Hi,

I am living in Chennai working with Indian IT company with 8 years experience. My husband did Masters(M.Tech) from IIT, Ph.d from Europe and currently working in banglore in one of the Mechanical company. We have a 1 year child. Currently taken care by parents in chennai. Husband got a post-doctorate offer from Netherland and UK. Is it better to go to Netherland or UK. Trying for a opportunity in US also. Which country is better to live and have some savings, when both of us are working. I need to try for IT job in that country. At the same time, need to take care of my child. We are confused. Anyone can help us make the decision in providing the pro's and con's would be welcome.

Thanks
Satya

Dear Satya

I have moved from UK to the Netherlands four years ago. I was born there and my parents are from India. According to my own experience I would suggest you to go to UK. There are many reasons why but they also need to apply to you.

First of all here you have the language barrier....the most important thing, you need to fit in here. Having difficulties in communicating and socialising will have an affect on your lifestyle and harmony. Of course people speak englsih here but not excellent english neither frequent most Dutch is spoken and is not any easy language to learn. This results to feeling alienated because there is a minority of our own community in the Netherlands.

England is known as the largest second country with a high number of Indians after India. Which you can imagine caters for everything such as food,culture and relgious items as well sanctuary for worshippers...mandirs,gudwara,mosque etc. You will definitely feel at home although you will be miles away from your dharti mata.

I hope this helps.

my two cents: -
firstly, the decision shud be made on the basis of post doc offer - field of post doc, jobs in that field in the particular country....with watever little exp. i hv, for post doc i guess US is the best bet, you get lots of funding there, if lucky, you get to work under reputed guides and with good colleagues, ur papers can get published which can further give the needed boost to ur career......

with NL i believe when you hv a 1 yr child, you aint gonne save that much, unless you continue with ur parents taking care of ur kid....however on the other hand u'll be hvin a KM dependant visa which will enable u to work and jobs in IT in NL or UK for that matter are plenty.....

pls dont mind my asking, i m just being plainly curious but what is the reason (unless post doc is something ur husband is hell bent on doing, and the university is too good to be missed) for moving from india to another country at this point
1. u r working there in IT industry for last 8 yrs exp, must be earning decently
2. husband has degrees from IIT and europe, must be earning decently
3. hv a 1 yr old kid
4. if in india ur kid is being taken care of by parents, u cannot have that in europe or US for that matter unless they are staying with you, which unfortunately will not happen, because of visa hassles, particularly NL

if i m in your place, i wud never even think of moving now, just my opinion

Hi,

My husband is not happy with the current job he is doing and that too he is in banglaore and i am in chennai. I thought just for the sake of me working, we are separate, hence we could join and live together in abroad and i can be a home-maker. But now i feel i need to work and if that is the case, taking care of the baby is a problem. I donno whether Daycare will take care of my baby properly???!!! Our plan is that i can work from home, since compared to India, in foreign country we can have a choice to work from home. and he also can work from home some days... so we both can manage somehow. But not very clear in making a decision.

I am not very sure whether work from home is possible for IT ladies in UK or netherland or US. I am sure India is not able to give that option.

I want to know whether UK or netherland or US or India is better?

i understand that, however, wat still surprises me, is that u can easily get a job in Banglore, being in IT....also most MNCs give working from home and long leaves also, when i was in india working for ibm, i used to work from home atleast once every week........some of the companies who prefer female IT staff and thus give them options of working from home, variable office timings, long maternity leaves and otherwise also, daycare centers arranged by company itself, i spek for sure for IBM, oracle, cognizant, symantec, accenture

daycare here in NL are good, but expensive and hv a long waiting period....working from home regularly is not possible even here, though a lot depends on ur boss and the type of work u r doing, but yes u do hv a possiblity to work just 28 or 32 or 36 hrs per week based on the contract.....also one imp factor here is the schooling thing, international schools have pretty high fees...so atleast dont think in terms of saving too much money here, u hv to cut the corners to save money here....

its a difficult decision but you have to weigh in everything carefully before making a big move

gudluck

I agree with Gita on some of the pointers.

I have already posted a few times comparsion between UK, NL, US. Esp since I have lived, worked or studied in the countries.

Please keep in mind , NL is not a country where you are coming with an idea that you can save 1000's of euros per month. It is a small country, space, sun are scare commodities. But life style and standards of living, health care are much better than in States or UK. Ofcourse no country is perfect.

Please take a look at these posts. Give me a shout if you need more info -



http://forum.expatica.com/Confused-migration-t103119.html
http://forum.expatica.com/Advice-t102937.html

Good luck with your decesion.

Hi Satya
I dont know about US as i have not been there , but between UK and NL , i advice you to choose UK .
You will have a better social networking , food etc in UK , especially London as compared to NL.
Good luck and let us know when u decide !