For many Non-Resident Indians, moving back home is a decision rooted in family, identity, and belonging. But for one young woman who recently returned from London, the homecoming has come with an unexpected challenge: the brutal reality of India’s job market.
A 25-year-old Indian woman, who studied at a top university in the UK and worked there for two years, took to Reddit to share her growing anxiety about finding work after returning to India. Her graduate visa was running out, and the job she held abroad had become “pretty toxic”. So she made a difficult choice, leave London, come home, and start over.
What does her post explain?
“I honestly didn’t expect the transition to feel this confusing, but here we are,” she wrote in the post.
Back in India, she finds herself overcrowded and chaotic due to the job market. Despite having invested heavily in her education and career abroad, she worries that her experience might not be enough to break through.
She says she is “trying to figure out how to break into the job market here,” and hopes to secure a role quickly to regain stability. Ideally, she wants to work for a multinational company. LinkedIn, she says, feels “like a black hole,” where most applications vanish without a trace. She is now turning to the internet crowd for survival strategies.
“How do people actually get noticed here?” she asks fellow Redditors. “Is cold-messaging hiring managers on LinkedIn effective in India or does it come off badly?”
She is also eager to know whether there are niche platforms or industry-specific communities where serious recruiters are actually active and whether companies in India still value the global exposure she worked so hard to gain.
“I’m still young and hungry to grow,” she says, adding that she doesn’t want to “jump blindly” into her next move. Instead, she is trying to understand what is realistic and what other returnees wish they knew before coming home.
‘I will be on the same boat soon’
Netizens commented on the post and helped her with some strategies. A user noted, “I’ll be on the same boat this January when i return from Canada, i’m just lost and confused about starting from scratch again and also dealing with transition.”
One Redditor, who moved back from Canada after nearly a decade, shared a reality check along with some encouragement. They noted that international companies in India may value overseas experience less than local experience and that the work culture won’t mirror what one is used to abroad. However, they said international startups and founders with global backgrounds tend to appreciate such experience more, and reaching out to them directly can lead to more productive conversations. They advised giving yourself time to readjust to life in India after years away and to focus on cold messaging startups, growth-stage companies, and even placement agencies since LinkedIn job applications are overcrowded and often ineffective.
“Search jobs based on your skills and keep applying,” opined a user. “International experience is valued but you would need to learn Indian ways of business. If you are in sales/marketing then it would be pretty rough initially. If in dev or backend roles then fairly easy. It will take time to adjust back – try not to compare though you will. After 3 yrs and am still. LinkedIn is good – try to join an mnc or gcc – would be easier – depending on ur experience,” added another netizen.
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