their resumes to recharge@paypal.com .