Test Engineer to Data Science — my journey

I have spent a considerable amount of time (close to 10 years) in the Indian IT industry. I started my career from an institute which is far from being called an elite computer science institute and landed in a rather humbling (read disappointing) ‘testing’ job post placement. What I actually did on-job was clicking on website links and making a well documented log of what works and what doesn’t.

I used to wonder every single time, where was the ‘engineering’ in the work that I did. When I first received that lean first salary of 15k, it made me think twice about my IT career dreams. I considered doing an MBA but soon realized that, without adding a niche skill in my tech-arsenal I would never feel satisfied with myself.

Whoever around me was accomplishing quality work done around me, was from an A-list national college and I remember feeling like I missed the train forever.

In 2007 I was determined to be an ‘engineer’ in the truest sense, but neither had skills nor guidance. It felt like I stood at step 0 in a complex game of snakes-n-ladders.

But here I am, a data science engineer with 10 years of rich technology experience and having 3 Fortune 500 companies on my resume, in the most coveted career of current times — Data Science and Machine Learning.

All this without pursuing a post graduation degree or taking multiple on-site trips to ramp up CTC numbers!

How do you think this massive shift happened?

The answer is : HARD WORK, SMART MOVES AND ROCK-STAR MENTORS.

As opposed to what popular culture makes us believe, a branded education does take you far but resourcefulness takes you even further.

2007 : From Gorakhpur to Hyderabad

I was clear I wanted to be a technocrat. But did not have the required expertise to proudly declare this to the world. I was always good at ‘asking for help’ and observing what successful people do. When recession hit the industry in 2008, I was lucky to not have gotten fired. But soon after all my friends left the place, I started to feel I had no other reason to stay put.

I had a hunch that there are better things in store for me. I resigned — without any other job in hand! Pheww… that was one crazy step but a definite milestone in my life.

2010 : Minima

The tedious task of preparing for interviews started in 2009. Many of my friends helped me there and a fortnight of sleepless nights fetched me a job where I was being expected to do some ‘engineering’, that too with a descent raise. More than the raise I got, I was grateful for the job because I found my first professional mentor in the form of my Manager. In the coming years, he shaped me into a really resourceful and responsible developer.

But as I progressed professionally, I started growing out of my ‘job description’ and again at one point it was hard to stay put in the same profile. This time I did not want to leave without a plan and a vision. So my exploration began again.

In the next 3–4months, I did what everyone around me advised me to - join the coveted java-developer workforce. I joined a coaching institute for Java training, where I had to reach 6 am in the morning (pre-office batch), which means I left home at 5.30 am. I cannot say about other engineering freshers, but I am certainly bad at waking up early. I used to drive my bike at 5.30 am on Hyderabad streets, almost half asleep. As a result I fell from my bike thrice in 15 days — because my eyes used to just shut off while driving (Yea I am that crazy a guy :-P). But that did not deter me from finishing the classes, just that I started taking a bus post that.

To be true, I was going through a very rough phase and to add to all this, most of my (dear) flatmates left the place either for better jobs or post grad degrees. Even the cook stopped coming because there was not enough work to do anymore. So there I was, almost alone in a spacious 3 BHK apartment which I planned to leave once I knew where I would go and what will I do next.

And finally the silver lining from the cloud emerged. Another angel-like mentor happened to meet the lost-me in Bangalore. He was 10 years senior to me and had penchant for teaching. He started to make me aware of world of Data Engineering and how it is going toshape the future of all industries.

After a immersive training in data analytics, I started appearing for interviews once again and after some 5 odd attempts entered the data science industry with IBM.

2013 : Maxima

But every transition is tricky, and very un-romantic. As soon as I entered IBM a huge mass of expectation fell over me and I was being looked upon as a Teradata expert of some sort. I could have easily clarified my team’s misconceptions and borrowed some cushion time for myself but… I am a YES MAN. I said yes to the challenge and started pushing myself beyond limits to apply all what I learnt and this time all by myself.

When you start believing you are an expert and start working as one, chances are that very soon, you actually turn into one. I did too.

There was no looking back after this and I quickly moved from one profile to another based on the work-quality that was offered to me. IBM, American Express and then TESCO gave me opportunities to make quick (and work-loaded) transitions from Tera Data to Big Data to Machine Learning.

I launched my own startup in 2015 with 5other friends, with the idea of using machine learning on fitness data to transform individual health. But I never got the confidence and strength enough to actually quit and pursue it full-time. I sensed something was definitely missing and we closed the startup a year later.

2016 : Finishing touches

My growing interest in Machine Learning made me hungry for more structured and thorough knowledge on the subject. Most machine learning professionals around me had some kind of post-graduation academic training in machine learning and I started to feel I needed some training too.

I got selected for a professional certificate course on Artificial Intelligence at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore. It was a weekday course and I was working in TESCO Bengaluru which was at a 2 hour time-unit distance from IISc. My Manager again came to my rescue and I was allowed to leave office early once I wrapped up my work.

Another roller coaster of driving through Bangalore traffic to reach IISc on time began. A 6 month course felt like 6 years but it indeed transformed me into a massively confident Data ‘Scientist’. So much so that I quit the job again after just 15 months of joining… but this time to build a company of my own.

2017 : My dear startup (nTalents)!

My idea got selected for incubation at IIM Bangalore and very soon teamed up with 2 other professionals to lay the foundation of my venture. We apply algorithms to auto-evaluate soft skills and behavioral competencies in professionals. We rolled out the version 1.0 of the product a month back to measure the proficiency of a sales person in various soft skills.

It’s been 6 months and I am on a roller coaster again (actually for the third time) and am loving it like never before.

P.S. I am a tea-lover and love chatting with young IT engineers about their career choices (and more :). Keep offering me a tea every 30 min and take as much time you want! Feel free to reach out to me at mayank@peopleintuit.com