Watch: Non-IT Professional's Return to India to Be an Entrepreneur

3:33 Research like specific background and courses where you can focus on into a research and that helped me a lot into finding the research and also research assistant position like teaching and those so it might help you to cover up your fee also because sometimes you are just focusing into high and University but the fees right now the fees is little bit more concern on the not on your background but also on your parental side also so you need to think about that also and it helped me so I I graduated from Auburn University Alabama like Alabama is not like famous state for to study but those University are so high and like they had National ASP technology lab entire USA like wherever the asphalt and Highway research are done they are done in the or university and also they have a aerospace

4:34 Engineering near to Huntsville so NASA research center is over there also so that's what you need to research like specific Labs specific center for the each University and then you will get to know like okay because of the that will help you to find the more research your professors and also it will help you into your thesis so it helped me a lot and also it was a university town so University towns Vibes are little bit different than you are studying into metropolian University so it then after that also it was a difficult time because of the presidency change over and everything so I had to apply for like so many jobs so many jobs means like 5,000 jobs had to interview so many interview because it's a difficult in non it field you got the interview C but your salary is like 40,000 and also I Frankly Speaking my

5:36 Salary was around that and so you need to think about that those perspective also but yeah those application help me a lot right now we are working with those consultant as a consultant not the job application so it helped us L either way and then U why and also I will go through like why I switched over like not so many job I stick to like one or two job position and why it helped me a lot because when you are sticking with a one company over the time and similar position and growing little bit further and further into a same company you will get to know like how they are working like a with a financial perspective marketing perspective how the other other groups are working and the Departments are working within the compy yeah and that that helped me a lot to establish my company right now I'm working like there are three employees

6:37 Under me but that helped me a lot like how to Market how to sales how to consider the financial perspective of even company and why why we decided to

6:51 Move back it was a prospective to give it back and also and that helped us a lot and we we had like because of our family business and everything so we had a strong background like support from relatives and our family member we have long extended family and also most of like you know like Patel so Patel is generally like it it dives into a business and everything background so we we decided to move back early in the career because of setting up the business perspective and and also my wife was on the board also for moving back because of like a career perspective and also how to start the thing got it so I I I think I understand I think you know it's giving back and also the opportunity to do the entrepreneur so before we dive in I think I wanted to understand a little

7:51 Bit if you're okay for a non it especially for someone who is in a civil site you mentioned about like where you have to apply for so many jobs to find right maybe can you shed a little bit light in terms of like were you able to find the right opportunities so how long it took and then you mentioned about you know spending the most of the time there so that you can learn the other groups and functions so how was the life as a non it in Us and how long it took for you to find the job that you really want or have you compromised on somewhere like yeah let me get into something and then let me find another job or whatever so if you can share some light on how the non it roles are there in us I think that would be very helpful and someone who is coming from a prestigious University right who has lot of research and has a lot of background yeah there are three perspective I like you are dealing with

8:44 Time so three months within the three months you need to apply for certain jobs and now the time is little bit more like five months you need to wait for the OPD card so I had like job offers but I didn't get my OPD card so they they just declined the my job like and also did I like have I yeah did I compromise on the job or or not yeah I did I like certain point because non it job like either you are going into say as a civil engineering you might be going into field or might be a design site or might be a manufacturing site but yeah thankfully I got my design site that way I was applying and I got my right position for that one and also U did I how did I find the job so I tried to make as much as connection on the LinkedIn and also I applied for like when I started my research I was a

9:46 Member of like certain conferences certain non organization member of civil engineering like Association of civil engineering and everything it helped me a lot to find the jobs and also being a on LinkedIn or other platform when you are somebody's like posting a job or recruiter or might be a HR recruit I to follow up with them with like a email or personal email it and that helped me when I got my second job he I mean like that person posted a job at 8:00 p.m. I right away applied that job and put the email right away into so so it it work back backward I mean like you need that HR recruit just posted a job so you applied that one and it will not end the process you non it because non IT company generally don't post into like indeed or linked they are

10:46 Just working and then you need to go and try to find their website or might be find through the Yellow Page and then that help me yeah so thank you chintan for sharing that I'm sure I think there is a different ways to go about and applying especially if these job postings are not as abundant as an it and it's not in a common platforms so let's talk about your timing of moving back to India right I think you said you know you want to be so after Masters you have worked for some time and how you decided when you want to move and when you wanted to make that plunge and any planning that you have done beforehand any stones that you want to hit so anything that you can share light I think that would be

11:34 Fantastic yes definitely and because if you have any idea to move back to India I generally try to make the connection back into India like because some I have seen people like living over there like 10 or 20 years but they hav travel back enough here and their friends are like moved further and grew up like little bit further and now they are trying to make the connection back so we we were traveling frequently to India also like attending the events and everything in that way that helped us to make F make it alive the connections like with the friends relatives native places and everything and then when we decided we decided like we put the hard hard date on like this is the date we will move and then started to back check like bank accounts SSA accounts also

