Watch: Is Moving Back to India a Smart Career Move for Non-IT NRIs?

4:08 Thought India is a bigger Market and my the head of Europe approached me saying that would you be interested in shifting over to Netherlands and take over the leadership Opportunity by growing India business and then we we thought through that and we this was 2019 summer that was the time where our son was also born so we had a lot going on during that time as well but eventually we decided to to take up that opportunity we shifted there and Co hit but that basically help my career a lot I knew I grew the Staples business in India significantly and during that time also like a postco I was traveling a lot of times to India to see the factories meeting new customers and I saw the makeshift of how when I left India versus when this was in 2021 how India has changed like

5:09 The ease of doing business the banking structure the the people's willingness to take higher risks with the entrepreneurial startup culture that was going on and then that's where me and Aditi started having a discussion we actually went for a wedding my cousin's my close cousin spreading and we started asking questions thinking through about it and that's where we started having a Feelgood scenario and then that's where we decided that we would like she was offered to move back to us as well but with all those Visa structures and doing lot of pros and cons we eventually decided that we should move back to India and then it was December 2022 that we shifted back to India got it and what about you Aditi yeah so back to my background so I've done my mechanical engineering

6:10 Bachelor's in mechanical engineering from I'm basically from itself born in Fr I moved to us to do my MERS in industrial engineering there's no particular reason it was honestly more like everyone was giving G everyone was giving toil you know and let me also to do it it was more of that to begin with but then I got into same nor Eastern University program in industrial engineering I went there I I actually got a very very I met my PhD advisor there very very good professor that's how I got interested in doing more of research getting into a PhD program so then I started my PhD in industrial engineering at the same University Northeast I finished my PhD in 2017 and at the same time my own department at nor Eastern offered me to start teaching there so I started

7:11 Teaching at nor Eastern at the same time I also started teaching at to poly Technic Institute that happened through a professor that I met at a conference he offered to meach one class and that's how went on so I Tau at both the universities for about two years and and then at that time the postto opportunity at MIT was floating around and a lot of people were applying for it I thought I'll take my chances and I applied for postto I got into MIT for completing the post do so I did my post talk for a year and then that again resulted into a full-time job at MIT so yeah I was instructor at Mid for about four years so right within this time as Allah mentioned M to Netherlands and that was right during time so actually because of Co since everything was online my job at MIT continued and I was working for MIT from NE and then

8:15 Yeah then when we moved back to India I got a faculty position we moved so I had my job in hand we moved back in December 2022 and then like in a month I joined as an assistant univers no yeah thank you very much for both of you to give a such a detailed background and overview of your journey abroad so maybe let's dive into a little bit about some of these U you know Journeys right especially the transition to Netherlands during the covid you have your newborn you know and moving to a different country with a different role but luckily it's the company that you're very familiar with but it's just going to be different headquarters and you know with the pandemic how was the move and anything that you would share like you know your experiences anything that you would say like you have done different just curious on that I mean you know it's

9:10 Said yeah so I moved slightly earlier so I moved in January over there just to get a hang off the country and basically there was a huge housing crisis so there was no point for three of us to move there so I moved slightly earlier figured a place and then basically just doing the spring break or that time I went back to start planning their move to Netherlands and I was going to be there for two weeks and within one week the borders shut down so technically we were I was stuck you can say now that I was stuck in the we still had our house like apartment in us but from a Visa perspective I was still I came on a tourist visa so I was stuck in the US for a few months and then I think this was time where I had to my residency permit would have been gone if I stayed for more than 5 months time so that's where after 4 months hit I emailed a consulate in

10:10 Netherlands saying that this is the situation and we would like like I would like to move back and then they said that we just open the doors and we like there will be a flight arranged during that time so that's where then three of us my son had turned by that time a year old and at the time so the flight was completely for us technically because there were hardly like seven eight passengers traveling then we shifted back to Netherlands again everything was closed down there were a couple of grocery stores that were open so that's the time actually we started learning about the Dutch culture fortunately being in Europe it's so very well connected and Netherland everybody speaks English so we didn't find that that much of a cultural shock while shifting over to the Netherlands because every world like people were helpful and if we couldn't figure out something people would answer us back in Netherlands yeah in their in in

