Watch: Non-IT NRI Return to India: 7-Year Career and Family Plan

3:43 Company in 2011 so so all my work was mostly process engineer technology development applications and then supporting all the semic of apps in Korea Taiwan Japan and all these big places and then I decided okay br my career maybe an MBA would be helpful because I'm meeting lot of customers so then I started doing my parttime MBA in Santa Clara University and that's when once I finished myba then I moved to sales I I started working for a German company back in us taking care of us region that's when I start that's where we had our children in 2016 so after having children we decided okay we had a start of thinking whether we want to move to India to raise our kids in India it's getting very hectic in US raising kids both of us working in the valley and in most of us know the reasons and and that's when having an MBA and working in sales helped me move back to India so my

4:43 German company wanted to open an office in India and then I also wanted to move to India so it's a good fit for both of us and then I moved last year to India to open the operations so that's great just a quick couple of quick questions so did you do your Masters in chemical engineering itself yes I did my master and then were you more in the process engineering so non it and then you kind of slowly transition to sales after the MBA kind of like you know leading on okay so just want to confirm so you are not in a typical IT background so kind of coming from a non it process engineering kind of evoled into customer facing sales role before transitioning to India so just to set the stage so that you know people have the understanding on your professional experience right right it's very difficult aash to move with chemical engineering background from us to India there will be not very good opportunities in India if you still in the technical roles yeah again things are changing now no doubt in that last couple of years with lot of manufacturing field evolving things are changing but not very easy not like an

5:46 IT companies like people moving from Amazon or Google directly to Hyderabad from Seattle that's not the case yeah makes sense so thank thanks a lot for that maybe sushma you can share your background sure so so I'm I did my bachelors in India itself and I did I

6:04 Was into Information Technology it and I worked in India as a fresher out of the college for one and one one and a half year I moved to us only after I got married to Karthik and U later like we all know as soon as we go back then in I moved to us in 2012 so back then we there was no h48 so we could not work directly so I did my master and then along with the Masters I joined as an intern while doing my masters itself and then joined as a fresher and continued U my career from there and I worked in pure it itself but mostly customer facing role I worked as a solution engineer and then solution architect and then into startups two of the startups also I worked my last stance was also in a startup yeah the only thing is it was all customer facing road which is good in us and U yeah currently yeah my my

7:09 Old company also has an instance or a branch in India as well but the only thing is because it's an Indian startup mostly the customers are us so almost all Indians who are working in India also work for the US time zone so that was one which was holding me back for joining or restarting my career in India again so I thought okay let me take a break and take for an year or so and then once the things settle in I can look for a job which is more not not like a complete us time zone but maybe which can support from Indian time zone so yeah makes sense so sounds like I think you know very successful career for both of you so life is good in us so what made you to think about the idea of moving back to India you know triggered and when did this thought started occurring I think you mentioned about you know when the kids were born but maybe if you can elaborate a little bit you know spending their close to 18 years and all that stuff

8:10 That's a big move so just curious on that right it's a big move and we

8:14 Thought about it many times for a long time actually so it's I think for me it's always in my subconscious mind that I always wanted to come back because I never thought that I would completely stay there but over period of time I thought that I'm going to stay there in us like I got into the flow my brother was there I have made a lot of friends there and all my career customer base everything is in the valley in us so I was so used to the place yeah but I think after maybe after we had our the first kid then I think then it started so when we came to India when our first kid was born that's when I decided okay so India would be a right place to raise my kids in close to the grandparents and relatives and all those things so I I think that's the main trigger point back in 2016 and then we got our green card in 2018 so we know that okay in five years we will get our citizenship so that's when we started planning so okay so we'll wait we'll take the citizenship and then move back

9:15 So it's when that's when I thought okay I'm doing my NBA also and then I move into sales so from sales it's easy to move to India so that's the planning sounds like a a big long-term plan you know when they thought occurred in 2016 in almost like 7 years the idea of like even the career transition to a sales you know because the opportunities as you mentioned earlier in India and also making sure on the and the immigration front right so which all makes sense right cool so yeah we had our first K 2016 and the second one in 2020 okay so again good thing is we do we do not wanted to stay longer we wanted to move right away after we got the citizenship in last year so my kids are like seven and three by then yeah so I think it was easy to adjust for them so so for them I think it's okay great so maybe if you can talk a little bit on the planning side right I think you kind of touched a little bit on the career sounds like I think you know it

