Siddharth Srivastav Pilli

A 12-year-old boy from Hyderabad has raised the bars after he was recruited as a data scientist at a software company.

Yes, you read it right. While most of the adults drag themselves through a workday, finding hard to strike a balance between work and personal life, this kid from Hyderabad is working as a full-time data scientist along with pursuing his studies.

Siddharth Srivastav Pilli, a class 7 student of 'Sri Chaitanya Techno School', has a full-time data scientist job in Hyderabad-based software company Montaigne Smart Business Solutions. His weekly schedule is divided equally between his work and studies. From Monday to Wednesday he goes to the office and Thursday to Saturday he attends classes in his school.

Siddharth’s father, Rajkumar Pilli played a crucial part in his praiseworthy achievement. “When he was in the fourth standard, like any other kid, he used to play games on his mobile and laptop. Suddenly, one day, he asked me a surprising question – how are these games made?” said Rajkumar Pilli. Since that day, Siddharth’s curiosity rose, and a number of questions followed. Rajkumar taught the curious child how to create a computer program. Looking at his rising curiosity towards programming, he helped him understand more and more complex techniques.

“For me, my biggest support is my dad. From teaching me programming languages, helping me read biographies, teaching me how games work, helping me get this curiosity, my dad helped me through a lot,” said Siddharth.

Rajkumar once showed Siddharth coding and programming logic and how the programs are made for games. Since then, every time Siddharth played games, he would look at the program that runs it. Rajkumar then gave him some books on the basics and fundamentals of programming and C language. He gave him a second-hand laptop as well, to learn to program. In order to promote the habit of self-learning, he also insisted Siddharth to Google his doubts.

“Within one year he completed C language. And he tried to write some small programs and explaining the logic behind the program. He wanted to make a game on his own, which drove him to learn the language quickly,” added Rajkumar.

Today, the kid knows over six programming languages.

After learning basic languages, Siddharth advanced to learning trending technologies – Artificial Intelligence(AI) and Data Science when he was in class 6. For this, his father even tried to enroll him in various coaching institutes. However, citing his age, all institutes rejected his application.

“Initially when we used to go for demos in the coaching institutes, they thought the classes were for me. When I told them it was for my son, they rejected it. They said that they couldn’t let him join because of his age and that the courses were very difficult,” said Rajkumar. After this, his father had to purchase various online courses for the boy.

 “Once his courses were completed, and he gained good command over Data Science and AI, he asked me if he could apply for jobs. I told him no and that he would need some graduate degree to apply and that even age limit would be an issue. But, the boy insisted on trying for jobs and began his search on various job portals. I even prepared a resume for him. Every day, after doing his homework, he would send the resume,” said his father.

Although his resume even got shortlisted a couple of times, upon realizing his age, everyone rejected his application. It was then that a family friend who worked at Montaigne spoke to Siddharth. When he got to know about the various technologies Siddharth knew, he asked Siddharth to forward his resume to Montaigne's HR. When the company CEO noticed Siddharth’s talent, he met him personally and hired him for the job.

Although it's quite demanding, Siddharth is in love with his work. “It’s very challenging. But in a way that interests me. Every day I go to the office, there is a new challenge that I have to overcome. That’s what makes me go to the office every day,” said Siddharth. When asked about his future plans, Siddharth added that he wants to pursue Masters of Computer Science in Silicon Valley. He then wants to come back to India, and then pursue his MBA in Indian business schools. After that he wants to set up his own company. Siddharth is a living and breathing proof that for learning there is no age bar. He is definitely an inspiration for the kids who are interested in the field of coding and artificial intelligence.