11:11 English sorry so the move so there were a lot of like differences in that thing like in US there are much more welcoming like friendly nature everything is open everything is huge whereas this is smaller people are more reserved compared to the US so first two years pretty much we didn't have much of any social or friend circle like one year at least yeah so that's about it cool and adii in your case I know you mentioned I think you able to continue the teaching while like you know being outside so how does how did it work out I'm maybe curious more on a if you're okay to share from a Visa status right I think alard has mentioned on his Visa like in you you are maintaining the H1 and you just like you know Contin to work there just curious on that yeah no so basically what happened since we decided to move to the Netherlands before right so at that time it was like a proper inperson position that I

12:13 Was working at like I was an instructor at MIT and so when we decided to move I sent an email to my faculty director that you know this is the move that we planning and I'll be know quitting soon because of all of this and right after two week Co hit and then everything went online so that's when our faculty director decided that you know since anyway everyone's working online and at that time a lot of actually companies and universities in us allowed people to work from anywhere like you can be in any country and work for for any institution so they said we could work it out under this clause and so I we moved to the Netherlands I since then I have had no visa to go back to us so I was in the Netherlands in in the Netherlands I was on a dependent Visa right on him yeah but there the people on dependent Visa could work so

13:14 That allowed me to work for MIT from the got it no thank you so just taking a step I know I think spending n and a half years in us you know getting two and a half years like what was the triggering point to say like this is the time we want to move back to India and how did you come to that conclusion and what was the planning that was done beforehand anything that you can talk about like how you planned or how you

13:40 Timed your move and what's the thought process behind it right so you know most people who live in us always have this idea of going back to India back of their mind right A lot of people have that we have always had that in our somewhere in our minds it's just that we keep waiting for the right time and then that somehow never comes or you're just like you know you start enjoying the life that you have there for us it was sort of the same thing we we always had that in our mind that we want to move back to India we the major reason why we moved at this particular time was mostly from our son's point of view so as generally you see kids start education in the Netherlands they start going to school at the age of four so we were thinking if he starts his education in the Netherlands and then after a couple of years we move him to India it's going to be difficult for him

14:40 To adjust there's always a comparison that happens you know that my life in Netherlands was like this or my life in US was like this and now my parents have got me her and the life is different so we just wanted him to do education in the same system yeah and then just get adjusted in that right at the beginning so we then decided to move to India before he dos for and basically starts education no thanks for sharing that so was there anything in terms of the planning I know it make sense so like you know before you start school that's when you decided you need to be in India is there anything from a planning perspect from a career transition moving back to India or from a financial planning or the logistics anything that you can talk about like and for how long have you been planning for right I mean let's say I think December 2022 is like you decided like you know was it planned for an year 6 months and what was the planning

15:38 Process so I think it started December 2021 you can say that so one of the things was we were trying to come to visit to India but a day before our flight we found out we were covid positive so at that time we couldn't make our trip to India so we had to cancel a lot of plans and stuff there were a lot going on we had to cancel a lot of things and then just like when we and me and us just started talking through doing that that we just keep on doing this every December we spend time could we just and it was a time where she was also asked to move back so either to us was calling her back so we knew that probably we have to make a call and like basically we laid down all the pros and cons of all the different countries and so technical year down the line we started having those discussions and by March we had made a plan that we will always be in this situation no matter what any

16:41 Age we are let's see if we can move back to India and then but our main criteria during that time was one of us has to have a job or at least something in hand before we make that transition so then that's where like she a PhD and a post dog her opportunities in our cities are like or the quality of the work are limited so then that's where she started applying for a job and I had made a plan that I would not do a full-time job in India so that's where then she took the risk and then she found a very good job during that time that would at that moment it was basically that she she could take care of that entire house within know savings if I didn't get anything for one year two year whatever I I wanted to have that time so this was I think June July that we found like she had an offer letter in hand and a

17:42 Joining date starting January and then from that moment we we had our own house as well so we started putting our house on the market doing the reverse planning started looking for schools technically we pretty much like from a logistic perspective those four months pretty much went on selling everything which we had in our hand because the job was settled we we were we are going to come to the same city that we grew up in so from stay perspective or health perspective we didn't have those challenges because our parents are from the same city we knew that even if we don't have something there will be always enough people who would help us around yeah so

18:27 That entire 4 months basically went in finding like pool for my son and getting rid of everything like banking taxes tax related stuff insurances that we had over there making sure that by the time we leave in December everything should be sorted it definitely takes minimum of 6 months from the day you have something in your hand so whereas it could be any longer deping upon the job the right job you find for yourself cool so maybe couple of quick questions there