10:15 Was an internal transfer which makes it easier you know at least you know initially and so on anything that you can talk a little bit on the financial side or maybe from a kids school anything any anything that you have done before the move I think that would help other people yeah so again as I said we I

10:36 Think we kind of know that we will be moving like at least four five years befor hand but again at the time I don't have a job and also we I was working on finding the right job so that I could move to India with the job and so what we did was in 2019 so we know the place where we want to move it will be Hyderabad because my parents and her parents everyone lives in wangal in Telangana which is 3our drive from Hyderabad and the schools and everything is good in Hyderabad and we have I wanted to stay close to the airport because job would require some travel anyway so in 2019 we looked out we looked out for an apartment where they just started to build it's not ready to move in but it started to build so we found one place and then we book the apartment so that the construction will go on and by the time we come the construction will be finished so that's the planning main planning we did and when we are close to moving like in two years like last year my kids joined the

11:37 School so maybe 2022 we started looking out for the schools so as said my kids are young I did not want them to join in IB curriculum or Cambridge and all these because I want them to experience Indian languages like Hindi telu like local language also because they are young I think they can pick it up so if they're too old maybe it will be difficult for them so but now that she's only second grader and my younger one is only 3 years old so I thought of joining them in the cbsc so the planning we did for that was we had some Telo and English online classes when we are in us so that she's accustomed to she's not very new to the language yeah makes sense cool in terms of the school like how was your selection process like I know you kind of decided it would be like a cbsc and then how did you approach selecting what's right because sounds like I think growing the kids in Indian culture is more important for you

12:37 And that's a main driver so how did you go about it so we looked for once we

12:43 Decided it will be a cbsc we looked for the good cbsc schools in and around Hyderabad where we going to be stay within like five to seven 8 kilometers so we found few schools like again DBS Delhi public school which is across India very popular which is cbsc and then there are a couple other schools like sham Universal and there is CH international school that's also CBS so after talking to few other the peoples we decided I think sham would be a right school and it's like five to six kilometers from where we St okay right the feedback what we got on the Shri Ram I mean not just the that school in particular but yeah we were looking for not only the educational side but overall development personal development and bringing having some outside lectures also guest lectures that's what we got the feedback from that school so that's the reason also we tried to choose that scho makes sense not only academically but it has Sports

13:44 And arts Focus school I thought it's a good one all around development yeah yeah anything that you can share from a physical Logistics of the move right so I know I think you have this timeline of immigration side and I think you know kind of back calculating it or whatnot so know someone who has lived in a place for 18 years you know you have accumulated things how did you you know plan on that end so that would be helpful like yeah yeah you know in us the homes are big so you have lot of

14:19 Stuff some most of them are unnecessary I think so yeah so like 6 months before our move what we decided was we will not take all the furniture or anything Electronics no furniture so we will just pack everything in the boxes and we'll fly with them in our in the flight with us so again we sold most of the furniture TVs and all these Electronics like on Facebook Marketplace cars as well and then we packed the main the key things like kids to some kid toys clothes our clothes yeah and some important stuff documents and all those things and then if you're open to share I mean in terms of the house so did you sell like before moving or you moved afterwards just curious on that like yes so we decided to rent our home at least

15:07 For two years because we will move we'll check for two years everything goes fine that's fine then we can think about selling it or keeping renting it out the way so currently we are renting that home cool so it's been about an year or more so how is the life here in India in terms of your expectations surprises and know challenges like how how has it been so

15:35 Far so again aash as I said our main reasons for me and my wife are again staying close to the family raising kids in India close to grandparents and getting domestic help again there are no surprises there it's all kind of fulfilled so her parents my mom keep visiting us and we go to our hometown once every month and kids have good kids made friends in the gated communities here gated communities helped us with the move with the transition with the move because everything is available here within the GED committee you don't really have to go out so you have spies you have instamart with the groceries everything comes within 10 to 20 minutes and there are lot of kids so the kids can go around and play I don't have to really babysit the kids that's the main advantage yeah so but yes there are few surprises like in a good way and also in a bad way like for example I was always nervous me and my wife were always

