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My introduction:

From a college student, spending my dad's money to an entrepreneur who is helping others to make it in Germany.  Here is the real story of what 10 years abroad taught me about life, success, and freedom.

I am Chandrasen. I'm an immigrant, a trained engineer, and a business owner based in Germany. My company Destination Germany helps people from abroad to make it to Germany.

I see my life in two episodes. One before moving to Germany. While I was living in India and once after moving to Germany and living in Germany. The way how I remember myself when I was living in India is someone pretty relaxed and was intimidated by everything which is rich and expensive.  

So as I am from an above middle-class family I was spending my dad's money, without being  too aware of how hard it is to earn my own money. I was very much interested in bikes and cars, but at the time when I was.  In engineering, which is about 17 years old or something.

My dad bought me a really nice bike during my whole engineering life, I was relaxed, taking bike tours with my friends. Traveling and enjoying my life with my parents money. So during this time, the way how I remember myself is someone who enjoys a lot with his friends, and family members, and also partying and whatnot. 

To be honest, when I was leading this life, I was super happy, super comfortable and all thanks to my parents, I never. Felt a time where, okay, I'm not having enough money. I'm not getting enough things from parents and that's why I'm always thankful to them. While I was living in India, my life was pretty nice.

 I was always happy when I was living there. But I don't know when was this the case, but sometime or like I have been always thinking about moving abroad. So it could be that many of my relatives and cousins have also gone to abroad to do their higher education and then have settled there.

Maybe this is something that has been in my mind. For quite some time, and that's why I also wanted to take this trajectory,

  when this was running in my mind, as higher education abroad is quite expensive for Indians, in the third year of my engineering, I asked my dad if he's fine with helping out financially to make this happen. And he gladly said yes, for which I'm thankful.

I was preparing myself and doing the research on, okay, where can I go, which is the country that I should choose.  

The very first obvious option that comes to every Indian's mind is the USA because one can make the dream happen there. That was also my first option.   But after doing a bit of research, I understood that the amount of money that is required to study or do higher education is quite too much  that's the first reason why I thought, okay, let me not go to the US. The second reason what I the reason for not choosing the US is that I heard from many of my friends and relatives. If I am registered as a master's student in any of the universities, maybe 80 percent of them would be Indians and then only 20 percent would be other nationalities.

So one of my core motivations. To go to abroad was also to actually get to know different cultures, get to know people from different backgrounds.  That really made me think twice about choosing the USA for my master's studies. Then my research went to the next country, which is Germany. And why I started to research Germany is because now, I had a high passion for bikes and cars.

Cars and bikes were quite a thing for me.  When I was in India, I knew every model of the cars that were being released. I was just crazy about cars and bikes, and that is what inclined me  to research about Germany. I got to know that  higher education in Germany is not as expensive as in the US. Hence I chose Germany. Plus if I get registered to any of the German universities, then it won't be the case that majority of them from, will be from India. This also means that I get to learn people from different backgrounds, different cultures, different ethnicity, and this. 

These two things really made me stick to Germany and yeah, six months before I started learning German, very basic level, and then, so started applying to different universities and many of them got rejected and I got one acceptance from one of the private universities in Germany  and yeah.

Everything is all set and then now I reached to a point where it is time to pay the fees in order to make it final to get admission in this university.

  At this point in time, there has, there was a clash within my family. So the time has come to pay the fees. In order to pay the fees one of the family members had to sign the documents so that the money can be transferred because every business that has been done is jointly made.

At this point in time there was a clash and what my dad has promised me that he could, that he would like to help me go abroad was not happening because of this clash. So during this time, I saw my dad in his lowest point. Which made me feel really bad because of me is in this situation it was a phase where I thought, okay, I cannot go to Germany because I was not able to pay the fees and yeah, this was the phase that I was in. And during this time, one of my dad's friend. Jumped in to pay the fees because he had so much gratitude towards my dad as my dad helped them in the deepest time when they were in financially.

