Life Advice

Recently have been put in a two roads diverged in a wood kind of situation and wanted to see if anyone had thoughts on it.
I graduated with a degree in civil engineering and the goal was to move back to India and help run the family business but its very small with about 2 Mil in revenue, apart from that my dad/owner is very brash with his decisions and has no interest in listening to other people around them ( very big ego) while I am more patient and believe in learning as much from other smarter folks by surrounding them around me. We often end up butting heads about this and the family environment is extremely toxic and mentally draining because of these reasons.
The other option I was thinking was to strike out on my own in USA and work for a RE PE or developer and eventually open my own shop, the challenge with that would be trying to pivot into the RE industry and I am not sure how hard that will be given my engineering and non finance background.

What would you do/ thought process ? any advice would be helpful

2 Comments
 
Most Helpful

It sounds like you already know that there would be some compatibility issues working with your father. If it's as toxic as you believe it will be, I don't know why you would move back to work at the family business right out of undergrad. I would do your own thing for awhile - you can always return to India it seems like, and if you spend a couple years on your own becoming your own man I'd assume you would have more credibility within your family.

The big question is, will you require a work visa to stay in the United States? I don't know a lot of developers and REPEs that sponsor foreign workers. That, in my opinion, would be your biggest hurdle to working in the U.S. I wouldn't say your civil engineering degree makes your situation more challenging - that's a background that developers look for - less so for REPE. If you wanted to break into REPE, I would suggest maybe applying to an MSRED/MBA program somewhere. This would give you a more competitive background for the type of jobs you're looking for, and give you a buffer period for at least a year to find a job that would sponsor a work visa.

Best of luck - cheers.

 

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