Meet Tejesh: How UP sweet seller’s son landed ₹2.5 crore Dubai job — ‘I earn in a month what my father made in a year’

Tejesh Vaish, the 26-year-old son of a sweet seller in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, earned a scholarship, studied at IIT Kanpur and did multiple internships to ultimately bag a s 2.5 crore job at a US-based AI startup. He now works in the company's Dubai office. Here's a glimpse of his journey up the ladder:

Tejesh Vaish's father, Ashok Kumar Vaish, runs a modest sweet shop in Sadar Bazaar, Lucknow Cantonment and earns roughly ₹5 lakh annually, according to Money Control.

Born into a traditional business family that migrated from a small village in Uttar Pradesh, Vaish grew up watching his father spend long hours at the family shop.

"No one in my family has a background in technology. I had to study hard, get a scholarship and take up multiple internships to push myself through college," Vaish told Moneycontrol.

Scholarship, internships and IIT Kanpur

Vaish reportedly studied Computer Science at IIT Kanpur. He graduated with a 9.14 CPI, Money Control reported.

He was also an Alpha Grep Merit Scholar, a C3iHub UG Fellow and a PD Murti Scholar. He said he scored in the 99.9 percentile in JEE and secured AIR 9 in UPSEE.

At IIT Kanpur, Vaish was given the Academic Excellence Award for his stellar academic performance. His Cumulative Performance Index (CPI) was 9.14 out of 10, the report added.

Vaish later took up several internships while studying, reportedly earning more than ₹2 lakh before graduation.

In conversation with Money Control, he recalled balancing coursework, projects and internships by starting his day early and often working late into the night.

One of his early projects involved building a mobile application, which gave him hands-on experience in software development and laid the foundation for a career in technology.

From Bengaluru to Dubai

After graduating, Vaish started his professional career in Bengaluru before moving through a series of high-profile technology roles.

His resume includes stints at Texas Instruments, Securonix, Squarepoint Capital and Abacus.AI, according to his profile stated in the Money Control report.

Over the years, he worked on AI applications, machine-learning systems and large-scale infrastructure projects. He now works in Dubai in a hybrid role focused on AI engineering, AI agents, and machine learning applications.

Dubai's high costs and investments

Vaish said Dubai's cost of living as one of the first things that caught his attention. "The rent for my office in Dubai is more than the rent the company pays for its US office," he was quoted as saying, adding that housing is his biggest monthly expense.

He, however, remains disciplined with money.

"I save around ₹3 lakh every month and invest a similar amount through SIPs. The rest is being used to build the family home back in Lucknow," he said.

Today, a significant portion of his income is going toward a new house for his family in Lucknow, something he considers one of his proudest achievements.

"I make in a month what my father used to make in years. And now, I'm helping my family build a new house."

About the Author

For about a decade, Livemint—News Desk has been a credible source for authentic and timely news, and well-researched analysis on national news, business, personal finance, corporates, politics and geopolitics. We bring the latest updates on all the listed companies on BSE and NSE, startups, mutual funds, Union ministries, geopolitics, and untapped human interest stories from around the world, helping our readers to stay informed on the latest developments around the globe. Our Coverage Areas 1. Companies: Comprehensive news and analysis on listed and unlisted companies, corporate announcements, corporate chatter, C-suite, business trends, hiring alerts, layoffs, work-life balance, world's top billionaires and richest and more. 2. Personal finance: Insights into mutual funds, small savings schemes like - PPF, SSY, post office savings scheme, stock to watch, personal loans, credit cards, top bank FDs, real estate, income tax and more. 3. Politics: Comprehensive coverage of general elections, state elections and bypolls, Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha, Parliament, PMO, PIB, finance ministry, home ministry, among other union ministries and government departments. 4. National News: From metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and e to untapped stories from rural India, we cover human interest, health, education, crime and courts, and law and order, among other areas of public interest. 5. Economy: In-depth analysis of India's macro and micro-economic indicators like- GDP, inflation, forex, fiscal deficit, current account deficit, interest rate cycle, economic recovery, RBI circulars, indirect taxes, GST, Insolvency and Bankruptcy imports, exports and everything that impacts Indian economy. 6. Geopolitics: Well-rounded and deeply researched coverage on US News, Oval Office European Union, Ukraine Russia War, middle-east crisis, royal families and global leaders like - Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping and premiers of other leading economies in the world. Meet the Team 1. Gulam Jeelani, Political Affairs Editor 2. Sugam Singhal, Senior Assistant Editor 3. Chanchal, Assistant Editor 4. Sanchari Ghosh, Chief Content Producer 5. Pratik Prashant Mukane, Chief Content Producer 6. Sayantani Biswas, Chief Content Producer 7. Ravi Hari, Deputy Chief Content Producer 8. Garvit Bhirani, Deputy Chief Content Producer 9. Akriti Anand, Senior Content Producer 10. Jocelyn Felix Fernandes, Senior Content Producer 11. Swastika Das Sharma, Content Producer 12. Mausam Jha, Content Producer 13. Riya R Alex, Trainee Content Producer