Doctor quits McKinsey, returns India after 13 years in the US: ‘Always knew I’d come home’

“Every rational framework-and most well-meaning mentors-said stay. Stay in the US. Stay at McKinsey,” she wrote. “I’m three months into having permanently moved to India. Here’s why.”

Nagarajan first moved to the US to pursue higher education at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. While the academic experience shaped her professionally, she says living abroad also transformed how she understood society and her own role within it.

“It’s a cliché that some Indians only examine social justice and systemic privilege once they go abroad-better late than never, I was one of them,” she wrote, admitting that her years overseas challenged her thinking about inequality, privilege and the kind of contribution she wanted to make.

After completing her studies, Nagarajan joined Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she practised medicine. Although she enjoyed working with patients, she gradually realised her ambitions extended beyond clinical care.

“Through a lot of tears and introspection, I realized that as much as I loved bedside medicine, my calling was in systemic change,” she wrote.

That realisation eventually led her into management consulting.

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Nagarajan spent the next seven years at McKinsey & Company, advising organisations on large-scale challenges. Looking back, she says the experience gave her a deeper understanding of how decisions are made and how meaningful change happens.

“McKinsey taught me how the real world actually works – who makes decisions, how they make them, and what moves them,” she wrote.

She added that her time at the consulting firm taught her how to turn ideas into action rather than letting them remain concepts on paper.

From the outside, walking away from a prestigious consulting career and life in the US may seem surprising. But Nagarajan says returning to India was never an impulsive decision. It was something she had planned for years.

She explained that throughout her time abroad, she consciously made choices that would make returning easier one day.

“Through all of it, I always knew I’d come home. And I made small decisions to keep that door open – never giving up my Indian passport (despite a long-standing EB1 green card), telling my now-husband on our first date that I intended to go back and we should only take this forward if he was open to it, even choosing McKinsey (an international firm if ever there was one),” wrote Nagarajan.

Sharing what ultimately brought her back, she wrote, “I don’t believe any decision is purely professional. Everything is a bit professional, a bit personal, a bit political.”

She said her reasons for returning were deeply personal as well as purposeful.

“My reasons were simple and a multitude at once: to build something that improves access to care in India, to hear Tamil every day, to work with leaders who inspire me, and to wear Indian handloom. That’s why I’m here in healthcare, in Chennai, at home – for one reason, and a thousand. Rooted, and building for the world, from India,” she added.

Her post has since struck a chord with many professionals, particularly Indians living abroad who have grappled with the question of whether to return home.

“Always nice to read stories like this. It emphasizes the point that people’s advice lacks the context of what you really want and why knowing that will allow you to make the right choices for yourself, irrespective of others,” one LinkedIn user commented.

Another wrote, “Though you make it sound easy, I know it could not have been an easy decision. Kudos to you for having the courage to take that step. Wishing you success as you continue to make a meaningful impact wherever your journey takes you.”