For many people, moving abroad is seen as the ultimate goal. Years of study, a high-paying job and a settled life often make it difficult to imagine coming back.But for Dr Neeraja Nagarajan, returning to India was never an afterthought. It was always part of the plan.After spending more than 13 years in the United States, studying at one of the country’s top universities and building a successful career at McKinsey & Company, she has now moved back to Chennai. In a LinkedIn post, she opened up about the decision, saying it wasn’t an easy one, especially when everyone around her believed she had every reason to stay.“Every rational framework-and most well-meaning mentors-said stay. Stay in the US. Stay at McKinsey,” she wrote. “I’m three months into having permanently moved to India. Here’s why.”Her post has struck a chord with professionals who have faced the same question: should you stay abroad, or go back home?
A journey that began with higher studies
Neeraja left India over a decade ago to pursue higher education at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.Looking back, she says those years changed her in more ways than one. Along with academics, they reshaped how she viewed society and her place in it.“It’s a cliché that some Indians only examine social justice and systemic privilege once they go abroad-better late than never, I was one of them,” she wrote.She admitted that living in another country pushed her to think differently about inequality, opportunity and the kind of impact she wanted to create.
From medicine to a bigger mission
After finishing her studies, Neeraja worked at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.She loved practising medicine, but somewhere along the way, she realised that treating one patient at a time wasn’t the path she wanted to spend her life on.“Through a lot of tears and introspection, I realized that as much as I loved bedside medicine, my calling was in systemic change,” she wrote.That realisation eventually led her in a completely different direction.
Seven years at McKinsey
Neeraja later joined McKinsey & Company, where she spent seven years working with businesses and organisations on large-scale challenges.She credits the consulting firm with teaching her lessons that went far beyond boardrooms and presentations.“McKinsey taught me how the real world actually works – who makes decisions, how they make them, and what moves them,” she wrote.She added that it was there she learned how to turn good ideas into real action instead of letting them remain just ideas.
Why she chose to return
From the outside, leaving a global consulting firm and a life in the US might seem like an unusual decision.But Neeraja says coming back to India wasn’t something she decided overnight. It was something she had imagined for years.Her LinkedIn post suggests that the move was driven by a desire to contribute more directly to the country she has always considered home.For her, success wasn’t only about staying where the opportunities were. It was also about returning with the skills and experience she had gained over the years.“Through all of it, I always knew I’d come home. And I made small decisions to keep that door open – never giving up my Indian passport (despite a long-standing EB1 green card), telling my now-husband on our first date that I intended to go back and we should only take this forward if he was open to it, even choosing McKinsey (an international firm if ever there was one),” wrote Neeraja.
Her story resonated with many
Since being shared, Neeraja’s post has received praise from professionals who related to her experience. Some admired her decision to return despite having a successful career overseas, while others said her journey reflected a question many Indians living abroad continue to wrestle with.There’s no single right answer when it comes to building a career overseas or returning home.For Neeraja Nagarajan, though, the answer had been clear for a long time.As she put it, she always knew she’d come home.