19:05 Was the plan to move to Pune always the thought process there so no other city so it's like that's where you grow up that's where the parents are and you want to be there okay there was no point moving to any different city however like it was basically either Pune or we stay here yeah that if we cannot be closer to our family members closer to the culture we which we grew up in it's better that we just stay here yeah so we always wanted to live and settle down in Pune makes sense and then the other question I just want to confirm so you said like selling the house so is that in Netherlands like how is the process there so just curious on that you know especially maybe some of the logistics for someone moving from a Europe how hard it is or is it very similar to like how you know you sell in us so just curious on that so yeah it was challenging because the market has started dropping down but by that time but you cannot sell the house on your own like so we hired basically an agent who

20:07 Helped us sell the house so during that time also like you have to move out of the like there were so many viewings you have to move out of the house come in move out come in so it was definitely a stressful time that we didn't know if we would be able to sell the house with the right cost at the right amount of time but luckily one month prior to that we got the deal which we were looking for and then we moved back got it and then maybe Switching gears a little bit on the career side so Aditi I think you mentioned I think you have started applying from Netherlands for the roles in India how did it go like you know this is also another question I know academics might be different than people who are in the corporate side especially like how how much serious the people would take that you're actually moving in to India and so on so maybe can you share

20:57 Your experiences about out how the job search and how it it went and how was your experience how we basically started is we knew we wanted to so the deciding on the location was was not a decision for us I just shortlisted universities from pun where you know I I could see some positions when I thought I could you know go and work that way so actually the I'm I'm currently an assistant professor at pla University that was the first application that I made and yeah I eventually got through but as you mentioned I had my interview and then probably one of the question that most people had asked me was that how serious are you for coming back to pun you know like if we give you an offer what percentage do you think you're confident of taking in terms of

22:08 Moving back and this is what it is the lesses that I had was that my family is in pun my parents were in pun so when I say we want to move back you know to be close to our family it's sort of matches because they are in Pune so if I get a job in Pune I'm most likely going to dat it I think they just took that chance on me and then I accepted it so that's how okay sounds like I think you had a very smooth process seems like you are more sought out and they just want to confirm if they offer you taking it sounds like they want to have that confirmation so Al in your case I know you wanted to kind of get into more entrepreneur side I think that's what so how did it go or how is it going just curious I think you know someone who is thinking along those lines especially someone who spent close to more than a decade 12 years or you know more than a decade corporate world how are the opportunities in India and someone who is coming from a medical device and who

23:09 Is in an industrial engineering you know which is not a common roles or like common you know things in India so

23:16 Just curious on your experience with the career transition and how so in the last few years I was more on like the category management forcing side of the world so honestly once got the job like I was not even looking for something that aggressively because we had too many things on our plate like selling the house finding the things and then I decided I I'll do some freelancing kind of a work to get a hang of how the work culture is because I was going to get into a like a proper corporate world I still had that fear of like how the corporate culture is going to be yeah so I always wanted to say that let me try some freelancing work and October November time I got a good opportunity to start off my like a freelancing work there's a company based in food company based in Pune the owner happens to be my friend and then he offer me that why don't you come and help us whever you can and that's

24:17 How the journey started one thing led to another and then the abilities the biggest factor for me is the ability to do like I had so many ideas living in US Netherlands wanted to do multiple things but because of H1 restrictions and those you cannot do multiple things right so right now I'm enjoying my freedom that now I like I'm able to do whatever I can like my my dad has couple of pathological Laboratories I can help him grow on that part I can do my Consulting work I can be around for anything that is needed so this freedom I enjoy a lot and obviously there are differences with the way people work here in US or Europe you're very very structured there is a specific agenda when you're going into a meeting whereas there is a significant difference of how you are doing the work here so it took definitely time to adjust that part but so far it's working out okay great

25:19 So I know it's been maybe getting close to two years in December so like I know maybe close to 18 months so how has the life been for you and for the kid and U you know kids adjustment and so on so anything that you can share on

25:37 That so I think I son just adjusted very well because probably his age also helped he was very young he was three and a half three and a half when we moved here and suddenly from you know covid times and such you know low social life he came to India where we have all the relatives and so many kids to play around and everything and keep being a very social kid He adjusted very well in fact he's he's very happy to be here and that sort of makes us a little relaxed about the move and you know just to see that he has adjust and well yeah so yeah I think yeah of the three of us he was the quickest to adjust I can say that cool and how did you go about choosing the school for him you know in terms of which school to put in is there any like a thought process behind it because you know the one of the reason main reason is you