12:35 401k account like moving the funds back to India so because you are dealing with a finance here in USA India in India also because you are a citizen of India you are still paying the Indian taxes also so you had to deal with your CPA here I'm like CPA is me like yeah so we contacted them also and also my brother was handling our bank accounts and everything so we put like certain schedules or might be timeline like okay this is the fund we will moving on that specific time also planning to close the non nonusable account like turning of the members and everything that helped us a lot and also it help because I am frequently a writer so I had I generally we put into all the writing format everything like checklist closing the accounts and okay two months are left so

13:36 What is the priority one month is left and then on the day of the moving what what do you need to do when you are moving so that was a plan already like we didn't plan like frequently or something like okay right away it was a plan like one and half year way back and also we in I informed my way ahead time like 6 month before that so they help us lot on the accounting closing the account salaries and everything and they they didn't have the subsidiary company here but they explored the other opportunity like can we do a remote job or something so right now and also we are working as a consultant for that so that helped us a lot you got it I know you kind of touched a little bit about on the logistics side like you know closing the bank accounts you know some of these things on a career front was the plan to get into the entrepreneur role like have you searched for some jobs so

14:38 Especially the non IT jobs opportunities in India so if you can talk a little bit I think you mentioned your company doesn't have it but they're open for you to work on a remote basis U but have you explored like the opportunities within India or you never had the thought and you just went into the startup or entrepreneur role no I

14:57 Didn't I had because during the covid time also it was a difficult time the within our family business and also it was hard time for transitioning from USA culture work life balance and everything and then you are just getting into covid time into India and it was a big wave during the in India also so we got like in our whole family we got the covid also so but yeah I I tried to I was a flexible so I tried to search for the job and where I was working for nonprofit organization in USA they offered me so they had a subsidiary chapter here so they offered me the job remotely so we had to organize the event cenes write a papers and everything so thankfully I got the job also and also I was frequently visiting a one

15:57 University so they offered me the Professor like visiting Professor job so not like it wasn't flexible or might be but you need to search for like make connections when you move here and try to make the communication friendly friendly so in that way you will easily find the jobs and everything okay and when did you start your entrepreneur role like after moving back you know it was a peak of the covid and I know a lot of things Wen shut down so you took some time some time break and also you mentioned about family business if you're open is the family business also into civil side or maybe is there any connection so if you can shed some light any of those points I think that would be helpful yeah during covid time it was a free time so I was transitioning through my mentally emotionally and also some thoughts so I had to right now I on social detox so I use the frequently

17:00 Like I'm like I have a screen time of like just a two hours screen time of entire day and I had to go a certain way also like meditation and social detoxing of myself because I was using so so much time on the social media and then I realized my my learning and skills and then that way I I realized like civil engineering what I learned through the USA side and Indian side and then try to and on same day or like one day I tried to contact my previous employee like can I work remotely or something and that way it started like okay I started some small projects and then slowly I try to contact other like those job application I Tred to those consultant and then slowly we are on the board on those consultant and also on family business it is more of related to a civil engineering to that helped me a lot to

18:02 Learn like Indian systems governmental projects how the financial side is working so it right now it is helping me on lot got it so I think it's a similar business domain and based on your contacts in US you are able to get some projects or able to do some work or services for them and then how is the life in India it's been about close to four years since you moved and overall with the family with the changes I know you mentioned about like adapting in the early stage so how is the life here anything that you can share on that

18:44 Perspective yeah sure right now you cannot compare the life between the US and India like it is totally different like what you are what you have experienced because when you move to Seattle or might be in washingt DC you you you will find the same Walmart at different location but here in India like when you travel you are finding the different culture different Vibes different people different language and everything and also food so it is it will get get you more time to adjust when you move back but life is little bit so much easy but when you are trying to fix something it will be hard for you so right now like I'm running the business so I'm always learning something new during the lifetime here but I adjusted my life according to here I'm like within the system within the life culture of the people

19:45 How they are behaving relatives so as per my schedule like my family is like now used to like okay chintan is working from like Monday to Friday and he be free from Saturday to Sunday and that's how we adjusted our schedule like family time and everything as for given schedule yeah four years helped me a lot to learn like okay how the things are working move back yeah cool so I think you mentioned about I think your wife also on a career perspective that was one of the reason to move back right maybe if you can like was was she able to find the job or like you know kind of take on the career role just curious on that

