r2i forum

I've learnt a lot from the forum (thanks to the founders and the contributors)and I want to give back by sharing my personal experiences as they relate to my R2I (to Hyderabad, specifically).

Consider this a backgrounder post. I'll try to be honest about my emotions, try my best to put clarity to my thoughts. I'll try to update it as I am going through the process over next few months when I plan to complete R2I. Feel free to post replies, just read or comment. Do come back -- i am sure there is going to be something in it for everyone.

Background:
I have 11 Yrs experience in IT (Rnd/Product Management etc) with an under graduate degree from the US. No Masters. have GC, Applied for USC, Completed Finger printing and waiting for the interview call. One child and parents in India. Own a home in US ( i mean the bank owns a home in US for me ;-)

Why R2I:
The seed was always in the back of my mind -- always. I suppose when I first came to the US when I was about 16 or 17 or so, I never had a strong desire to come here. Circumstances (and I consider myself very fortunate and thank God for it) favored me to be here and here I am.

Everytime I went to India, I felt a little something, a connection that I cannot explain. I've spent about 1/2 of my life here (in US) and about 1/2 in India and it's a very interesting question I ask myself. I feel more close to US sometimes and closer to India some other times. Talk about a split personality :)

Regardless, short term primary driver was an overwhelming desire to build more memories in India (with my parents and other family). My personal philosophy is to live with the end in mind. I want to build now what I wish to remember when I die. Easier said than done, but can be done.

I am clear about one thing -- I DO NOT WANT TO REMEMBER MY JOB when I die :) Do u have times when that silly song gets stuck in your head and you can't get rid of it -- imagine that happend to you and its the wrong song !!! :( :emangry: :emcry: No guarantees ofcourse.....

TimeFrame:
At the risk of being pre-mature, I'd say probably in the next 2-3 months. So you can expect to almost get a live commentary here on this channel from your VJ (BJ - for Blog Jockey) nelly.

I say pre-mature coz I just verbally accepted an offer (another post on that) and I want to share some tips on negotiation that worked really well for me. It's a verbal accept and I don't believe it's done until it's done. Hopefully by EOD monday I can confirm the good news..

Stay tuned for more......

:) My son is watching Tiger & Pooh and I got a moment to pen some thoughts on this topic.

Mine is NOT an intra company transfer. Those likely tend to be easier, but here's my experience.

I posted my resume on monster india.com and it was pretty useless for about 3-4 months. The way I landed the job I did, was through my connections at the MNC's that were already operating in HYD.

I got a lot of in-appropriate (not the right fit for my resume) solicitation from recruiters initially. I just filtered them out.

I found most solicitations/contacts from placement firms (thirdparty recruiters) to be pretty much useless and in fact a waste of time. I've emailed, phoned, had several conversations but the follow up was poor at best - even after agreeing there as good fit by the third party recruiter.

The only meaningful time spent was directly with companies or their HR or recruiters. One MNC for example was really quick responding to adding my resume to their JOB CART (from their sites, check out open jobs and positions that interest you and add your resume in directly with the potential employer).

:emidea: TIP: KNOW AHEAD OF TIME WHICH COMPANY YOU REALLY WANT TO WORK FOR. It helped me put the target companies in tiers (1,2,3) and selectively approaching them over time.

I had in depth interviews with 3 selective (short listed) MNC's and from company to company the interview process was VERY different. One of the MNC's (will remain un-named) was scheduling call after call across the time zones. While every call went really well and there was a request for another interview with someone more senior, I would have preferred a series of calls on the same day or a day long on site interview.

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Other companies flew me to their local US offices and had day long sessions. This was a great experience. I had a lot of fun during these interviews.

:emidea: TIP: DO NOT INTERVIEW WITH YOUR MOST PREFERRED COMPANY EARLY IN PROCESS.

If you haven't interviewed in a while( all of you that have 10+ years experience ), you will need some time to get used to the process. Interviewing for your most preferred company (that you want to work for) will likely not be the best test bed. You don't have a second chance to improve your answers :)

I found doing phone interviews helped me hone my answers better. So do some phone interviews with your 2nd or 3rd tier companies before you jump on the tier 1 -- the i really want to work at these companies list.

PS: Some of you may not agree with the approach, that's fine -- this is what worked for me.

Breaking the chains (at current work)

Today, I am just going through the difficult process of breaking the chains at my current work. My team loves me and values my work, but I have to let them go. It's a hard step, but one has to go through this.

My goal is to leave with all relationships in tact (and stronger where possible).

This is critical to me, regardless of where I go in my career, I've made a lot of friends at my current company.

Moreover, you never know you might end up working with them (in the same company or as partners/alliances or your company might be acquired to land up with your old team :)) I have personally see this happen -- believe it or not :)

With the huge amount of uncertainly looming ahead of you, there is that devil :emangry: in you that wants to know if you are doing the right thing....I say :emsmilep: and keep moving forward. If you worry about uncertainty it becomes very difficult (in my mind) to bear that big change.

I still owe the readers one semi large post on my new job package, but in the mean time, a blog is only as real time as I can make it :)

(Home Loan)

Oh, my God. I am not sure what was a more difficult call -- with my senior management or with the bank rep on process for home loan approval :)

I have decided to buy a place in the HYD area (not hitech city). One bank has a long elongated process with what i hope is a sustained superior customer service, another which falls at your feet to get the loan approved and then after the disbursement just forgets you (according to he masses out there)-- you can guess who these are....

I had an eye opening event last night as I spent some time learning about the level of support these banks provide.

:emidea: TIP: I strongly recommend reading blogs and reviews by end customers of these banks on their level of service (AFTER) they got your money. Just do a simple search on Google.

