Welcoming 2009!

Exactly two years before Dec 31 2006, I was worried if I will be able to move to India and uncertainty around it. I am happy man now that not only I moved but settled down happily. Its been almost 9 months that I am back to my country and to me it's a quickest year of my life. I still have lot of memories of last year, so fresh, that it seems all that happened just recently. I am very optimistic about the coming year and I welcome it graciously.

BTW, I will be discontinuing this blog and all my updates will be at http://thoughtlessbrain.blogspot.com/

Cheers 2009!

aarz hain...

Har doobtha suraj kehta hain....
Kal ka savera kahi aur hain.....
Har roz ek nayi khoj hain.....
Is baar mere Des mein hain....

Thoughts for future R2Iiers

Lately as my departure date is nearing, I been thinking what could have been done better, what issues did I see? As I find them, I will add here, but as of now, I have couple of them.

1) Once you start thinking about R2I and have some kind of visibility on your date (say 2 years), you start seeing it as your glass ceiling. You cannot think beyond it for long time and you cannot schedule anything that runs after that period (unless India compatible). This will start crippling you, esp you cannot take up any new challenges like - doing MBA, moving jobs, starting your company etc

2) Make a bigger buck out of your move. Since I am moving for family, I felt that I could have moved with some professional reasons too. The question "Why am I moving to India?" will always be there, and if you can answer as much as possible, it makes the move easier and exciting.

3) What can you do for mother India? With all the knowledge, experiences, money and learnings that you have gained in foreign soil, India can get lot of your help. I joined Asha, but regret of joining it very late as I could have done lot more by joining early.

401K

Among all the things that I am closing, I thought 401K will be taking most of the time, but it may not be the case.

I am not able to close it yet, because I am still employed, but these are the following steps.

1) Add a bank account link to your 401K. This takes 2-3 weeks, so just plan it in advance.
2) Once you quit your job (and after the company updates its status) the funds will be available for withdrawal. You can withdraw online, no need to call.
3) Since you have a bank account linked, you can transfer the money to bank account directly, no need to worry about cheque.
4) You will be getting the money after tax deductions. No 10% cut will happen when you withdraw.
5) When you file the taxes, the 10% cut will be added. I am assuming, I will be getting a 1099 form for this in 2009 (I have to give a postal address to receive it though)
6) Use Form 5329 (PDF), Additional Taxes on Other Qualified Plans (including IRA's), and Other Tax-Favored Accounts, to report the penalty. [From : http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq-kw7.html]
7) How much you will get? This link describes a lot http://www.r2iclub.com/rrk/gen/r2i_401k_plan.htm

• Ex: If this NRA withdraws $5K in USA, he will pay penalty of 10% ($500), get exemption of $3K and will pay 10% tax on for $2K as $200. So, in total pay out is $700 in USA. If this is done during RNOR period in India, he will not pay any tax to GoI.
• Recommends complete withdrawal in 2 years of RNOR period, and pay no tax to GoI. It is really unfortunate that the RNOR period has been reduced from 9 years to 2 years

2 months..

Will it be Vizag or will it be Chennai? Can it be Hyderabad!? Economy being down, how will it affect me? What else do I need to do in next 2 months? Work is busy, will I get time to get everything done?

So many questions! and answers take lots of time. But all will be decided in next 60 days and their after..

I have asked all my friends to visit me in next 2 months, lots to plan, lots to buy and time is just flying..tick tok tick tok...

I think am on track on my R2I, but feel that something is missing...

Lost in Contemplation

Why?
Job.

What about it?
Should I land in India with job?

Yes. Why not?
I am not able to find one yet. Not sure I will be getting by applying from here.

Why not make a trip?
Do I need to? A trip to India is expensive, time consuming and no guarantee that I will end up in job in 3 weeks and what if my views change?

Isn't it risky?
Yes, it is. Its immense pressure to go to India without having job in hand.

Then?
I am taking a step, hoping to work out, little optimistic....

What's holding you then?
Fear?! Not sure..may be. Just trying to make sure its not a big mistake..

Silicon India Job Fair

There are 12 companies participating, little info about them.


