Priya Nair
Data Analyst track →Before
Business Analyst
Accenture
After
Data Analyst
Macy's
Took
5 months
₹8L → ₹16.5L
Priya had a two-year career gap after maternity leave and needed proof she was current. She rebuilt her SQL and Power BI skills on live project work, completed nine mock interviews, and joined Macy's as a Data Analyst five months after starting.
Where things stood
A two-year gap after maternity leave, and a business analyst title that hiring managers read as non-technical. Priya could write SQL but had nothing recent to point at.
What changed
She worked through a retail analytics project end to end — warehouse queries, a Power BI dashboard, and a written analysis of the findings. The gap stopped being the first thing interviewers asked about.
The interview run
Nine mocks, with the first three spent purely on how to talk about the gap without apologising for it. She had two offers within the same fortnight.