Why I came back to India, and why I built Flyback

Eight years abroad, and a decision about coming home

For most of my life, I heard some version of the same thing: “If you’re an engineer, there aren’t really that many good opportunities in India.” So I packed my bags and left, hoping to find the best of the best opportunities abroad.

I followed standard procedure. I studied, did my MS at Carnegie Mellon, and ended up spending the next eight years studying and working outside India. I built a career, got experience, and built a comfortable life for myself. From the outside, everything was going pretty well.

But somewhere along the way, I realised something I hadn’t expected. I didn’t really feel at home.

So I started thinking about coming back. Eventually, I had to make a decision about the H-1B process and decided to come back to the motherland.

I’d spent years abroad. I had a master’s degree, solid work experience, and what I thought was a pretty decent CV. Surely finding a good job in India couldn’t be that difficult.

Turns out, I was too optimistic.

Looking for a job in India after eight years abroad

Then I started looking for a job.

This was when things got interesting. I had eight years of experience abroad and a master’s from Carnegie Mellon, but apparently, experience doesn’t always travel as well as you do. Especially when it comes to the numbers.

And the more people I spoke to, the more I realised this wasn’t just my problem. I met people who had studied at top universities abroad, worked at good companies, and built genuinely strong careers. And many of them were running into the same thing.

Their experience abroad didn’t always translate neatly into the Indian job market. The right roles weren’t always obvious, the salaries were difficult to benchmark and getting through the door was often harder than it should have been.

The thing I was missing: a network in India

But there was something else I hadn’t thought about.

I was missing something pretty important: a network.

I started noticing that people who, on paper, didn’t necessarily have more experience than me were getting the kinds of roles I was looking for. And it wasn’t because they had some secret qualification I didn’t know about.

They had spent their careers in India. Their college friends were working at companies they wanted to join. They knew recruiters. They knew someone who knew someone who knew someone who could make a referral.

And me? Well, I did not know a single “someone” because I lived abroad and could not build the network they did in all their years in India.

I’d spent most of my career abroad. So while I had the experience, I didn’t necessarily have the access.

And that distinction was huge.

What happens when you come back to India?

If you’ve spent years studying or working abroad, coming back to India sounds pretty simple.

You book a flight. You come home. You find a job. Right?

Not quite.

Suddenly, you have a whole new set of questions.

Does my experience abroad actually count here? What should I be earning? Is this salary reasonable? Which companies actually value international experience? How different is the work culture? What does work-life balance look like?

And perhaps the biggest one:

How do I get my foot in the door when I don’t have a network here?

I’d spent years building my career. But coming back sometimes felt like I had to prove all of it again.

Why I built Flyback

That’s where Flyback came from.

I didn’t start Flyback because I had some grand plan to reinvent recruitment. I started it because I needed it.

When I was looking for a job in India, I wanted somewhere that understood the difference between someone who had spent eight years working here and someone who had spent eight years working abroad.

I wanted somewhere that could help answer the questions a normal job search doesn’t really answer.

What roles actually make sense for me? What should I expect to earn? Which companies value international experience? How does my experience translate to the Indian market? And how do I navigate all of this without already having the network?

I couldn’t find that.

So I decided to build it.

The idea behind Flyback is pretty simple: if you’ve built your career abroad and want to come back to India, finding the right opportunity shouldn’t feel like starting from zero.

You shouldn’t have to throw away the career you’ve built just because you crossed a border. And you shouldn’t have to spend months figuring out a job market you thought you already knew.

That’s what I want Flyback to help with.

Not just finding a job. Finding the right opportunity, understanding the market, and making the move back to India a little less confusing.

Because I know what it feels like to come back and think:

“Okay... now what?”

Flyback is my answer to that question.

Welcome to Flyback.