Venkatesh Mukeri Turns Persistence into a Data Engineering Role at EXL

Venkatesh Mukeri, who began his studies at East Texas A&M University in January 2024 and graduated in July 2025, has joined EXL as a Consultant II — Data Engineer supporting a leading healthcare client, CVS. With more than five years of prior business analyst experience, Venkatesh pursued ETAMU's Business Analytics curriculum to deepen his hands-on skills and accelerate his career in data engineering.

At EXL, Venkatesh focuses on designing and maintaining data pipelines, optimizing SQL queries, implementing governance and supporting CI/CD workflows. He credits the College of Business coursework — especially Python with Dr. Zaki Malik, Data Warehousing with Dr. Son Bui, and Applied Decision Modeling with Dr. Mohammed Komaki — for giving him immediately applicable tools and frameworks. Practical campus opportunities, including his Graduate Research Assistant role under manager Autumn Johnson, provided real-world projects that translated directly into workplace readiness.

Venkatesh recommends that students build broad technical foundations and emphasize cloud fundamentals rather than chasing a single platform. While he completed the Azure DP-203 certification, his new role runs on GCP — underscoring that core cloud concepts transfer across providers. He highlights Python, SQL, and Power BI as the primary tools that helped him succeed and encourages peers to gain hands-on experience through campus assistantships and applied projects. His advice to current students is to emphasize a pragmatic approach to learning and career development saying “Keep grinding, stay positive, and focus on continuous learning.”

Pointing to affordability, accessible faculty, and practical learning as differentiators for choosing the College of Business at ETAMU, he says, “Professors here genuinely care about student success,”. He continues, “On-campus assistantships reduce tuition and give you projects that matter.”

Applying to almost 3,000 roles until he finally secured his position, Venkatesh's story underscores how focused coursework, applied campus roles, and a methodical, prepared approach to interviews can turn persistence into a career. He hopes his journey motivates other students to combine continuous learning with intentional preparation in order to transform their life as well.