WFH v/s relocating to Bangalore
I am an IIT-IIM MBB consultant. Considering the bleak situation of the consulting industry, I looked out for opportunities and got a couple of offers - needed help in evaluating them.
I have 4 YOE and currently I'm in Mumbai and am on INR ~34 LPA comp (incl. bonus)
Offer 1: INR 40-43 LPA at an Indian startup in Bangalore Offer 2: INR 35-37 LPA + equity at a foreign startup with fully WFH model
Challenge is my wife also works in Mumbai and hence, relocating to Bangalore will come at a huge cost (financially + mentally). Recent news about Bangalore does not help either.
Any thoughts on how I can go about this? Just fishing for some external perspective here - fo not expect any stranger to solve for me!
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WFH for sure. You'll spend that extra hike on living expenses, plus no point leaving family
I get that - it's just difficult to imagine choosing the lower offer esp since living costs will always be higher in Mumbai. But I get it - wfh has it's own appeal
But you’ll be splitting the expenses in Mumbai so that evens out
Don't move to Bangalore. It's a shithole. Take WFH and work with the freedom to not get bogged down by an excuse of a city. Visit this trashcan, whenever needed, but don't relocate here. It's sad, bad, and not worth it, at any level.
Bro believe me I'm living here in Bangalore for 2 years and if I get an WFH offer from any company even on the same scale pay I'll choose it without thinking for a second.
Just go with WFH, you will be fed up with Bangalore as the expenses here are really exhausting. At least choose mental peace by living with your family, because here you exhaust yourself mentally as well as financially.
What are the high expenses in BLR? I live in Mumbai and am pretty sure rents in BLR haven't reached Mumbai benchmarks
+1
Being from IIT, IIM, you are not able to make a decision and depend on forum like grape......why do you even take such a high salary....
Saw this comment coming :) Which is why I mentioned in the post that I am not expecting folks to make a choice but only to get external perspective. I do not have first hand experience of working in startups or even switching laterally - hence thought it wouldn't hurt to hear from others
You centered this topic around money and CTC etc ...it should have been all about experience start up vs switching etc...anyways, in my view stay in Mumbai and don't sacrifice your wife's career.... unless she is 100% sure about it....one more tip, don't leave a company on a high ( i.e. if you have really strong rapport with your leadership, stay there even if you are getting higher salary somewhere else). It will reap fruits some day....
Take WFH set-up.
If you don’t like consulting, no issues in switching early.
None of the consulting frameworks work in actual business problems that need strategy and operations mindset.
Consulting brands remain forever, ex MBB is a strong signal.
Try to get towards execution side in startups with a growth, strategy and operations, PnL management reply.
MBB + startup for me have been then best hires vs only MBB or only startups.
Wfh!! I left my wfh job and went to Bangalore for a 20% hike, but regretting it now
Why? Can you elaborate
+1, please elaborate?
Please consider only if the start up is firm enough for runway growth and brand value it holds by itself or by parent company !! The packages alone cant be the deciding factor here…
Understood thanks
Wow some comments on this thread are way too weird. Don’t understand all the anti-MBB, “How are you only making this much”, “you are from IIT-IIM think yourself” etc etc. Bruh - if you don’t have anything positive or helpful to add, why not keep the negativity and jealous wittiness idk what even to yourself?
Anyway, coming to your question:
If you have 2 YOE post MBA I am assuming you are newly wed. Family time is important. I don’t want to climb aboard any of the trains “Mumbai is better” or “Bangalore is better”, I’ve lived in both cities, and they both have pros and cons - and I think for most people and in most scenarios both are okay to live in.
Here is why I would chose option 2:
- More family time + wife does not have to face trouble
- Overall, you two do not have to move to BLR and hustle for housing, etc etc
- I assume you are living on rent in Mumbai, 35-37 LPA here vs 40-43 LPA in BLR; okay there is a 5-6L rs difference but honestly that is not enough to let go of pt. 1 and 2 [it would not matter to ME, plug in your opinion when considering this point]
And, this is why I would chose option 1:
-
~6 lacs of extra income for you (assuming rental ~ same for both cities)
-
If you prefer work from office setup + meeting your team mates etc, ngl for a lot of people it is very important to know and meet people they work with
Finally, I would also consider screening both startups, the above “selection criteria” assumes both startups to have a similar risk-return profile.
You should:
- Talk to current and ex employees to know more about the company and work
- Get to know about the founding team and founders - whats the mindset at the firm?
- What is the outlook of the company, the sector, the sub-sector? [specially if you want to stay long and make those ESOPs count]
- Does your mindset, “WHY” and goals align with the startups - will you enjoy the work?
My two cents on the topic - personal opinion ofc - cheers.
Thanks for the detailed response - appreciate it :)
I can see a lot of comments here saying don't come to Bangalore. But honestly what is your domain/sector expertise? As a consultant (not-MBB) I can tell you one thing that use your consulting expertise for making the best decision for yourself. If you're interested in tech/saas you must move to the hub of where all that activity happens (not just work, but also auxiliary activities like networking events, conferences, hackathons etc). There'll be a huge opportunity cost associated with missing out on that.
Again I don't know what you have heard about bangalore, but make your money make for you man. Take a place to stay close to your office, you can afford it at your payscale (don't know about your liabilities), make sure that area has cauvery water supply and 50% of your issues are sorted. (I can go more about that). But be close to the center of action, not away, especially at this early stage in our career. Take the offer with greater hike. You can make work life balance from from here too (Do the due diligence into the startup as wel though)
Offer-1 lo, offer-2 pe parttime kaam karo