Sudeshna Pillarisetty: From Journalist to Childcare Entrepreneur – Living Her Dream in Toronto

Name: Sudeshna Pillarisetty | Designation: Executive Director | Company: SimplySmart | Place: Toronto 

(July 11, 2023) Sudeshna Pillarisetty’s career trajectory has traversed a plethora of fields… all to ultimately lead her to a profession that she’d always dreamed of – First as a journalist, then as a media coordinator, a social media manager to ultimately becoming entrenched in the field of early childhood education. Currently, the executive director of SimplySmart Child Care Centre and Montessori in Toronto, Sudeshna is finally living her dream.

From Hyderabad to Toronto 

Born in Hyderabad, raised in Mumbai and educated in Manipal, Sudeshna began her career as a journalist in Hyderabad where she worked with the broadcast and print media. Life took a turn when she got married to her Canada-based partner and made her way across continents to begin afresh. “When I moved to Toronto in 2013, it was the thick of winter. After having lived all my life in a place as vibrant as India, Toronto in the middle of winter turned out to be rather lonely,” says Sudeshna, “Add to that the job hunt didn’t make things any better.”

Sudeshna Pillarisetty

Unlike job hunting in India, the market in Canada is largely networking-driven. Moreover, local experience plays a huge role as well. “I was looking for jobs in the media industry, but I just couldn’t find a way to get my foot in the door. I was rejected on the grounds that I didn’t have Canadian experience. But how would I get local experience if I didn’t even get a chance in the first place?” says Sudeshna. “Even now new immigrants find it hard to get the same position they were working in back home on similar grounds.”

‘Acting with courage’  

That’s when her husband wrote her a note that she carries in her bag to this day. It read, ‘Courage is the ability to act before confidence arrives’. “It stuck with me,” says Sudeshna. She finally decided to pursue a course in social media management at Humber College. “I realised that doing a local course helps when it comes to job hunting. It helped me get my first job in Canada as a social media manager.”

As she finally managed to get in the door to the Canadian market, Sudeshna realised that what she really wanted to do was do something on her own. She just didn’t know what. “I’d always been interested in teaching. I ended up doing a course in reconceptualising early childhood education (RECE) from Seneca College and became registered in RECE,” says Sudeshna, who finally became a franchise owner of Simply Smart Child Care Centre and Montessori. “I strongly believe that the first 1000 days are extremely important in shaping a child’s future. When I had my own children I did a lot of research and the more I read I realised that the environment a child grows in plays a huge role in shaping who they become.”

When Sudeshna was looking for daycare centres for her own children, she found that many didn’t meet her expectations. That is till she came across SimplySmart. “I was very inspired by their ethos and wanted to get on board myself. That’s how I set up my own centre,” says this mum of two, adding, “Given how hard it is for new immigrants to enter the Canadian workforce, I wanted to open the door to people who were qualified but lacked the Canadian experience. My school now helps provide employment to 25 women and enables 100 other mothers to go forth and pursue their careers because they know that they have somebody good taking care of their children.”

Making time for family and travel  

As a young mum of two girls and the executive director of her childcare centre, Sudeshna has her hands full. From spending time with her girls to overseeing the centre both from an operations and strategy perspective she says that no two days are the same for her. “Each day brings with it its own set of challenges and achievements to navigate through. My girls are my biggest de-stressors. I love raising them and I cherish whatever time I get with them outside of work.”

During her time off she loves to travel with her husband. “We perceive travel a little differently. It is not merely ticking places off our checklists. We love to spend some time in each place we visit and soak up the local culture and way of life. We’ve spent three weeks in Peru and two in France trying to learn the local culture and understanding the pulse of the city. Travel also ties in with my other interest – photography. I love shooting landscapes and have a blog where I write about my travels and share tips and suggestions.”

Keeping in touch with her roots 

Over the past decade, as Sudeshna has charted a new life away from home, she has been careful to keep alive her connection with her roots. From frequent trips home to ensuring that her children learn about their roots, she has been going that extra mile to keep alive that connection. “I’ve been learning Kathak for the last 10 years, while my older daughter is learning Kuchipudi. My husband is into Indian classical music and as a family, we’re a part of a Telugu literature club. While outside of the home, we might speak English, at home we have a hard rule of speaking only in Telugu, so the girls learn their mother tongue,” says Sudeshna, who also makes it a point to give back to society in her own way.

“I’m associated with several organisations in India and in Canada. Most importantly I believe in raising a responsible child who understands the importance of service. For instance, I took my 3-year-old to an Earth Day clean-up drive. Was she too young for it? Probably. But I believe in starting them young,” she says, adding, “Sharing and giving back was taught to me by my parents when I was very young. Some of the things might have upset me back then like sharing an already limited stash of fireworks with someone less privileged. But it stuck with me and today it’s something I strive to teach my girls as well.”

Takeaways:  

• Be willing to learn and pivot your career goals as per the situation and circumstances.
• When starting out in a new country it helps to study from a local institute.
• Perseverance plays a huge role when it comes to pursuing opportunities.
• Don’t forget to keep alive the connection to your roots no matter where in the world you might choose to settle.