 Yeah, it was all out of nowhere. Because of my dad's friend, I could actually pay the fees and get that mission done. Which made it possible for me to move to Germany. This whole incident made a really deep impact on myself. And from that point in time, I committed to myself that I should not be a burden to anyone.

  My dad has helped until then, but after that, it's my own thing. And this is what I need to take care of, is what I said to myself. And yeah, so that's how things happened while I was in India the flights were booked and I started my journey from India to Germany.  

So what was super exciting for me was onboarding the flight for the first time in my life, this was truly amazing and exciting for me. I enjoyed every single minute of this flight, and was excited to move to Germany. As soon as I landed in Germany, I was in shock, not negatively, but positively, by seeing things I never thought would be real.   So basically everything was clean, everything was well organized. It's quiet. It was so fascinating for me to see. and experience a new world after 21 years of my life.

This was truly immense and mesmerizing for me. I could still feel that feeling when I reached Germany. And this is very hard to explain in words. Once I'm in Germany and got settled, got my first apartment, in the in the, at the university, I started to travel around to the nearby places when there was no classes and also over the weekend.

So some of the places that I visited is called Sinsheim. There, there was, there is this museum at Sinsheim which is super cool. Then I went to Hamburg had been to Stuttgart and also had been to one of the Audi's. a manufacturing unit. Called Neckarsulm.  So it was the first few months still felt like a dream for me because yeah, it was at once a dream, but then I was living that dream and I was not able to really come to terms with the dream becoming a reality. The very first time when I experienced snow in my life was also truly mesmerizing.

That was the first time in my life that I actually saw the snow falling. I still remember the way how I felt and how mesmerizing it was. And this was really a great time that I had when I saw the first snowfall in my life.  

So while I was traveling and exploring Germany, one thing was always running in my mind to find a job. Or a side job, which helps me to take care of my expenses. If someone is moving to Germany for higher education, one of the things that needs to be done is to create a blocked account where the money you put in this blocked account will be enough to take care of first year of your living in Germany.

So that was all in place  but still. After one year, then I would need more money. And since I told myself that I would not ask for more support anymore to my parents, I was already thinking in the very first couple of months how to start earning so that I don't have to ask anymore.

So after one month or so, I started looking for part time jobs. Because in Germany, it's quite common for students to do a part time job. I don't know, going to a restaurant, going to a industry or manufacturing unit as a helper or whatnot.  One does this very normally and I wanted to have one as well so that I can take care of my expenses.

Since my German at that point in time was very basic it was quite hard for me to find a part time job. After a lot of searching, I think after three months of me living in Germany, I got the first job as a helper in the restaurant.

I also still now remember how happy I was when I got this job because I was really into making sure that I earn my own bread going forward. The name of the restaurant is Oh Angie! In Heidelberg.

  During this time I was studying, learning language, working and exploring Germany and Europe. Once I got this helper job, it was not so hard and I could find other jobs which helped me take care of my day to day expenses.

But the next challenge was to find an internship. in the field of my studies.   I moved to Germany to do my master's degree in international business and engineering. And was trying to find an internship in any of the fields that are related to the studies that I was doing. Very slowly I got to realize that it was hard to find an internship because of the German language. 

At that point in time, I only had A2 level German and also I'm not the strongest in learning a new language so in order to get the internship in one, two, three months time, I started to realize that it might not be possible because I could not learn German that fast.

During this time, one really good thing that happened is that I started to explore my true passion,

When I was having a conversation with one of my friends  I started to realize that I have passion for data and analytics,  but unfortunately I was not studying this in my master's degree. As this is what I learned for myself, I started to learn data and analytics by taking online courses.

This is how I found out my true calling, found out my true passion for which I'm truly thankful and has been a great learning for myself.

  Once I learned everything about data and analytics, I started to apply for the internships and the work student opportunities. I applied for more than 300 internship applications.