16:36 Nervous okay we need to hire a car driver because there will be lot of traffic and I thought okay but what we don't go out and he'll be we are not utilizing him right it's like we don't feel good yeah hiring a driver and we are not using him right like but again it's very easy move so from my side I bought a car I drive for a couple of days and I think it's very easy so that part I was surprised myself too and then even the one thing which was very surprising in a good way for me was the the UPI transactions that's again even though I used it whenever I visited India I used to come once every year but still once I started Living and all these things it's so smooth so that's one good surprise and the other main surprise because I'm traveling a lot for my customer sales job the flight connectivity it's amazing I didn't expect that flight connectivity is so well within the Flight Network with Indigo and Air India and all these

17:36 Things all these flights are within one hour so reaching the city is not a problem from the city to the customer place is the problem within the traffic and one more thing I also suggest if anyone is planning to move and if they have some time to plan to move then I would suggest to visit India very frequently at least once in year so that not only ourself but if the kids they also will get used to or at least have an idea of what how what can they expect in India what are the things they can see observe parents home grandparents home whatever they are so that also really helped us we actually in my 12 years stay in us I think 13 or 14 times I visited India yeah so it was like mostly it was not S surprise because I see many people who visit after a long time to India and they are like really surprised I don't know what is this we can't stay in India it's so expensive or there so much pollution or so much traffic and there will be like lot of complaints who are

18:38 Who comes after a gap yes so because we were visiting so frequently my kids also were not even feeling a lot of difference because they also visited every year and we also didn't feel a lot of difference not difference but something new we didn't feel like very shocking thing or expectation yeah that also yeah definitely the familiarity and you know it's not a big change for you know family right I mean you know even the the you're not like still thinking behind like you know yeah India is still like you know maybe yeah something for less expensive or whatnot so I I think I you mentioned about I think some of the great things right I think even the flight connectivity some of the surprises so is there anything that was not good I think the bad surprises or anything that you miss you know living from us like not that you are not able to get here anything that you can shed light on that for me I

19:38 Was hoping again I was hoping few things got better but again it was also surprising in a bad way is the public parks which were not well maintained and again especially the kids play areas in the public parks and all those things those are not well maintained that's what I felt but again good thing is with these gated committees those problems kind of solved with the club houses and play areas and all those things kids have everything within the gated communities so that's why people don't miss yeah and now kids they don't even ask us to take somewhere outside or something because they just wants to play with their own friends which are inside the community because they got used to a lot and even if you say them to come out they are now saying like no no no we are missing a late time we I miss my friends I don't want to come out so it's that kind so we don't really need to take them for every weekend outings to the parks or to the mall somewhere to keep them entertained yeah

20:40 And how has the kids adjusted in the new school and how is it going especially for your Elder one

20:46 Yeah it was it's actually pretty smooth actually so never she complained initially maybe few days or a few months she used to say that I miss my friends in us and I miss my school in US us and cin yeah and I miss my cousins in us but other than that from academic side or teacher side or the curriculum she never even she never complained at all actually and maybe like what Karthik mentioned earlier we we put her in some online classes to get her familiar with a few of the these languages so I think that also helped her in a good way yeah one just curious question you know the thought of moving back to India was it always for on your both of your minds or is it like someone has it in more stronger and kind of able to influence others just

21:39 Curious on that especially like with the maybe I don't know but maybe I I had that strong desire and I kind of convinced her okay it was not actually a lot of convincing it didn't a lot because he initially started that idea when he when he told that maybe after having the first skin then initially I thought that was not serious he was not serious for that because like he was mentioning his career is into chemical side which is not prominent in India so all those things so I wasn't think it was serious but then later on when he kept on saying that maybe it will be better for our kids and raising them in India and being close to the parents close to the culture then I thought I also felt that is true and I didn't feel anything wrong in that idea so I never actually like hesitated or P pull him back okay makes sense no thanks for sharing that so is there anything that

22:39 We haven't covered that you wanted to bring up and maybe advise you know future aspirants if they're thinking about moving back to

22:51 India ainash I think we covered few things like main things are first you have to decide and both wife and husband needs to be on the same page right so once that part is done most of the work is already done and the second thing is work whether you want to work or whether you want to do a startup or whether you want to do a business or something so you need to figure that out again if you want to work my suggestion would be first come with your company try to come with your company or find out a job in India before move and that's thing and then then it's the planning right whether you want to rent it out we want to move the stuff and all those things that again priorities family to family sorry one more oh yeah please go ahead so we not saying the move will be easy it will be hectic it will take almost an year one year yeah to tell this friends family everyone close at least it will be an year ahead also it will still be like a new thing that we told them and after

