As I complete one year of working at ergoform I am faced with a dilemma. To put it simply – I have to do my master’s in design, but should I do it in India or do it abroad? As I look at it both have it’s advantages and disadvantages.

India:
After I complete 2 years of my Master’s, I would work somewhere for a year or two and then I would have a big enough network when I start my own practice. Education is cheap here and most designers do it for the sake of validating their work in the future. People in India don’t usually take you and your work seriously unless you have a degree to prove it. So, I save on time and money but at the same time I probably don’t get a quality education and exposure that I would get abroad.

Abroad:
Here’s where real education happens. Where you are encouraged to explore and go crazy. Spending two years in University will be like a lifetime given the amount of work required, but at the end of it, you emerge a better designer, better manager and a better human. Downside is that I do want to come back to India and settle down. Starting my practice would require a lot more time then – by my calculations atleast 5-6 years more after the degree. I will work abroad to recover my tuition fees for atleast 2 years and by the time I come back to India, I would have lost touch with the people and the places. Hence another 2 years working in India to develop my network all over again.

Arrgghh… dilemma dilemma! Someone have any bright ideas?

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2 Responses to To go or not to go?

  1. Deepak says:

    Oye.. I say go abroad.. If money is not an issue. Ok, it takes you longer to get you to where you want to be, but I am sure it’ll be more in terms of all round development. Forget the destination for now, just enjoy the journey!!!

  2. Radhika says:

    Who says you can’t network with people in India while being abroad? Also, if you know that you eventually want to go back home and work there (like I did)… you can always gear your experience to do that. Yes — it’ll take atleast two years to earn back the money spent… but the ROI on the experience is so much higher that the initial investment seems negligible.

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