Manual Tester to Data Scientist to Entrepreneur
This is the story of a common man who turned his common life to extraordinary at the mere age of 23.
This blog is not about someone different from the crowd. Akash Raj is like any one of you. Any common man can relate to him and his struggles. His childhood was also around friends and fun, and not much around books. Akash Raj is anyone who picks the science stream with the hope of landing a successful career like many others. He is like millions of those children who leave their hometowns with the hope of returning with bright colours. But what made him different is revolutionary and important to the common masses.
After completing his graduation in computer science from a private institution, Akash secured a job as a manual tester in one of the most prestigious companies in the world, TCS. But soon he transitioned his career from a manual tester to a data scientist. Here we are sharing his career transition journey and experience with the hope that it will be helpful for all. Akash started his career as a manual tester at Tata consultancy services. However, it was not the space where he wanted to land but got through random choices of fate.
Friendship with computers and ideas
The last years of school pushed his interest in computers and coding. Like thousands of young science freaks, Akash also attempted IIT Delhi but couldn’t make it. He opted for computer science as his subject for graduation by giving preference to the subject over college. During his college years, the life histories of legendary college dropouts inspired him. Akash started looking at himself getting in the shoes of Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates. His brain started propelling new and interesting startup ideas.
Startup Struggler To Manual Tester
One of the early ideas that came into Akash’s mind originated from a real-life problem. He saw his college students struggling to find good residential flats at reasonable prices. So he came up with the idea of “jugaad india” website. But due to a lack of funding and advertisement knowledge, this idea met failure. Failure of blood and sweat in Jugaad India somewhere halted his startup dream. By the end of college, he got placed in TCS as a manual tester.
At TCS, everything was again ordinary. Coming to the office, working on manual testing projects, and sipping the regular office coffee. Disappointed by his last startup experience Akash somewhere concluded in his mind that startup is not his cup of tea. But he didn’t know what new was going to come in his life that was going to change his life’s trajectory.
Data Science and the life struggle
One friend of Akash told him was working on AI and he introduced Akash to data science. Friend’s hopeful and inspiring words again ignited Akash’s hope for doing something different from the crowd. Akash had already automated most of his work at the office, saving him 5-6 hours in the office. He subscribed for some courses and started learning sideways in the office itself. Fortunately, the office management allowed him to install various programs for learning data science. He was utilising his daily office time. Not just that, but due to the unavailability of a laptop at home, he was also coming to the office on weekends to learn data science. Akash started paying the worth of success; hard work.
Manual Tester To Data Scientist
During this phase of his life, Akash encountered the most amazing thing that changed his life altogether. Akash devised a method of learning data science with real hands-on practice. With this method, he finished his learning in a very short period, and that too like a pro.
Akash first worked on a data science project at TCS itself and then worked as a data scientist in other prestigious organisations at the very young age of his early 20s. At this time, Akash came up with the idea of sharing this method of learning data science with other fellow learners and young data enthusiasts. He started working on his new startup project named “CloudyML.”
Data Scientist to Entrepreneur
The fundamental feature of CloudyML is that learning data science requires real practice in the field. This method of hands-on learning permeated every aspect of these seminars. On the first day, CloudyML got its first 8 registrations for the course. In the early days, CloudyML was getting 10 students daily. This time, Akash left no stone unturned. He learned marketing, hired true talents, and invested time and money in branding. This time everything was calculated and targeted. After years of failures, he was meeting his most awaited and satisfying victory.
More than 10,000 students are currently using the CloudyML platform for learning data science. Courses at CloudyML cost between INR 5000 and INR 10,000. These are the most affordable quality rich content in the data science learning industry.
Vision of CloudyML
The solutions that Akash found during his struggles were made the core tenets of CloudyML, namely
- Affordable education (all courses below INR 10000)
- Real hands-on practice
- A quick support system