20:30 Yeah so what we decided and why we started the business and entrepreneur site that she was on board to help me she was thinking to find job and everything but we we also plan for the family like a baby and everything so now she's like a financial accountant here in our company so she handles like project invoicing project project tracking project controlling also communication to the consultant when the project is on board how the project is going PR and SE of the employees so it now it helped us a lot into within the system and also when we are working together like right now she's at home but she knows like what will be the project so I just made the project list right now and stayed with her and she will be tracking the hours today for the that one so Mutual understanding

21:31 Between the life partner it helped us a lot when we moved back got it so I assuming you moved to Ahmedabad is that right like you know moved back where the family is okay just want to confirm yeah I me like and also I can point that out

21:50 We mve back to our native place first and why why you need to move to a native place first because where you have the lot of family member extended family members also your friends like where when we left for the USA it helped us a lot during the starting period of the phase like when we moved back to settle down emotionally financially physically and everything and then I realize okay I need to move to a Metropol in tier two or tier one city and we moved back to kabad where I used to live so and then started the office business and everything and then made connection to on the side of the business got it and is your native place close to Amad is that the reason you chose aabad as the place to go from a Metropolitan Place okay yes got it because can we can we can travel back to a native Place enjoy the village life

22:52 And everything so right now that's that helped us a lot like because people are thinking like where to move which city is better and everything that is what we figure out okay if we need to spend a little bit time like go to Native place also because my kids and like nephews those people are living over there so it helps us a lot into a family side also yeah I know this is a common request for a lot of people at least you know some people engage who are thinking about moving back to India how are the opportunities for non it I mean you have been living in India for four years you are on the entrepreneur side you actually work in a domain that's non it any insights that you can share like how the opportunities right now compared to like what it was in 2015 or 2014 right you know about a decade how things have changed or evolved I think that would be very helpful yeah it has drastically changed

23:51 Perspective to a industry here in non IT jobs I can go through like civil engineering mechanical so as for the civil engineering you can either find the manufacturing job also field job and design jobs because so many US companies also MNC company have opened their offices in here like Pune and Bangalore in even in Ahmedabad Jaipur and Delhi so you can transition back within your company also and also that is like field no that is like office job and also field job so many MNC company have started like I can give you example that we work in the wood Fring industry for civil engineering in USA so we use a guilty and Simpson anchors for tying the food Framing and drive all back into a wood framing so those LT and Simpson those they have started the operation in India

24:52 Also so like you you need to be proactive into industry Al similar as a mechanical industry like like prot train and train like the of AC manufacturers andachi and also on mechanical side is more manufacturing side and India is leading on the manufacturing side because of the Japan and China and then also on electrical site you can easily find the jobs within the governmental sector so governmental sectors are offering more opportunity into private sector so they are collaborating within the non IT jobs got it no thanks for shedding the light from your perspective is there anything that we haven't covered or any advice that you want to give to people who are thinking about moving back to India

25:48 Possibly I mean like if you are thinking to move back to India it's a right opportunity and right time right now not because of like India is growing but also India is growing perspective to all sectors like spiritually ethically also financially GDP is growing also and when you are thinking to move back not for the family but there are some there are more people here they can help you also like make a connections there are and also there are well minded I me like the very very well connections within the group non it or it you can find easily here also and just to a perspective I'm younger but whoever wants to like spend a little bit time during the retirement it's a great opportunity you just need

26:49 To find the right place and right time like the right connection and grou once you settle down just don't think forward too much the things will be right place and right time and then yeah it will just work out easily okay yeah I mean I'm sure I think it's an important for them to consider all the factors you know the opportunities for their career but I think things have evolved and changed I think it's better for them to come visit and explore and make the right decision you know whatever is right for them for a given St yeah they need to explore and they need to frequently visit the India how the India is behaving not like just decide try to move back because whatever you search through a Google you will not experience right away here and also when you are working into like a non it field and also it field will help you try to make membership within like a nonprofit

27:50 Organization or profit organization like right now I am a member of Indo American chap of Commerce so today we we have a meeting in here in Ahmedabad for invest in USA invest in USA by there is a event where we are we will be exploring the investor group and projects that throughout the USA we are working and so that helped us helped me a lot to like keeping a connection within like through the USA also and also try to connect with within local chapter here so we we generally we had one event by US Consulate where we explore the Visa like why why there is a delay time why the appointments are not frequently available to the like visitor or B1 B2 so they they point point out some certain points and we discussed over there so try to make the connection outside of your field professions and then it will help you a

28:53 Lot to grow within the F professionally and also personally yeah for sure definitely I think networking plays a big role for anything I think irrespective of the location it's always gives the opportunities so thanks a lot chintan for your time and you know sharing your story a lot of valuable information on the opportunities in US and in India for a non it how it works and how you transition into an entrepreneur role so good luck with everything and once again thank you very much for sharing your experiences with us today thank you so much yeah have a good day