Returning to India after a masters degree and a few years of work experience in USA - Part 1

Disclaimer: This post is primarily targeted at graduate Indian students who wish to return back to home country after gaining some work experience in the USA, and hence there may be some terms or cultural references aimed at the same. This is a complex topic to discuss about and hence I will be splitting this article into several parts. The first part is more of a introduction for this challenging decision point.

How often do we hear from graduate students that they wish to complete their masters in USA and then work in the USA for three to five years and eventually return back to India? But how many actually come back to India? Is it worth coming back? How does one’s future hold if he or she comes back to India? What is the right time to leave and head back to home country? This is one such post aimed at answering the above questions.

Firstly there is no right or wrong path when it comes to staying back in the USA or coming back to India. It is an individual decision which needs to be taken keeping the following factors in mind.

1.      How is your finances doing at the moment? What is the plan for clearing the education loan? How much savings are you targeting before heading back?

2.      What is the current family situation?

3.      What is your plan for settling down? (Marriage, buying home etc.).

4.      Do you have a job offer or do you plan to do an internal transfer or what is your timeline for your job hunt?

Since there are no straight forward answers to these questions, we need to analyze deeply each factor before making the decision to move back to India.

Factor 1: Finances:

               It is a no brainer that most of the students would be taking a student loan and would be wanting to complete paying the student loan back to the bank. Let us assume for a moment that an average student who end up paying close to 35 lakhs INR for the master’s degree. The student say gets around 60,000$ per year (assuming lower end) as his salary and is able to save half of his salary in a year. This would leave around 30,000$ as savings. In about two years’ time, the student would be close to repaying the loan. Let us assume he or she plans to work for three more years and let us assume an average saving of 20,000$ per year for three more years in the USA. This would lead to a savings of approximately 40 lakhs INR at the end of 5 years of work experience. This is a good amount for anyone to come back to India and start from scratch.

Factor 2: Current family situation:

               In India the joint family concept plays a vital role in making a decision to come back. In some cases independent families also exist but maybe in close proximity with their relatives or parents. This needs to be factored in as well. If your family does own a house and you wish to join them after returning back, you would eventually save on vital expenses such as rent and infrastructure.

Factor 3: Plan for settling down:

               I feel this is one of the most important factor one needs to think about. Do you plan to get married before returning to India or do you plan to get married after coming back to India? If you can answer this question you would get more clarity. If you get married and plan to come back after sometime, you and your better half have equal say (50%) on the return prospects. If you plan to come back on your own then you are the decision maker (100%). Hence you need to think thoroughly about the plans of settling down.

Factor 4: Job hunt:

               Students take it for granted that having a master’s degree with 3 to 5 years of work experience makes it very easy for them to find jobs in India. But it is the other way round. Recruiters in India would surely be skeptical if you would tell them that you plan to come back to India. Partly the problem lies with candidates who apply for jobs back in India just to gauge their market value but are not serious about the move. Hence you need to think from a company standpoint and also a recruiter standpoint. The best way to get out of this loop would be to get an internal transfer within your company if they have an Indian branch office. It need not be your home town but you can at least get closer to your home and maybe move to your home town in couple of years (next mini goal). 

As you can see these are a few factors which came to mind when I took the decision to move back and it has been wonderful journey so far. The positives which has happened with the move back to India are

1.      You get to spend more time with family and attend more festivals and functions.

2.      You are bestowed upon more responsibilities on your career front since you have international experience.

3.      You will be a more confident person when you approach situations and people.

Eventually it depends on the situation you are in and the ambitions you have. Coming back to India or staying in the USA is just a means to achieve these end goals. I would like to end it with Swades song "Yun hi chala chal rahi"

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More on this in the next parts!

Regards,

Adhi