I am just hungry -- lunch time -- out to eat. I think it's makki ki roti and saag is what my growling buddies in my tummy are craving for. So long folks....

PS: For those reading the blog, thanks for ur time. Do let me know if there is any ways i can make these better and more helpful.

(Working on A Universal List of things to do )

Today, I've informed my managers at my current company of my plans and the calls went really well. Ended on really positive notes. I have a whole slew of things to do to leave the company (401K, stock options, benefits, expenses etc etc) -- hopefully next week I can do all these (in addition to the loose ends I have to tie at work and transition my responsibilities)

I've decided to start creating a list of things I will need as I plan to R2I....

THINGS TO DO:

1. Before I move (in US)
2. Before I move( in India)
3. During the move
3. After I move (in India)
4. After I move (in US) -- if anything?

TIP: GoogleDocs?

I am using Google DOCs as I feel this will be available to me to continue working on it while I travel. By the way, Google Docs is much improved (if you haven't seen it lately). You don't have to depend on your personal computer/laptop etc for your planning work if you need it accessible before, during after the move.

I am planning to go the archieves the forum to see if there are any existing lists ( I do believe there are some) that I can leverage.

There are so many little repairs around the house I have to do (to get it ready for lease) -- I am dreading the time & cost if I have to do it all at once in a rush :emsmileo: -- so I am going to pick them one or two at a time over the weekends and make small progress. Lets see where I end up :)


I have started researching the car(s) we'll need when I am back -- www.carwale.com is an awesome site for this.

I am feeling.....a bit tired, excited about all the new things I get to do...and sipping a nice red wine.

Tomorrow, I plan to spend some time with my son -- brunch, shopping and something fun. I am likely not going to be posting much over the weekend. So until monday....

Ciao....

hi nelly,
I have a home, and I am trying to sell before r2i. But because of the market I can not. I am also trying to rent. but no luck in finding tennent(through property management company). Do you think it is better to rent/lease than sell. what do you say. what is your plans. some times I can not wait for r2i, but my house payments(around $1800) makes me stay here. do you think I can support this house from india(financially, physically etc, even if I didn't find the tennent).
Also I heared bad stories about tennents, like not paying rent, evictions, leaving the property in a very bad shape etc.

please give your comments on that.

thanks

trdrwp,
I can tell you what we decided and why -- but if you should do it really depends on a number of personal factors.

Our plan is to rent our home. We want to do this for several reasons most apply in case we return to america at some point in future.

1. Most important is staying in the school district we are in now (it's a really good one) and homes are hard to come about in the area we are in (no free land to build).

2. Our lot is a reasonably big so if we need to we can "extend" the home we have instead of "upgrading" to a bigger one later on.

3. We have a low locked in interest rate

4. The rental market is picking up a bit.

5. Selling is a pain and will take a long time.

Yes, finding good tenants is tough -- we are close (5 minutes) to a large company in the northwest and we hope we can find some good families that want to rent the place.

That said, based on reading your post, only suggestion I would have for you is fire you current property management firm and hire another one that will work. You don't have to be tied to the one company.

Also, consider reducing the rent if that works.

Our thinking is to take rent + couple hundred bucks to just pay the mortgage. Depending on what your salary is, you might be able to do this easily. Some of my other friends who have R2I'd already did this.

Not sure in tampa, but where I am, I am told I can expect $1 / SFT for rent.

That's the home side. on R2I you said:

some times I can not wait for r2i, but my house payments(around $1800) makes me stay here.

Well R2I should have nothing to do with your home or the payments -- my $0.02. If you make up your mind to R2I solutions will come up for all problems and yes there will be several problems I am sure :)

If you really want to R2I -- consider simply selling the home here, if you want real estate investment, buy it in India. I know I am making it simple, but this is hard thought process to go through.....

Hi,
Thanks for a great post. I am an Eng+MBA with 14 years experience in Networking/Telecom looking to move to Blore or Pune. I am in Product/Solution Marketing/Management area and have a fairly senior role in a NASDAQ 100 company.

I would appreciate your insight in job search. Are you doing Product Management? I sent you a private msg as well.

Cheers

hi nelly,
thank you for the reply. I already made my mind for return2Hyderabad. I also paid admision fee and secured seets for my kids(boy:UKG,girl:UKG) in jain internation school in madchal. The school asked us to come around Apr08 time frame to complet the remaining formalities. I hope I can sell or rent my home by that time frame.
You said you are also going to Hyd, are you going to stay in kompally(dhalari-dhani) area by any chance. I desided to live in kompally(even it is far from hi-tech). also please let me know in what area of IT you are in. I think you are working for amazon/microsoft, but I am not sure. please let me know. Also from which company you got the offer from Hyd. I am also looking but nothing works out yet.
bye

Monday - Sept 17th -- A different Monday

Hmm...I was supposed to sign the dotted line today -- but it's got pushed out to tuesday (tomorrow) due to the exceptions I had in my offer that I had negotiated into the package. They agreed to it ofcourse :) so no worries about that. Nonetheless, I would like to get beyond this ASAP. So hopefully tomorrow morning is it.

Today has just been busy with figuring out a transition plan with the current employer and making a list of things to complete.

One thing I did do with my current employer is told them I don't want to leave the team hanging. So I promised I will negotiate with my new employer some extra days if my current team needs me for more than the time the termination policy requires. This was received very positively and infact they have taken me up on it.

I always remember that what goes around comes around -- so if you are leaving ur current employers do your best to leave on good terms. In my mind, very simple things like this go a long way (longer term). Obviously, I plan to honor the request.

I made some progress on the list of things to do before,during,after move. Once I sign the dotted line, I am going to take that event as a catalyst for investing time into the execution of that list. I have been reading a lot more posts on the specifics of the move as well.

It's a cloudy day in the northwest, have a great day folks.....