Hi, I'm Shalu 👋 I'm a backend engineer with 7+ years of experience — B.Tech from IIT Guwahati, followed by roles at Flipkart in Bangalore and Zalando in Berlin. Most advice on moving abroad assumes you'll go the student route — a master's degree, a part-time job, then hopefully something full-time after. I didn't do that. I applied directly for jobs from India — to the Netherlands, London, and Germany — and built a life in Europe without ever holding a student visa. That route is harder to find good advice on, because most people who've done it aren't the ones writing about it. I am. I've been through the applications, the silence, the rejections, the interview calls that finally came, the salary negotiations, and the actual logistics of living in Germany once I got there. I'm back in India now, so I understand both sides of this fresh — not from memory, but from having just lived it.