Agilent Technologies
--------------------
Agilent has offices in Gurgaon, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.
R&D company
.Net available
Job Site: http://jobs.agilent.com/locations/india.html

Microsoft
hyd,blore

SAP
mera kya kaam yahan :)

Vmware

VMC Volt
---------
Based blore, mumbai and Hyd!!!
http://www.vmc.com/ContactCareers.aspx (no jobs description, only email to hr)

Sandisk
--------
MNC- Banglore
Mainly openings are for hardware/electonic engineers
The software positions are for validation and verification tools for their products
http://www.sandisk.com/Corporate/Careers/Opportunities.aspx


oracle
hyd, blore, pune


Avaya
-----
JEE development


htc - bpo services
Blore, Bomaby, Chennai
http://www.htcinc.com/home.asp
Looking for all kind of eng for US and India

ARM

BMC
-----
bmc - blore, bombay, pune
mnc in more than 20 countries
pune has development
includes .net
mostly customer care tools
jobs: http://www.bmc.com/BMC/Common/CDA/hou_Page_Generic/0,3465,10651123_10667916,00.html


Citrix
-------
Based: Blore - mnc
Communication products
has .net (but no current openings)
jobs: http://citrix.com/English/aboutCitrix/employment/outside_NA.asp

Metric System
-------------
blore based -mnc (just india and usa)
Products: Compliance tools for SOx, CM and risk management tools
They have in house built ECP platform which they use to program. Html, Javascript and data modeling have been highlighted. No programming language specified.
jobs: http://www.metricstream.com/company/currentopenings.

HTC technologies (BPO Services)
------------------------------
Bangalore, Chennai or Mumbai
has .net positions
Exposure to enterprise business applications such as ERP or CRM is a plus.
Jobs: http://www.htcinc.com/website/insidepage.asp?page_id=115

Things to do - My Checklist

250 days before
1) Go through final dilemma (if any)
2) Choose a range of date. March 18 (+ or - 20 days). Decide the date evaluating your finance (401K, Bonus, Appraisal etc)
3) Chances are that after you choose the date, you will start seeing yourself in India after that date (which should be the case :D). Basically, after this you cannot plan anything which runs over your R2I date (ex: Courses, Big Vacations by borrowing holidays)


200 days before:
Write your own things to do checklist :D
1) Definitely have made up mind on R2I. (As someone said - Make a decision. Indecessiveness doesn't help)
2) Give a thought on your finance. Have a summary on your bank accounts, credit cards, 401k plan, brokerage accounts, loans.
3) Have an NRE account, so that you can transfer (After the move, you have to change it to NRO (which is taxable on income) - Find out more)
4) Have your resume ready and decide what position and job you want to land. Outsourcing companies are of two types - Service oriented (Wipro, Infosys..) and Product development (Google, Microsoft). Give a thought about both.
5) Definitely have a thought on where you want to find the job and live (Hyderabad or Bangalore??)

75 days before: Jan 1st 2008
1) Work on bank accounts. Need to apply for an account in CITI/ABN-AMRO or any other bank which has branch in India. List Here
2) Plan on any vacation and trips with friends

60 days before: Jan 15th 2008
1) Book the ticket

45 days before Feb 1st 2008
1) Tell your boss. You need this for referral also
2) Finalize the job in India or atleast in negotiation state.

Check List for R2I (living document)

If you are NRA - Non Resident Alien (no GC, No USC), then you must fill out form W8-BEN and provide that to the bank and brokerages and have accounts changed over to NRA status around the time you R2I.
from R2IClub

Good List at R2I page

More suggestions

Naveen Bodlav suggested on filing the Canadian Green card before leaving to India, as it will help me if I want to work in other country than India.
Have to think of pro's and con's like how long it takes to get it and Level of effort on time/ money / complexity.

My brother also suggested of why not change the field from .Net to SAP or others which are more lucrative. Have to give this a thought as it's a good time to change, but not sure how much added complexity is it with R2I.

CTC - Cost to Company

Most useful thing to know while negotiating salary is to know how the Indian companies give the salary package. It has many loop holes and without this knowledge, its easy to get trapped. More info on CTC at Chennai Living Blog

Related article from Rediff

More info: -
All Fringe benefits are taxable.

2008-2009 tax proposal will make you get more take-home money. Details - link

Proposed Exit Techniques by friends & family.

Friends and family have come up with many different ways of how I should prepare my R2I program, especially on when and how I should leave US.

1) Kajal, Vikram and Parul and many others
Go to India as a vacation for a month, do the job search and also see if I can fit back there, come back resign and leave. Basically the job will be guaranteed and I know where I will be when I finally go back.


2) By Latha (May 2005):
Join a company which has an office in India. Once comfortable ask them to have a lateral shift to the Indian office.

3) Web sites (Options in India)
Apply online and through recruiters and take a 10 day trip to India solely to attend interviews.

4) Go after another 2 years once you have earned enough :D fails terribly because of x = x + 1 syndrome.


