For many people, turning forty is a time to settle into the career they have built. But for Janhavi Ajit Rao, it marked the beginning of an entirely new one. Janhavi had spent 18 years building a successful career as a software engineer, working in both the US and India. She completed her bachelor's and master's degrees in the US before moving to India, where she started her own company. She had already built a very successful career and life for herself. However, life does not always go as planned. A very unexpected and pivotal event changed her life completely.
Born and raised in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, Rao had a strong interest in academics and technology. After completing her schooling, Rao moved to the United States to pursue her higher education. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) from the University of California, San Diego, and then a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE) from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Over the next 18 years, she built a successful career in the technology industry, working in both the United States and India. During that time, she held positions at companies such as Microsoft, Wipro, and PMC-Sierra. In 2002, she returned to India with her husband, where she eventually started her own defence and electronics startup named Spectranta Systems in Bengaluru, where she served as the director for a few years. In 2003, just eight months after her son was born, Rao was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that causes joint pain and swelling. After visiting numerous doctors, she was finally diagnosed by Dr K.M. Mahendrnath. Her experience as a patient, along with seeing the care doctors provided and the impact they had on the lives of the patients, inspired her to pursue a career in medicine. In 2013, at the age of 40, Janhavi quit her successful tech career and enrolled in the MBBS program at M.S. Ramaiah Medical College in Bengaluru.
Returning to college after nearly two decades was far from easy. She was not only shifting to a completely different field but also returning to a rigorous academic environment after spending 20 years in the corporate world, which required immense perseverance. She had to keep up with medical training and hospital rotations alongside classmates who were much younger than her, whom she remembers as being very supportive. Janhavi had to balance being a student with her responsibilities as a wife, mother, and daughter-in-law, which were very challenging. She had to manage her time carefully, as studying medicine demanded long hours. She made sure not to waste any time and studied whenever she could. Having studied engineering in the United States, she was used to short, problem-based exams. She found the Indian medical system’s three-hour essay-type exams daunting, as she had not taken one in 23 years. Because of her arthritis, climbing stairs became difficult, so Dr Mahendranath wrote her a letter allowing her to use the lift, which became a great help throughout her time in medical school. During her internship, she faced 32-36 hours of continuous duty, which she described as very challenging. Despite the gap in her studies, she passed all her medical exams with first-class honours.
After years of hard work and determination, Janhavi finally achieved her dream of becoming a doctor by earning her MBBS degree. She eventually returned to the United States, where she completed her residency in internal medicine at Riverside University Health System. She trained there from July 2021 to June 2024. Since September 2024, she has been working for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in San Diego, where she is currently practising as a primary care physician. Looking back on her journey, Rao spoke about how different her two professions were. According to her, engineering focused on solving complex technical problems such as securing wireless communications for soldiers, where there was more room for error and multiple iterations. In contrast, medicine focused more on human connection and building trust with patients. She noted that the margin of error was razor-thin and sometimes nonexistent compared to engineering. Her words suggest that her experience as a patient shaped the kind of doctor she wanted to become. Janhavi’s journey allowed her to experience both worlds, giving her a unique understanding of how technical knowledge and human compassion can work together to make a difference in people’s lives.
Janhavi Ajit Rao’s journey reminds us that there are no fixed timelines for finding what we truly want to do in life. Her story is not the only one; numerous people around the world have found their calling way later in life. Falguni Nayar, born in Mumbai, was a successful investment banker for nearly two decades at Kotak Mahindra Capital and later became the Managing Director of the company. At the age of 49, she decided to leave her corporate career and founded Nykaa in 2012. Nykaa grew into one of India’s largest beauty and lifestyle companies. Vera Wang, born in New York City, initially pursued a career in competitive figure skating before working as an editor at Vogue magazine and later as a design director at Ralph Lauren. At the age of 40, she entered the fashion industry as a bridal designer after struggling to find a wedding dress that matched her vision. She later opened her own bridal boutique and became one of the world’s most influential fashion designers. Julia Child was born in Pasadena, California, where she worked in advertising before joining the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. After moving to Paris with her husband, she developed a deep interest in French cuisine and went on to study at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school. At the age of 49, she published her first cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which introduced French cooking to millions of American households, and she became one of America’s most celebrated chefs and television personalities. What connects these women is not when they started but their courage to choose a different path even after finding success elsewhere. Their stories show that changing careers does not mean starting from the beginning. Instead, the experiences they gained in one profession became the foundation for the next.
For Janhavi Ajit Rao, choosing medicine at the age of forty was not about starting over but about following a path she wanted to pursue. Her journey reminds us that careers may change, but the determination to keep learning and growing can shape life in unexpected ways. Sometimes, following a dream means taking a risk and stepping away from a life that already feels secure. Age, the number of years it takes, or the career a person chooses matters far less than the passion we have for what we truly want to do and the happiness it brings us. In the end, believing in yourself and having the courage to take that risk can open the door to opportunities you may never have imagined.
References
- NDTV https://www.ndtv.com
- Medical Dialogues https://medicaldialogues.in
- Bangalore Mirror https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com
- Forbes (Falguni Nayar) https://www.forbes.com
- Encyclopaedia Britannica (Vera Wang) https://www.britannica.com
- Encyclopaedia Britannica (Julia Child) https://www.britannica.com