After Big Tech in California, a two-year return to India

Shivanand, 32, grew up in a small city about 60 miles northeast of Bengaluru. She moved to the US in 2016 to study electrical engineering at the University of Southern California, then joined Meta as a senior technical program manager. A short move to Microsoft, where she hoped to learn from a larger community of program and product managers, lasted less than seven months before she returned to Meta.

After marrying in 2021, the couple settled in Santa Clara. They had long wanted to contribute to communities in India, but initially relied on their parents to host activities for a charity they had established there. In 2023, they launched Global Engineers Connect with about 35 friends and professionals, offering rural engineering students small grants for community projects as well as mentoring, mock interviews, résumé reviews and referrals.

A full-day event on Shivanand’s undergraduate campus in February 2024 prompted Prajwal to ask whether she wanted to move back. She said yes. The couple questioned whether their careers in technology should define their lives and decided they had enough financial security to explore other work. They rented out their California home rather than selling it, and Shivanand brought 11 boxes of belongings to India. Two years later, they sold the house to a neighbor for $2 million, having bought it for $1.7 million. The sale was completed through an online notary.

Their nonprofit now runs entrepreneurship and AI programs. Its entrepreneurship program works with engineering students for 10 weeks to develop an idea into a minimum viable product. The couple draw on engineering experience—Shivanand worked in AI and network infrastructure, while Prajwal worked at Oracle—and a network of more than 150 mentors.

The transition brought challenges, including adjusting to work culture, traffic, pollution and social expectations. They chose to live independently of their parents in a five-bedroom villa that also serves as their office. Shivanand says she does not regret returning: her Big Tech experience gave her exposure, confidence and financial backing, and living in both countries helped her decide which lifestyle fits her ambitions.