23:54 That it will we should start our move plan or at least 6 months ahead like clearing up our spaces and start selling or throwing whatever we want to do with our stuff household stuff at least 6 months because things will it will take a lot of time that's what I felt when we are selling the things there will be lot of people answering so many messages in the Facebook Marketplace or wherever we are selling so it consumes lot of space Sorry lot of time with kids and packing and so many so messed upu yeah so yeah yeah maybe yeah the most difficult part is convincing ourself first and sharing the thought of moving back with your cousins or close family and friends and how they react And discussing that within your professional people and taking their advises that's the main challenge because that's where most of the people

24:55 Kind of gets into dilemma or confusion and it's very rightly said right I mean it's very very very very few people it's on the minority side who actually move back to India and even your well wishes might be coming in as a good way like trying to have you thought about this have you thought this it's not like they are discouraging you but they might be thinking in a positive way and a well Wisher to make sure that you're not making a wrong decision but it's on a minority side and people have lots of doubts and when you share with the family and close family sometimes it might come across like they were having doubts but also like they don't see it until it really happens you know you know even like I think at least with the immediate family I feel like we need to plant that seat couple of years earlier itself so that they will slowly slowly digest otherwise even in year will be too short to tell them yeah so karik I know you are in a sales role in India and just

25:57 Curious in terms of of the day-to-day on a work life side right especially like you know handling these kind of customers in us or western side is a bit different than in India so I know we have some information on the work culture side like you know in terms of the differences but in terms of the sales process like the interactions just curious anything I'm guessing it's different Dynamics in terms of sell and all that stuff so anything that you can share for somebody who's thinking from a sales profession or from that perspective yeah it's again like what product or what technology we are into is the

26:34 Question but again coming from a German company our products a little more expensive compared to a Chinese product or Indian product local made product so we have to first educate the customer here what the technology how it works compared to what their current reference technology is but that's not the case in us right most of them are aware about those Technologies so we don't we can skip that step we can directly go to the demo show the results and then talk commercials but here we have to handhold do a lot of handholding with educating the customer showing them the value of the product and even after doing the demo and then the commercial comes and then the pricing negotiation happens and all those and it can fail anytime it's very BR Can it can fail anytime so we have to be very very conscious all all the time so that's the part okay in US you kind of know in first few meetings itself whether it will work or not but here that's not the case okay it's suspense till the end like whether

27:35 Everything happens right right right yeah cool I think that's all I have anything that you want to bring from your end that we haven't covered just my suggestion again people for some people if they want to move from the personal and professional standpoint again I I

27:56 Personally think there will will be some compromise somewhere it's not like a very very smooth Journey like everything will be perfect then again if that is the case everyone will live in India no one goes to us right yeah so they have to compromise somewhere maybe it could be a pollution maybe it could be a traffic maybe it could be their career growth maybe for example people working in New York or Silicon Valley most likely will have pression compared to India but again nowadays India is changing especially Bangalore and Hyderabad but especially especially within it but again as I said there will be some compromise so people have to plan that in their mind so they should not come after coming back they should not complain about that point so for me what I thought was okay maybe my career might take a little bit hit but again to my surprise it might shine also with the way India is progressing with the manufacturing with all Apple moving their production to India most of the manufacturing of EV batteries and everything then there is a lot of scope

28:56 But things are look little slow than what I thought but I have that in mind anyway so I don't kind of repent that but if you have that clear with you then it should be okay a lot of traffic in the evenings like 6:00 to 9:00 is a peak time so you plan that accordingly you don't go out at that time or if you want to go out on a for a dinner go maybe after 9: or kind of speak eat or something like that yeah for sure I mean there is no perfect place anywhere in the world it just depends on what you really want and then those priorities and then try to work around with some of the things along the if you if you kind of plan and compromise and don't do not complain then I think it will be all right so if you are stuck in a traffic and you think that okay why did I come here then I think yeah this will not be a right place definitely yeah great now thanks a lot Karthik and sushma for sharing your journey with us and you know some of the the thought process the planning that went through and like the idea like from 2016 till like 2023

29:59 And the thought through the thought process there now thank you very much for taking the time and sharing the journey with us today okay thank you thank you very much thank you