Meet Aneesh, a Former Engineer Turned Top-Rated Media Data Analyst

Aneesh Kumar is a media data analyst in Guildford, U.K. Just four years ago he was working in an office in New York City, not at all aware that soon, he'd be an independent professional—in another country—with over 8,000 hours logged on Upwork.

It’s not surprising that Aneesh’s career has seen such pivots and changes. He’s long been flexible and interested in exploring all his options, from his university days onward.

Narrowing down the options

Aneesh, who initially went to university for a bachelor’s degree in engineering, never planned to be a media analyst. But he was always very open to different professional paths. Figuring out exactly what he wanted to do involved a little experimentation and a process of elimination.

“I really didn’t think about what I was going to do, professionally, until I finished my undergrad. Until then, I was in my fun phase—my only goal was to have fun,” he said. “But after I finished my undergrad, I started trying out different things. And I realized that there were some things I definitely didn’t want to do.”

Aneesh tried out a few different full-time roles that allowed him to flex different skills and see what he liked the best.

“Sales was one of the jobs that I realized I didn’t want to do. I tried a sales job in Chicago. It was lucrative, and I got to meet a lot of people—but eventually there was this plateau where it’s a constant battle every day,” he said. “I figured out that while sales wasn’t the best job for me, a job at the intersection of technology and marketing would be a good fit. So the sales job was a stepping stone toward my full-time marketing career.”

While Aneesh may not be involved in day-to-day sales anymore, this experience—and others, including obtaining his master’s degree in management information systems—undoubtedly has had a positive impact on his independent work today.

Starting his independent work

After realizing that he was well-suited for a job in marketing, Aneesh wound up working for media agencies. In these roles, he was exposed to all of the data (and corresponding decisions) that go into successful marketing campaigns.

The years ticked by and Aneesh learned more and more about media and marketing. One day, in late 2019, he started offering his services on Upwork after seeing an ad for the platform.

“I didn’t think I had any marketable skills, but after a few years in New York I’d learned the tricks of the business. So I took the move of going full-time freelance,” Aneesh said.

His timing was perfect, as the COVID-19 pandemic would soon change the world of work in New York as he knew it.

Once Aneesh started focusing all of his professional efforts on Upwork, he quickly picked up work.

“I found a client, and then another client, and then some of them wanted me for a longer duration,” he said. “My pipeline was completely dry at first, but eventually, there was a lot of water flowing through, to the point I had to figure out how much I could take on and not ruin relationships by taking on more than I could chew.”

In many ways, the transition to working independently was smooth. Aneesh had already worked remotely and was familiar with collaborating across time zones. But he wasn’t used to running a project from start to finish.

“The thing that was really different was that previously, I was working for someone else’s client. Briefs and top-level instructions were given to me,” Aneesh said. “Going freelance, I was essentially doing the same pieces but I had to stitch together all the points the client was trying to tell me.”

Developing just the right service

During the course of each client project, Aneesh would write down every pertinent detail to make sure that his work followed a systematic and logical process. Eventually, he created a proprietary back-end solution that he could use to run his clients’ projects seamlessly from start to finish.

“Now that I’ve done 140-plus projects, I have a really good idea of the information I want to share with clients,” he said. “I don’t share my back-end intellectual property (IP)—that’s the core piece of my business and is the only piece that I keep super close to myself. It’s like getting food at a restaurant: If you like the food, you’ll go back again. You don’t go up to the chef and ask him how to make the dish at home yourself.”

Aneesh uses his IP to create customized dashboards, reports, and other products for his clients.

“It’s a managed service. The clients pay me to create the dashboards, and then there’s an ongoing maintenance component that comes into play because the way we collect digital analytics changes every now and then,” he said. “I keep an eye on everything to ensure the accuracy is still there—that’s how I’m able to deliver numbers that my clients can trust.”

This client trust is one of his biggest hallmarks of success.

“On Upwork, I’ve had success building out long-term relationships. And I value these relationships the most, because it’s a mutual win-win scenario,” Aneesh said. “If you build or add value to a client, then in the bigger picture you’re actually adding value to yourself because they’re going to help you build your profile, your relationships, or whatever it is that you’re trying to grow.”

Remaining flexible in the face of change

Aneesh’s flexibility—from finding his ideal career path to moving between countries and launching his business as an independent professional—is admirable.

His secret to making it all work? Choosing a specific focus, and not trying to be a jack of all trades.

“Rather than trying to get my hands dirty with 10 different things and just learning how to do them at a mid level, or in a mediocre way, I went all in on a couple of things. I was always super good at maths and at building out logics, so that’s exactly where I focused my work,” Aneesh said. “I went super deep into it and now I’m able to add more value to reports and dashboards for my clients.”

He recommends that anyone interested in working independently try to do the same.

“I suggest keeping things as simple as possible,” Aneesh said. “Especially in the analytics space—people tend to overcomplicate things very easily, including things that can be achieved without as much complexity. There are plenty of reasons why this happens, but if you’re not comfortable or familiar working with data on a day-to-day basis, it’s going to be difficult to keep things simple.”

Planning for the future

Even though Aneesh’s personal and professional life is stable now, he’s not afraid to keep embracing change—especially when he’s the one seeking it out. After several years of successful solo work, he’s beginning to explore the idea of forming an agency.

“I think for the future, I’m optimistic about having an agency on Upwork,” he said. “So instead of me working just in the analytics space, I’d transition to an agency that can deliver the entire big picture piece.”

To start, he’s working on growing his network—both on Upwork and in his local communities.

“I’m doing quite a bit of networking and going out to analytics events that are happening,” Aneesh said. “I’m reaching out to other people, seeing what they’re up to, and creating a network of people around me. In the future that’s definitely going to be helpful.”

In the meantime, Aneesh continues to work one on one with his Upwork clients, providing insights and data analytics services for corporations and media agencies.

“My ideal client is a media agency, because they have a roster full of clients that they’re working with themselves. Small and medium-sized agencies usually don’t have the resources or bandwidth to have additional analytics support, so that’s where my services come into play,” he said. “I can essentially work as their analytics team member and just help out their team from that perspective.”

To learn more about Aneesh’s services or explore working with him on an analytics project, visit his Upwork profile.