What is your biggest concern about studying abroad?

Most of the discussions about your decision or plan of studying abroad start with some very typical remarks from your family and relatives: Arey bahar jaa ke kya krega? Itne paise lag jayenge. Apna desh hi badhiya hai! Padhai kr, bank k exam de, ssc de, ho jayega kahin na kahin or something on the similar lines.

Moving to a different country raises so many eyebrows because it’s filled with unknown questions and insecurities of the person who is going abroad and the parents who are letting him/her move to a different country. Most of those reasons are also genuine and many of them I have also addressed in the book I wrote: Moving Abroad. You will be missing out on a lot of things in your home country, you will genuinely not understand what the people are saying or what the mean and the people in the foreign country wouldn’t understand what you are saying (take USA, Canada, Australia and UK out of these examples), the crazy exchange rates, not being able to come home whenever you want and even just knowing the fact that as soon as you get used to it, you might have to come back home again.

These are all good reasons which can make you think twice about the decision you are taking, but one that tops almost everything, at least for us Indians is the Return on Investment(ROI). Will you be able to get some value out of the lakhs of Rupees that you will be investing in your higher studies in a different country? If yes, how to maximize it and if no, what is an alternative country to that?

The Colonizers:

If you are going to UK to study, you must be having insane amounts of money because once you are done with your course, you just get around 4 months to find a job and afterwards you’ll be thrown back to your country. You ask me the return on investments there? It’s nothing I would put my money on. Too many costs, extremely fewer chances of getting a job after you’ve studied there because of the crazy competition from all over the world, mainly because the currency is strong (at least for now) and it is an English speaking country, so everybody can try their luck here.

The Giant:

USA sounds like a good option to a lot of students mainly because of the number of businesses opening up every single week in USA and the opportunities they create with every new idea they execute. Creating a small business is like creating something new which never existed before in the universe. That brand, that particular way of operation/execution, that particular brand colours, that particular text and logo didn’t represent something similar ever in the history (if it’s a genuine one) but now it does and the culture of starting a business in USA is also ingrained in the society. Small and Medium Enterprises make up 99% of the businesses in America and if you are lucky, after investing 30,000-60,000 US Dollars every year on your studies (just on the tuition), you might just find a job in a place that nobody has ever heard of with its existence flailing on the balance of time. Most of the students who go there, get really well-paying jobs but they have to start with a debt to first come to a net zero and then afterwards start earning money in a few years.

The WTF:

Australia always sounds weird to me, mainly because it’s just completely on the other side of the civilized world and the idea of catching large snakes in my toilet while I am doing my business in the morning doesn’t sound appealing to me. So, it’s just directly off the list for me.

Also, good luck going to the toilet after watching this photograph or if you are already on the toilet right now and reading this blog, make sure you’re not doing your business on a living being.

The Underdog:

Germany is just in this perfect sweet spot where education is extremely cheap or most of the times just free, living costs are one of the cheapest in the world and you get really good quality education which is practice-oriented and finding a job afterwards is extremely easy, if you know German, because of it being Europe’s largest economy with companies investing in the country and companies investing from the country to other nations but whatever they do, the companies will always end up generating jobs for the people living in their country and also in the ones where they are investing. So let’s put doing a higher education in Germany’s ROI into perspective: Extremely low investment, low running costs and really good returns for highly educated people. Sounds like we have found a winner, haven’t we?

Not really. Even though Germany has a really strong economy, is safe for women, has freedom of expression and good quality education, the chances of getting a job afterwards will really depend on your ability to learn German and that’s really almost the only thing which will decide, if you will stay in Germany and love the experience, or you wouldn’t be able to find a job after your studies, get sour and post in every single Quora post or forums about studying in Germany, how shit the country is and how unforgiving it is to the people who even do their university studies from them.

Any single person who tells you that you can come to Germany, have a great life without knowing English doesn’t know what the hell he/she is talking about. You can definitely survive here, you can go through your day by speaking broken German or trying to conversate with people in English, but it’s really nowhere close to the experience you will have, if you just invest in learning the language and get your tools ready for the life you could build for yourself here. And it doesn’t even take much time! The experience of living abroad, in a country where the language is different, the people are different can be extremely rewarding and I don’t understand those lazy people who want to ruin all of this just because they aren’t able to understand the things they are missing out on just by not taking the first steps in getting proficient in the language. Jobs will never be a problem in Germany. It will be in Italy, it will be in Greece, it will be in France, it will be in Spain, but never in Germany as long as you want to grab the opportunities at hand and hone your profile to be more desirable to the employers.

As an entrepreneur (hate that word. The German word for it is way better: Unternehmer, comes from Unternehmen which is a noun for Companies or a verb for undertaking something), if I have to find somebody to do a task for me, I will always look for the one who can give me the best value for the money I am investing (when you think about it, don’t we all expect this?). So, if you are a person who knows perfect German, knows perfect English, had okay grades during your studies in Germany, already have some work experience, have been in intercultural work projects before, there is no way in the world I wouldn’t be throwing my money at you (not literally. I don’t have any right now).

So, even though you have a lot of choices and your concern of thinking about the return on investment is a real and a smart one, there are things you can do to maximize it and studying in Germany or working in Germany is just one of those things. This definitely is the perfect time to start taking action on your dream or goal of building a life in Germany because it is yet far away from being saturated with people who are highly educated or have good work experience. There is a huge demand in the fields of Computer Science, Mechanical, Chemical, Biotechnology and Civil Engineering and companies are still looking for the fitting people whom they can employ.

Moral of the story:

THE RIGHT TIME IS NOW! No time would be better than this, to start planning for or even daydreaming about building your life in Germany because Germany still has around a decade or so till things start getting over-saturated and it becomes almost like USA: High Demand, High Supply but More Competition. Germany is an underdog right now when it comes to the countries which people want to immigrate to and what I find even better is that only the people who are hardworking and believe in taking initiatives will be able to settle down here and enjoy the beautiful life that this country has to offer you. Working hard doesn’t take much either. Make a schedule for the intermediatory steps that you need to take in order to start your journey to Germany and stick to it till you actually achieve it. If you have any questions regarding your plan for studying in Germany or any worries or concerns, you can even write me an email through this contact form and I will try my best to guide you on the right way!