26:38 Know before he start the schooling he

26:40 Wanted to move so just curious I think in terms of how you approach or how you went about you know deciding on the school so one of the important factors that we learn from the Western culture are they're very independent right all of them are very independent they have the ability to make their own decisions from a very young age so we wanted to find a school which is a blend of like our culture that it teaches the values that the Indian system provides plus the ability for them to take their own decisions it's okay to make mistakes do your things on your own this was our main criteria in looking for tools so we started looking around meeting different like principles and then it was still a lot system so again a luck Factor on our side you can say that like so when we came in we we put him to a nearby School and then this year like when

27:40 He's went to senior kg we applied for the school which we are really looking for and then we got it like the cultural values or like they teach basically things that no job or none of the jobs are like there is no hierarchy in any job any every job is important you have to clean your own dishes after you have used it all those factors are very important in the the principls of the school so and he got through it so we are happy about that as well great cool so I know like it's been like more than a decade in us and Europe so is there anything that you miss you know from us or Netherlands living here in Pune yeah I miss I think so alad and

28:37 My son as he mentioned they both are very social people and I'm not so I do miss a little bit of Peace at times that I used to get there because here the social life is overwhelming for me you know every like in us it was very clear that days are different and weekends are different right so that doesn't happen here you socialize on week days you show socialize on weekends so that is something I struggled with a lot initially I still struggle at times but I've accepted it now but yeah I I do miss a little bit of Peace like a little bit of quietness or like yeah social social traffic is one part like obviously you feel the and everything with the traffics going on again we grew up with that work culture is one of the factors that when we came in we were

29:38 Know like 8:00 is an 8:00 which doesn't happen here so getting used to that factors plus the freedom to move like I have the freedom but like again for the approve like approvals for vacations and stuff it's a different system nobody questions you about your vacation time or anything in Western Country especially in Netherlands they actually encourage you to it wasn't part of my contract that you have to take two weeks of vacation like I've never seen somebody writing in offer letter saying that you have to take two weeks of vacation so those like there were different value systems so these are definitely the factors that you could miss you had much more personal time for yourself especially on Saturdays or Sundays and like you come home at 5 here sometimes it takes longer your second traffic yeah those are the factors we definitely miss no thanks for sharing those yeah for sure is there anything

30:38 That we haven't touched that you would like to bring up you know from your journey that would benefit the future

30:46 Aspirants were considering to move to India anything that you wanted to bring up on my side I really like the quote which ran Tata did that take a decision and make it right like it has stuck to my mind for many many years else you are always in those limbo right like whether it's right or wrong whether it's right or wrong should I do it or not like like if like for me it was like if I'm how like half of the time I'm thinking about how my life would be in India I would never be happy in Netherlands or us or like what if my parents are needing it that what if so it's not that difficult as it seems like obviously like the older you get it becomes difficult but if you have that persistence or you want to make make make that move it will and in the end it will work out yeah so that's probably one thing I and India is not the India that was in 2010 there are

31:48 Plenty of you bring that knowledge and culture culture in you this was one of the factors which I like I was approached for that why don't you bring those value systems over here because people are not trained enough I help bring that culture in some couple of my clients as well yeah no thanks a lot anything from your side ad I think I mean just to add to what you were saying but I'll just say that don't wait for the right time to come if you want to move back just plan for it and and do it of course there are you know certain conditions that you want to have a job of your own choice but unless you start taking the steps towards it it's not going to happen so yeah if you are thinking then

32:49 You need to plan a little bit and then take steps for that completely agree I mean thinking is one aspect but making a decision and act on on it right I think otherwise no need to think about it because otherwise time flies by and you won't make any decision that's completely agree and and as you said I know if you move from any place to another place it's just an adjustment I think it's a persistent and you just have to stick to why you made the decision and give it enough time to make sure things would work out or happen I mean again anybody moving from a comfortable life to new place is not un is not comfortable for certain duration but the main driving Factor has to be there and make it work I think I just completely Echo with your points there so thank you very much for taking the time and sharing your journey with us today and good luck with everything you know with your academic and with your business and you know the sun growing growing up so thanks a lot and have a great day thank you so

33:49 Much yeah thank you for having thank you all for joining us on this insightful journey of Dy return if you enjoyed this episode and want to explore more stories and expert advice make sure to subscribe and hit the notification Bell don't forget to leave a comment below with your thoughts and experiences by the way check out the links in the description below for our Facebook group and social media for updates and engaging discussions as well as connecting with fellow the wrers thank you once again and until next time may your D journey be filled with joy growth and endless possibility it is