RD: 3/22/2002, ND: 4/9/2002 approved

cinta,
Citizenship takes too long, 5-6 yrs. Kid would be grown up a bit and would be tough to relocate. I am committed to returning to India. What is the point of holding back for US citizenship.

OmGV,
I am mostly in tech and also a bit of tech strategy.

BladeRunner,
Off late, I am working in digital security including digital signatures, identity mgmt, biometrics, SSL/TLS, etc. I do not think these technologies are even available in India. My advantage is I am both a tech architect and PM. I have outsourced work to India and managed the outsourced work from US. Further, I have worked on various projects and leadership teams setting my company's future technological architecture and vision (BTW, because of that I deal with lot of vendors and get to play with some cool technologies and toys).

All,
I do respect your choice of deciding to stay here and believe it will work out the best for you.
 
st8, do you have any MBA degree? How did you become a PM (not that I doubt your abilities)? I would like to know what you have done to break into the white management. Any tips?
 
frantic,
I have a PMP cert. But, that came in recently because of my plans to India. I was a PL/PM even before I stepped into US. When I joined the Big 5, I was able to convince my partner (kind of like the branch/division head) of my skills and "saleablility." I was able to get into a leading company as a client and was able to bring on more business. Further, client was impressed with my tech skills and wanted to keep me at all costs. So, I could leverage what I wanted from my Big 5 company. Interestingly, the branch had lot of successful Indians and executive mgmt was convinced of the technical and PM skills of Indians.

Generally, it depends on building a network and proving yourself. I normally would be the first one to take the toughest assignment and have it delivered better than expected. There are risks associated with it but if you can prove yourself and also gain "visibility" with executive mgmt, you can pick and choose your role and projects.

I do not have a MBA.

Another thing, I do not consider white, black or brown any different. The reason I mention that is sometimes people look down upon black people and look up to white people. I treat them all same and hence never awed by anyone.
 
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congrats, st8. I wish you good luck for your India plans also. It's good to see that India's image is improving (more and more indians are willing to relocate from USA to India).
 
It is always nice to see talented people moving back to India and helping it develop, even further.

I wish you all the best (I bet, the food tastes better in India).
:)
 
st8, thank you for your reply. PMP cert is a catch 22 situation. It requires 5 yrs exp but is difficult to become a PM but it is easy to use PMP cert to become a PM.

Currently I am working as a Project Lead and I am very much interested in becoming a PM or Development Manager. I am finding it difficult to approach a company and ask them for a managerial position (I haven't tried it though) without any experience. I am exploring the best options I have now in this environment.
 
frantic,
PMP requirements sounds tricky but it is not. It asks for 5 years experience but not as a PM. You could be in a role that is one man team/project, developer, team leader, PL, PM, etc. All you would need to is to satisfy the required criteria in the 5 (now 6, I think) PM domains. You would need to spin a little bit ;) but almost most of them with progressive experience should be able to apply. PMP is not needed to become a PM but at least it will lend credibility and help gaining insights to standards.

Working through an existing company could be a better bet until becoming well established. You would need to network and gain visibility across project lines/divisions in your company. I have always gone out of my way to help/share my knowledge with others. That has given me a lot of friends in the company because people come to me to ask an opinion or help with their project with which I may have no association at all.
 
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