How Avinash Paid Off His Tuition Before Graduation and Landed a Job at Walmart

From Mechanical Engineering to Data Science.
From a zero tech background to a Senior Manager at Walmart.
And he did this while graduating with savings in hand.

This is the story of Avinash Ahuja, an international student from Mumbai who moved to the U.S. with a dream and built his career from scratch.

When he first considered studying abroad, the U.S. wasn’t even on his list.

But in Fall 2019, he arrived at Penn State to pursue a Master’s in Industrial Engineering.

Currently, he’s a Senior Manager, Data Science at Walmart in California.

In this blog, we’ll break down:

> How he transitioned from Mechanical Engineering → Data Science

> How he got on-campus jobs and got a full tuition waiver + USD 2,500 monthly stipend

> Why did he walk directly into a professor’s office (after getting ignored on email)

> The exact credits + course strategy he used to maximize co-op chances

> How he cracked a spring co-op that led to his first full-time job

> What skills and strategy helped him crack Walmart

 ► Fall 2019 

When Avinash landed at Penn State, he had:

- No funds aid  

- No computer science degree  

- No connections in the U.S.  

He was a mechanical engineer from Mumbai with 3 years of experience at Godrej in supply chain ops.

His dream was to work in data science, but nothing about his profile said “data.”

So he focused on survival first.

He:

- Took up a USD 9/hour front desk job on campus  

- Lived on bread, milk, and peanut butter for weeks  

- Walked 45 minutes to class daily to not pay the bus fare 

- Tracked every rupee to keep expenses under USD 600/month

One evening, while chatting with a senior at the dining hall, he heard about something that changed everything, Graduate Research Assistantships (GRAs).

Starting early networking (here’s some helpful templates for networking) provides you with an awesome advantage; that’s why I talk about this a lot inside my ultimate mindset and networking module in my job-hunting course. 

Talking to people in real time can provide you with a lot of insight just like how Avinash got. 

These roles offered:

- tuition waiver  

- USD 2,500/month stipend  

- Experience on real industry projects

He emailed multiple professors.  

No replies.

So he started walking into offices during office hours. 

One professor said he had no openings, but told Avinash about a lesser-known internal department that worked on energy savings reports for local companies.

Avinash went there the very next day.
Just showed up and explained why he could help.

He talked about:

- His experience modeling datasets at Godrej  

- His comfort with Excel, reporting, and operations  

- His willingness to learn the rest

They gave him an interview.  

One week later, he got the role, midway through his very first semester.

So then, he had:

- A fully waived tuition  

- A USD 2.5K/month stipend  

- An analytics role tied to real outcomes

He was still living like a student.  

But he didn’t have to stress about a lot of things. 

 ► Spring 2020 

By this time, he didn’t secure an internship, so he extended his timeline. 

When summer internship rejections started rolling in, Avinash wasn’t surprised.  

COVID19 had hit. Most companies had frozen hiring.

Just 2 students in his entire batch of 20 Indians got an internship.  

He wasn’t one of them.

Instead of panicking,
he changed the timeline.

He left one course creditpoint intentionally pending
so he could extend his degree into Spring 2021.

Why that matters:

- You can’t do a full-time co-op unless you're enrolled  

- By stretching the degree, he bought himself time  

- This gave him 5 months to legally work full-time and apply for jobs

It also gave him flexibility.  

His final semester would be lighter,
Just 1 class, so he could focus entirely on job search.
(If you’re also a fresh grad looking for jobs, here’s an awesome website full of fresh openings for you)

It was calculated based on conversations with seniors and a deep reading of CPT rules.

 

 ► Spring 2021 

By this time, he cracked a Spring Co-op and secured U.S. work experience.

Avinash landed a 6-month Co-op at Ahold Delhaize, a U.S.-based grocery giant.

His project was about:

- predict the number of inbound pallets at warehouses  

- clean and analyze supply chain shipment data  

- benchmark performances across vendors  

- use tools like Python, PySpark, Power BI, Databricks

And it also involved:

- talking to supply chain teams  

- working with imperfect datasets  

- presenting insights that helped in real operations

He applied to dozens of companies.  

Rejections were still common.
But this time, he had a story that connected.

He had moved from:

- Front desk job → GRA  

- GRA → Analytics work  

- Analytics → ML-based supply chain modeling

That gave recruiters a clear arc.  

And it made the resume more valuable.

Oh, btw, if you don’t have USA-relevant experience and you don’t understand what to put in your resume, I’ve already tackled this problem in my ultimate job-hunting course.

1800+ international students know my job strategy that I’ve refined over the last 8 years. 

 ► Sep 2021 – Feb 2022  

Once his Co-op ended, Avinash focused entirely on full-time job search.

He joined Tredence Inc. as an Associate, working in supply chain analytics.

His Co-op gave him:

- U.S. project experience  

- Confidence in interviews  

- Real results to talk about

At Tredence, he worked on:

- Client projects involving demand planning  

- Data visualization and supply chain forecasting  

- Managing business relationships alongside delivery

There he learned how to communicate data to non-tech teams,
which became his biggest strength later.

This role became the bridge between “analyst” and “strategic data partner.”

How you present yourself to recruiters is a big factor in how your results are shaped, Avinash understood this and leveraged his experience. I’ve also covered this in the job strategy module in my ultimate job hunting course. 

 ► Mar 2022 – Sep 2024  

In March 2022, Avinash joined Walmart’s supply chain team as a Senior Data Analyst.

Within 12 months, he was promoted to Senior Data Scientist.

Here’s what made that possible:

- He worked on Walmart’s Digital Twin initiative
- Built dynamic models to optimize inventory mirroring,
which cut split orders and helped in logistics  

- Developed strategies which directly reduced food waste  

- Created dashboards and tools that got used in real decision-making,

Internally, he became known as someone who could:

- Turn messy data into usable insights  
- Understand supply chain deeply  
- Present clearly to decision-makers

By late 2023, he was leading multiple high-impact projects, with ownership.

 ► Oct 2024-Present 

Currently, he’s a Senior Manager in Data Science at Walmart.

Avinash leads Marketplace Pricing Analytics as a Senior Manager at Walmart.

He’s gone from:

- Mechanical Engineering with no CS skills  

→ To real ML and supply chain modeling  

→ To managing pricing strategies at the world's largest retailer

He:

- Researched funding before applying  

- Chose a university that made part-time jobs and co-ops possible  

- Walked into offices instead of waiting for replies  

- Built every step of his profile deliberately, GRA, Co-op, U.S. project work, full-time role, promotion

And through it, he graduated with real savings, and a U.S. job that paid him back for every early sacrifice.

Also, just like this strategy that I shared with you, I share multiple other tested ways to network, tweak your resume, and strategize to land an interview at your dream company in my ULTIMATE JOB HUNTING COURSE. 

We’ve got more than 1800+ international students like you in the job hunting community, so if you’re still struggling and want a hand to help you out. I am there, just come :)

Until Next Time, 

Keep pushing, smiling, and hustling. 

Yudi J