And nothing worked. So this was the time which was very low in my life or like low point in my life. Because yeah, I've been trying but still nothing was working. And I still remember how sad and how devastating it was.  But after these many applications, one internship I got, but the catch is that it's an unpaid internship.

So as it was unpaid internship I was totally fine just wanted an opportunity to showcase my skills and also learn on the job.I got this opportunity in Berlin for three months and I left Heidelberg and moved to Berlin to do this internship. 

So the way how my career course was is that I could take a six month break to do my internship. I took this break after one year of my master's studies. To do a six month internship and move to Berlin. So yeah, this was quite a harsh time because I had to take care of myself.

When it comes to financially, I had to go to the internship and also learn the skills in practice. Like data and analytics skills. In the morning, I used to go to the internship after coming back I used to learn additionally whatever I learned at the internship, I used to make sure that I learn more and get to know how to make sure that I can put my skills into practice. 

And then in the night I used to go to The helper job in logistics. Two or three days a week that I had to go to this night shift job which was quite challenging, I must say. Through these times, I became really strong, and unshakable, this was quite an intense time in my life,  but also had a lot of learnings for which I'm truly thankful. After this first free internship I could find the next internship, which was then paid the company where I got the first paid internship is called Zenjob.

So Zenjob  is the company. Where I got my second internship which is now actually Unicorn I think worth more than 2 billion or something. But I, there I learned a lot on job. The mentor that I had in the startup was really amazing and and have been good able to learn a lot through this internship.   The internship at Zenjob helped me to find my first full time job in a small company as a data analytics analyst.  It was very hard for me to get my first internship, but after the first internship, the consecutive jobs that I got was relatively easy.

For example, this first job that I got, I applied for maybe 10 to 15 job openings and got the offer from one company. As soon as I got this job I invited my mom to Come to Germany. So that's also her first trip to Germany and she was staying with me For three months.

It was also a very nice time for me because for the last three to four years I was more or less alone without family. I had great friends for which I am truly thankful but inviting my mom to Germany was really nice and had a great time traveling a bit together with her in Germany and has been a really great time. 

After I worked for this small company for about one year as I did not see a lot of growth I thought of switching to another company. It's called, it was called Book A Tiger. And the reason for me to go to this startup  is because since I come from a business background, it's always the case that in my mind, I wanted to start something on my own.

Doing my own business is what I always had in my mind. And I knew that working for startups is what will help me to do that. And then I joined Book A Tiger. But unfortunately, because of financial reasons, they had to let me go after three months. This was a bummer in my life where I got fired. 

But I knew that it was not because of my skills, but because of the financial situation, but also the co founder of this company and that point in time really helped me to refer my profiles to his connections. And through this, actually, I got two job offers.   One is at a. Company called Auto1, which was already a very big company.

And the second offer that I got is from Dr. Smile, which was a really small startup, which just got started three months back and there they were looking for a data analyst.  So it was an interesting time for me To decide on which offer to choose, then it became clear to me that I had to go with the startup, and I was the fourth employee the major reason being, even though the pay was less is because my far ahead goal of starting something on my own. If I had chosen the big company to work for, then I couldn't have learned things that I would need in order to start my own business. That's the reason that was the main reason for me to choose Dr.

Smile, to work for where I could able to learn everything about Building the company in Germany.   This is how I chose DrSmile and have worked there for about three, three and a half years.

While I was working for Dr. Smile I took the chance to go to the U. S. as a couple of friends of mine are living in the U. S. So this trip was also quite interesting for me because I have seen a far bit of Europe and I've never been to the far west in the world and It was, I took this opportunity to go to the U.

S. and live there or spend my time for two, two weeks there.  When I was in the West coast of the U. S. I also visited Apple's headquarters and Tesla's headquarters. It was quite nice, especially because I'm super fascinated about startups  and. How to build a company

so this was truly nice experience for me at that point in time. And then after working for DrSmile I switched to ToolTime. That's the latest startup that I worked before starting my own business. During this time I got super interested was very much taking care of my self improvement.