As you can see the ideas, the R2I includes the biggest factor - The Job. Where and what position I will be given? What salary range will it be? Will I be happy with the work and salary package?

To me, R2I and Job are different entities even though they are two sides of a coin - like you won't go back if you don't have a desired job and you may not find the desired job if you do not go back.
The return to India itself is a huge task that unless you have a hard dead line, you will keep procrastinating it. So, the date you want to leave has higher significance.

Well as of today (14/Aug/2007) my Exit strategy is to not to slip the dates. That means I am willing to compromise on the job portion. I once thought that I would leave even though if I do not have the job, but it is very hard to do that because not only it is scary to be in India without job but also that you would lose the advantage of negotiation as you will be desperate to get a job. So, primary goal is to find some job (be secure first), i.e. compromise on one part of the job - either desired location or desired compensation or desired position, but leave on time!
BTW it made me feel happy that I will be having Indian green card (Citizenship restored) :D i.e no more H1B issues nor visa issues to switch the job :)


So, for 1 and 3 - Return to India will gets tougher and tougher if I do not take a hard step. And I do not want to explain 300 people in India who will be planning to wash my brain with all different ideas. And, what if I do not get desired job in that time? Literally that would make the R2I just impossible.
Sep 10 - Now that I think, may be I have to bank on this idea. Lets see.

for 2, I could have tried that but VistaPrint offer was very promising and finding a specefic job you want, will always make you compromise on something. And it's not guarnateed that the company agrees on my move to India.

Inspiring blog - A successful R2I who started a startup - Tekriti

In July I read a blog from a successful R2I at www.newdelhitimes.org

I found the following two key points that he mentioned.
1) "You can have a different reason - personal or professional - but it should be compelling enough to keep you motivated and excited about being in India."

2) "I think one needs a lot more energy to survive and enjoy India. "

A better passion and goal will answer every time I get a question on "Why?"

For a while I thought of doing MBA in India but it failed badly for following reasons

a) 2-3 yrs part time in small univ is not worth.
b) IISB is like mission impossible.
c) IIM's interviews are all pain as they want you to be there for interviews.
d) Full time schooling needs to relinquish job for a year

And for some time I thought of taking some classes here in Boston. It failed as
a) Company will not pay for courses until a year from the course ends. My date of Feb 2008, will make me pay, which I felt was not worth
b) Office, R2I, courses - I thought its too much to handle (another word for being lazy :D)

Finally I have something that I can fit into my goals :)
I will be working with my friend Sandeep on www.techbytesinc.com for an offshore development site. I hope I will be able to dedicate lot of time for it once I am back and take it as a passion.

What all I considered for my R2I?

Vikram asked me this question today and it prompted me to start this blog. Not sure how much I can document and write my thoughts, but at least there will be one posting (this one) :D

Returning to India is much tougher than leaving India for first time - which I did 5 years before. The more you stay away from your home/country/friends/relatives/culture/life it doubles the gap!! Wonder why? It's because you create all of that at your new place. Leaving all that you have earned here home/country/friends/relatives/culture/life and getting back to what you have left 5 years ago takes more strength than anyone thinks.

I came up with a list of things that I thought before I made myself certain that I am heading back.

Why?
When?
Life in US Vs Life in India
How happy I will be here Vs in India
Career oppurtunities that I loose by leaving US Vs new career growth I make in India
Moving away from friends here (half of may eng class is here) Vs searching/making new friends in India (as of today - there is hardly any of my classmates whom I am in touch with)
How much of all correlates to my family's happiness Vs if I stay back here.
Finance

Of all these questions, probably WHEN was the easiest to answer in broader terms. I was certain since the inception of my thought of R2I that I want to return after 2 years of my last India visit and before I get married, which rounded upto my current R2I date Mar 18 (give or take 20 days - Feb 28 to Apr 8). I know its a long range spanning on 3 calendar months, but I am still not able to zero it down.


Mar 18 is 217 days Or 7 months, 4 days from today

Lazy Tuesday browsing..

Last hour I read more blog than I did in whole last month. I started thinking of being productive by reading something that helps me. So I started with “return to India” programs. After all the blah blah articles, I found this blog, which I thought might be of your interest too. Read at your convenience..

http://www.newdelhitimes.org/archives/2004/12/an_r2iers_dilem.html

BTW this guy worked in Microsoft for over 3 years and then headed back to India. Well if you lazy like me then you can read about what his feelings were when he was about to leave to India in his October 2004 blogs. But the most interesting one is Why Return to India.