It was 2004, during 3rd year of my Mechanical Engineering in India and I was not sure if I wanted to study further or start working in order to earn money. Regular discussion topics of me and my friends that time were about our future plans. It was kind of dreaming and hoping for something which we had no idea about.
You could say that there
was some kind of turning point of my future aims to see how one of my
closest senior went to London for his higher studies. I talked several
times with him. The interesting part was to know that during his study
he was able to earn money which was even more than some of a freshman
Engineer`s salary in India. He was therefore able to sponsor his life and
studies abroad. This was the beginning of planning my foreign education
in the UK. One thing was clear that my spoken English was not good
enough for London. Surprised? Yes, we have English medium education
system in India but we don't really need English for speaking. Initially
I was talking Bihari English which was very funny for many people.
People were laughing but parallel to my final year lessons I tried and started
improving my spoken English. Within that year I improved a lot but it
was then also far away from the required English for higher studies in
London.
I wanted to improve my spoken English faster so went to
Mumbai after my final exams and started working in a Call Center for an
American insurance company. That few months gave me enough reassurance
to let all my hesitation go. During that time I also selected a career counsellor who helped me in finding and getting a
suitable course in London. It was like dream comes true but in reality
not. During preparation for the VISA I came to know about the money
requirement. I don't remember the required sum but it was more that I
had saved. So I started looking for money. I went to several banks for
study loans but they all rejected. I went to relatives but they refused.
My father borrowed money from his friends and few of my friends helped
me with the money. Finally I organized the minimum required money for the
Visa. I went to UK embassy and applied for a study visa. As I remember
they rejected my Visa 3 times. I still don't know why they rejected it.
It was 26 July, 2005 where Mumbai was totally under water due to heavy rain which caused heavy loss and many deaths. Like any other day I was that day also working in the Call Center. I still remember during returning back to my flat that the water was until my waist. On that day I decided to leave Mumbai soon and concentrate on finding job in Pune.
It took a few months when I got my first job in Pune. Thanks to the company's management and their trust I
learned a lot and very fast. During this time I came into contact with
few German norms. This was the point where I started again thinking for studying abroad but this time in Germany.
I started doing all
research about education in Germany. Many hours after my work in the
internet Cafe became normal. To get information because of German
language was not easy. Many of my friends told me not to go to Germany
because of a totally different language. Even though education was in
English everything else was German. They told me that without German
language I could not survive. As a mechanical engineer Germany was best
for higher education but then also due to language barrier I was not 100
percent sure to pursue that idea. But going to the USA or Australia was
too expensive for me and I did not want to experience the same
difficulties like before with London. So I decided to go to Germany for
my master studies and accepted the challenge.
My original plan was to
finish my masters and go back to India. I was not expecting that I will
remain in Germany after that. But the challenges during my normal days,
challenges during finding internships, challenges during interviews,
challenges finding my first job helped me in learning the German
language and the German working culture. In the mean time I am almost 15
years here in Germany. Worked in different companies at different
positions and living in different cities were very challenging but very interesting. I learnd a lot.
There
are lots of challenges in Germany because of a different language but there are also
a lot of benefits. If you are determined, well prepared and found a
proper mentor then you can avoid difficulties in the beginning and can
definitely be successful. Be sure that there are lots of differences
between the US and Germany with respect to career development, diversity
topics so please do your research in advance to avoid any
disappointment.
Thank you for reading this article and giving your valuable feedbacks and comments. It motivates me to write more regarding my experiences about living and working in Germany. If you find it useful, please share with your connections.
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