So I started to read a lot of books, hear a lot of podcasts about startups, about technology, about starting something on my own.  And yeah, this was the time where I was doing a lot of self-improvement and less partying less wasting time, during this time is also when I got to know Naval Ravikant.

So for me, knowing him and his philosophy, his podcast how to get rich without getting lucky, I have heard more than 20 times.  All this philosophy is what I really like, and it really aligns with how I think about stuff and how I see the world.

This has been a great moment for me. And since then I have been yeah, Navaravikant is my virtual mentor is what I can say to myself because. A lot of things that he shares I use as a framework whenever I want to decide on things.  This has been one thing that I am super proud of is to know Nawal Ravikant and also yeah, use his philosophy use this teaching as a mentorship and this has been a truly rewarding journey so far. So during this space as well, every while I was working for full time, I was also tinkering or trying out different business ideas. So a few of the ideas that that I tried is to build an app for education where one can learn chemistry through augmented reality.

This idea felt fascinating to me. Together with my cousin, we built this of course it did not work.  And then along the way, I also tried out building the website for a business idea that I had in my mind.  And of course it did not work. Then the other idea that I, that comes to my mind is building a language training platform

one can come there to speak English and get better with their English speaking skills.   Different ideas I was trying and tinkering and seeing if something works. But I realized my motivation level was going down over time. As I was working on one of the other ideas.

Then I realized that a strong why is required for me to stick to the business idea that comes up and stays. The next business idea was Destination Germany.  So this was the idea that one of my colleagues from ToolTime shared with me that he's going to start the company soon, which was, of course, there was no name at that point in time where he would like to help people  from abroad come and live in Germany.

So basically international recruiting. This is, this idea really clicked me. And also when I heard about this idea, I could think about the why for myself, because at that point I already started to reflect on my life. I realized that my decision to move to Germany.

Had been a truly transformational one because this really made me a person who is more kinder, who is more calmer, who is ground to earth and also understands the world better because of the knowledge and experience gained living abroad.  By moving abroad.

One gets to. Go through this transformation. When this idea was presented to me from my colleague, I said Hey, this sounds super interesting and I would love to join you to get it started. I take care of everything related to technical things and recruiting because. I came from India to Germany and know how things work.

I offered him that, okay, hey, how about I, we become partners, we start this thing together and I will be your partner who takes care of the thing.  So the good thing is that we both had very complimentary skills. He had more of sales, customer support, customer retention, that kind of skills.

And I am more into the technical side of things with data analytics, with people skills of recruiting and understanding the culture of different countries. So there was a great match and Destination Germany happened. Since 2021, we are working on Destination Germany helping people from Germany, Europe and worldwide to get a job in Germany.

So far we have helped more than 120 people to find their job in one of the German companies  and have helped more than 60 companies In the last three and a half years. Yeah, this has been a truly transformational journey for me. And I'm very thankful for everything that has happened in my life.

And like I was sharing, my decision to move to Germany, has been transformational one. And I am. Believing and I truly believe that moving abroad will transform people's life. And that's what we are doing with Destination Germany.   If you are someone who has the opportunity to move abroad, live abroad, it might necessarily not be that someone coming from a developing country to a developed country, but also.  

People, I feel that need to go from a developed country to the developing country as well. So this is a, this will make a huge impact because the lessons that will be learned by living abroad is truly immense.

Whatever we take for granted while living in our home country will be a will be a what do you say? It's a luxury for the other part of the world and when you see this you feel like wow, okay I'm thankful for whatever I have in my life and try to be more helpful and kinder if more people get the chance to experience life by living abroad we live in a more kinder world. 

And this is what really drives me to help as many people as possible move abroad and experience life  I hope this journey I have shared shows that moving to a new country is not about career opportunity, but also personal growth.

  My journey started with a lot of uncertainty, but today helping others to navigate their life to the new country has become a big passion for me.

For those taking the leap to move abroad, remember you take the first step and everything else will fall onto its place.