Episode 167: She Came Back to India, Yet Still Wants Canada - Watch Before You Choose Either Side

Desi Return

Soumya shares her five-year journey of moving from India to Canada in 2021 to pursue higher education and business opportunities. She detail

Key takeaways

• Soumya experienced significant financial strain, sharing a room with a stranger for three years in Canada.
• Finding employment in Canada often requires 'Canadian experience' and specific linguistic familiarity, making it difficult for international graduates.

Main topics

• Moving from India to Canada
• Challenges of international students

Notable quotes

The realities do come crashing onto you.

Conclusion

The episode provides a grounded perspective on the complexities of int

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) The realities do come crashing onto you. It almost took me a year to find a job that I truly enjoy. I shared a room with a stranger for almost like three years of my stay in Canada. I'm doing all this stuff and then I still couldn't get the PR approval. Three o'clock my work is done, I clock out, nobody disturbs me. I do want to like go back. Because I feel like Canada will keep me on my toes. Speaker 1 (0:34) Thank you very much, Soumya, for joining us on our podcast. Let's start about who you are and what made you to leave India. Speaker 2 (0:44) Okay. Hi, Abhinash. As you know, my name is Soumya. I'm 27 and then I moved to Canada in 2021. It's been... It's been five plus years. And then the reason why I went to Canada was for the opportunities and having to do something that was not available in India, I guess. It was a childhood dream of mine and also like my parents. My dad tried to go, but he couldn't. And then I was kind of groomed that way since I was a kid. So it just felt like. it's it's my thing um so I've been like dreaming about like going and like studying MBA there doing a business degree having my own business someday um I come from my uh that side everyone is uh into business my mom said everyone is into business so it's more like it was more of a family thing and I didn't want to like do a business in India and I wanted to like go out have my own business there and also there is a lot of belief outside as well that saying that the work culture is much better in abroad in Canada or US that is 100 % true so I was also like looking forward to that having that work-life balance and everything. So, yeah, I think that was the reason why for me it was first place that I felt like, oh, I should go. Speaker 1 (2:18) Got it. So you said in 2021, that's when you moved to Canada. But you made a comment that I think it's the opportunities, the lack of opportunities in India. Maybe you can expand on it. Like, what are the opportunities that you are referring there that are lacking in India in 2021, which is like, you know, recent? And what are those that are available in abroad, like, let's say in Canada? Speaker 2 (2:39) For sure. Let me start with this. I went to a college which had an MBA degree as well. I was a bachelor in IT. So I and the MBA placements, both of us are getting the same placements, MBA graduates and I. So which itself shows you the difference. Like I have four years of bachelor's. They have four years of bachelor's plus two years of education. You and I are same, are aiming for the same placement. That doesn't make sense. So I would say that is one of the reasons. If I wanted to study MBA, I still have lesser opportunities. And also the work culture isn't that great. Speaker 1 (3:24) I've Speaker 2 (3:24) sat into the interviews and everything. Don't get me wrong, there are people who are thriving here. Speaker 2 (3:32) couple of friends who are like doing amazing in their careers and everything uh but for me as a person i felt like um there could be something else out there um so yeah so i thought like i should give it a shot outside uh when it comes to the opportunities um the work-life balance is uh really important for me that is something you could get it in abroad if i compare it to indian Speaker 1 (4:02) So did you go there for your postgraduate studies or did you go there for a job? Yeah. Speaker 2 (4:09) I went for my post graduation. I did bachelor's in IT here in Gurnana College. And then I did my post graduation over there. I did it in Conestoga. I studied global business management. Speaker 1 (4:22) Got it. And I know you went with this expectation of the work-life balance, opportunities, starting the business. What's the reality? Like, I mean, if someone is planning to go to Canada right now, what are they underestimating it? Because you have had certain expectations and you went to the reality for the five years. Yeah. You know, paint us a picture of what the reality is. Speaker 2 (4:44) For sure. To be honest with you, the realities do come crashing onto you. Before I graduated, six months before. I was like, okay, fine. I'm going to graduate six months after. I started preparing myself. I started reaching out to people on LinkedIn. I started connecting with people. I wanted to like land a job as soon as I get my degree. So that was my plan. Speaker 1 (5:11) Yeah. Speaker 2 (5:12) But it did not go that way, to be honest. It was, it almost took me a year to find a job that I truly enjoy. Speaker 2 (5:25) It was like most of the people in Canada live paycheck to paycheck. And that is something you get used to when you go to Canada, when you because you always do a part time or something when you're in school. So it's like you do a bunch of things and you start living paycheck to paycheck. So it. After you graduated, it automatically resets you in a way like, oh, like, I need to find a job immediately now. So a lot of people, not just me, even like my friends, what they do is they immediately grab on to something that they get. Speaker 1 (6:01) They Speaker 2 (6:02) don't necessarily take the time to like find a job. they take they take whatever the opportunity they're getting and then they hold on to it and then they expect that another opportunity that they like falls into their lap which does not happen so basically you'll be like doing the same job that you don't want to do and then eventually uh you will be like you know what i don't want this and then you quit the job and then you actually look for something that you want and then you can probably find something um that you want to do. So I would say for me, reality was kind of like that. I was preparing for it almost for six months to get a job. I did find like a couple of leads here and there, don't get me wrong. But people wanted experience, but they didn't want Indian experience. So for me, it was like really hard because I went right after graduation. right after my bachelor's. And then even before I went right before the graduation, I had my own dropshipping business for a while, which I ran for almost a year. So I was pretty solid when it comes to like business or like management and stuff like that. But people didn't care, honestly. Speaker 1 (7:21) It Speaker 2 (7:21) was more like they needed Canadian experience and they needed like the Canadian accent and stuff like that. I would say that was the reality. It took me time to like find a job for like almost a year to find a job that I felt like, okay, fine. This is the job I'm kind of proud of. Let me put it on my LinkedIn. It's like that. Speaker 1 (7:46) Got it. And how does that compare to the opportunities? I mean, that was one of the reason, right? I think, you know, you mentioned like in India, the people who have done bachelors and then the post, like, MBA might have the same opportunities. How does that compare to the opportunities in Canada? Like, you know, from your own experience? Speaker 2 (8:05) How does it compare? Speaker 2 (8:10) I would say definitely from which university you come matters in Speaker 1 (8:15) Canada. Speaker 2 (8:17) Because when I was first moving to Canada, my dad had a lot of people suggesting him that saying that, oh, it doesn't matter which college she goes to. It doesn't matter which university she goes to. But I think that is not right. It definitely matters which college you go to and the kind of people that you meet and also the kind of connections that you meet. Because at the end of the day, those are the people that will refer you to a better job and to like a better posting. For me personally, from what I