3+ years in SFO // IND since 2018
“We made a decision to come back to India overnight. Not getting an H1B initially felt like a setback but it gave me long term clarity. Uncertainty can be good.”
I started my career in India at ITC after graduating from IIT Madras in 2010 and went to the US for business school and spent 3+ years there working at Mckinsey (Palo Alto) and other firms. The initial thought of moving back to India was triggered by my H1B visa rejection. My then girlfriend and now wife had an H1B but we decided to stay together somehow instead of living in different countries. At the same time there was positive news all around the startup ecosystem in India. We made a decision to come back to India overnight. Not getting an H1B initially felt like a setback but it gave me long term clarity. Uncertainty can be good. While I did require some time to adjust to India, especially the traffic, pollution, job and apartment hunting. Every small thing seemed difficult in the beginning. But it was all outweighed by the overall positives like the opportunity to be close to family, great food and travel. Looking at the decision from a positive lens helped us a lot.