From Chennai to Germany: How a Masters in Data Science Shaped Kishore's Career Journey

"I learned how to do everything by myself here, being independent. I could have been independent in India too, but you don't really have the same values when home is just a phone call, or a few hundred kilometers, away."
 - Kishore

Kishore began his career path in Chennai, where he completed his B.Tech in Information Technology through a pandemic-disrupted final two years of college. Rather than settle into the typical "start basic, climb slowly" path he saw ahead of him in India, he chose a two-year Masters in Data Science and Analytics at a private university in Germany, funded almost entirely by his parents' savings. Today, Kishore works full-time at SAP, where he started as a working student and has since grown into developing AI agents on one of the company's core enterprise products.

In today's story, read about how Kishore:

• Chose Germany over the more obvious US and Canada routes, and why a language barrier turned into an advantage
• Nearly switched teams at SAP before deciding to stay, and why that became his best career decision
• Rebuilt his own application process from scratch after a consultancy let him down

Read his story here

Meet Kishore, who now works at SAP in Germany after completing his Masters in Data Science and Analytics. He moved from India for his masters in 2022, built a career at one of Germany's largest tech employers, and now calls Germany his second home. He spoke about his journey, the setbacks along the way, and what he'd tell his younger self.

Q. What made you decide to move abroad in the first place?

Honestly, I didn't want a typical lifestyle, finishing my bachelor's, starting a 9-to-5 in a basic position, and slowly climbing over years. I wanted to try something different. It came down to two options after my bachelor's: take a job in India or do a masters abroad. I chose the masters, and luckily, it all turned out well.

Q. Why Germany, and not the more common choices like the US or Canada?

The US was a big no for me, honestly, without any deep logical reason. It just felt like everyone's default answer: too many people were already headed there, too many exams to clear (GRE, GMAT, and IELTS), and it was genuinely expensive. Canada felt similar to me at the time. I actually found out about Germany through my cousin, who was already living there. Nobody really talks about studying or working in Germany; it felt like a hidden option, but once I started exploring it properly, I knew that was the country.

Q. Walk us through the actual cost of this move.

My masters was a two-year course at a private university, and by the time I enrolled, it cost close to 20,000 euros; the same course costs a lot more now. Converted, that was about 21 to 22 lakh rupees. On top of that, there's something called a blocked account, money you set aside for your own monthly living expenses, which was another 12,000 euros, roughly 12 to 13 lakh rupees more. My parents covered nearly all of it from their savings. I did try for a loan, but the interest rates were too high at the time, so it didn't work out.

Q. What was the biggest setback in your application process?

I worked with a consultancy that communicated poorly; there were constant miscommunications, and it eventually affected my visa process too. I ended up having to redo the entire process myself, and that mistake cost me about six months. I'd planned to start in April 2022, but because of that delay, I only actually arrived in Germany in September 2022.

Q. Take us through your career timeline since then.

I finished my bachelor's around August or September 2021, after a pandemic-disrupted last year and a half of remote college. I moved to Germany in September 2022 for my Masters in Data Science and Analytics. While studying, I got a working student role at SAP, essentially a part-time internship inside a real professional team. I later stepped away from that role to focus on my thesis and went through 4 to 5 months of job searching afterward, right as the job market here was getting tougher. I graduated in November 2024, and I landed a full-time role at SAP in May 2025, in the very same team and product I'd interned with.

Q. Your team at SAP uses a fairly old programming language, ABAP, but your masters was in Python-heavy data science. How did that go?

It was genuinely tough at first. I didn't know how to write in anything as old-school as ABAP, and there was a point where I seriously considered trying to jump to a data science team instead. But my team was incredibly supportive; they kept pushing and helping me, and I didn't want to walk away from that. Staying was the right choice. I've since developed several AI agents within that product, and honestly, it's become something I don't want to leave.

Q. How big a factor was the German language?

Bigger than I expected. I did learn German up to B1 level before and during my time here, mainly for the visa process. When I started, the market wasn't demanding it as strictly, but by 2024 and 2025, close to 70 percent of company listings wanted at least intermediate or advanced German, mostly because the customers and data these companies work with are actually in German. Fortunately, SAP is a large multinational with an English-speaking, multicultural team, so I had some flexibility there. But I still need to formally clear B1 with a certification for my permanent residency process.

Q. What's the best decision you've made in this whole journey?

Staying with my current team instead of jumping elsewhere. When I joined, everything about SAP's environment was new to me: their systems, their own internal language, completely different from a typical service-based company back home. It was overwhelming initially. But my manager told me to take my time and learn properly, and that support is exactly what made it work.

Q. What's something you learned outside of your degree entirely?

Honestly, everything. Finances: I began by comparing every price to Indian rupees, and that habit saved me a lot of money. Cooking, too. I still remember my very first attempt, cooking rice, and it was a complete disaster. I'm a decent cook now. And in general, life here runs on trains, trams, and schedules rather than on owning a car or bike right away, so you naturally become far more structured.

Q. Does Germany feel like home to you now?

It genuinely does feel like a second home, even if my mother still won't let me call it that. I landed in the same city four years ago and never had to move, so I still know every street and every shop around here. That familiarity, plus having a stable job now, makes it feel settled in a way I didn't expect.

Q. What do you miss most about India?

My hometown, my parents, my family, all the people I love. I get back once in a while, though I wish it were more often. Family gatherings and, honestly, the food. It's more expensive here, and it never quite tastes as authentic as it does back home.

Q. What would you tell your younger self, back when you were still figuring all this out?

Put in more effort, and don't look for shortcuts; work smart, not just hard. If something feels like too much to handle alone, at least stay informed enough to ask the right questions, rather than blindly handing it off to someone else, the way I did with that consultancy. I learned that the hard way, and it cost me real time. If I were starting today, I'd say use every resource available now; even something like an AI chat tool can answer almost anything you're unsure about.