A US degree in 2026 is not an automatic update and not everyone should opt for this, a career coach said.
A LinkedIn post by a career coach pointed out that going to the US will not solve all problems; there are some people who are in a better situation in India and they must understand that instead of taking an impulsive, mid-career decision to go to the US. Anushk Sharma, Head of Growth, Open Venture, said a friend recently asked him if he should do an MS in the US. His answer was ‘No’ because the friend was earning Rs 18 lakh in Bangalore. US is not bad, Sharma said adding that his advice to his friend was not because of the present situation in the US but because the friend was already “winning a game most international students are still trying to enter”.Sharma said people should not come to the US for the wrong reasons, as it could wreck their career. In his post, he highlighted three types of people who should not come to the US and if they are planning to, then they should reconsider.1. People already earning around Rs 15L to Rs 20 L in India in CS, IT or Data Science“You already have what most international students fly across the world chasing. Your post-graduation salary here may not even match what you are leaving behind. You are not upgrading. You are gambling with a strong hand,” the advice said. 2. Freshers with zero skillsA US degree will save if the candidate does not have the right skills. “Even Harvard, Stanford, and MIT students are not landing jobs without real skills right now. A US degree is a stamp, not a skill. Recruiters are hiring builders, not bystanders with brand-name transcripts,” the post read.3. People whose finances cannot support the move to US“A wrong loan today is a 10-year debt sentence tomorrow. Salaries are lower, job hunts are longer, and the OPT clock does not care about your family’s EMIs. The US dream is real. But it is not a default. It is a calculated bet,” Sharma wrote.
