I was on L1-B. I had to return to India due to a combination of several problems including the Visa issues. Some people just get filtered out of the race. As an Indian it takes more than just a Visa to settle in the US. You have to be in the good books of your bosses if you want to move up in the GC category chain, which involves making it into inner power circles of office politics where the plum budgets get allocated. Its a complex equation of age+politics+luck+health+family situations etc. The equation becomes less favorable to you as you enter the 30s.

People like me, just do our time and return to India. The company was happy to let me continue working from Bangalore office.

Working in the Bay Area was a net positive for me. You learn so much from working with the smartest in the world. Everything changes, your motivation, drive, ambition, your imagination gets re-modelled as to what's possible and how far you can go. I have learned tons due to access to a awesome peer group. I used to visit Stanford and just walk there so many times just to be in the company and see the specialness of the place. My imagination itself has evolved. I learn to take failure less fatally, and take more chances these days.

For this reason alone, I advice young people at work and friends circle to try and work in Bay Area, even if its a short stint. Its a net positive to one's career.

In terms of concrete steps, I've been promoted at work. I learned to swim(Thanks to the hiking I did around Bay Area, all those people who were so focussed on fitness had a good effect on me).I had good savings for a head start in my peer/age group. I also made decent real estate investments in India. I had a start up in Bangalore before moving to Bay Area, now I want to start up sometime again. I have read dozens of books, and have developed appetite for taking on hard projects at work. My eventual plan is to be financially independent, so that I can have mental space to take time off and do things and projects I like. So I'm working on it.

Who knows what's next for all for us due to COVID and what else is to follow. But my experience in the past failing and getting up so many times tells me, as long as one is interested in doing work, learning and have immunity to handle tough times, general direction is always a upwards trajectory.

But I'd like to come back and again work in the Bay Area. This time around not that much for money but just for working with smart people.

Sometimes I really wonder. What stops people in US in other states to buy a ticket and relocate to Bay Area.