Santhosh Venkatesan completed his B.Com and ACCA by June 2025 with zero exemptions, clearing every ACCA paper in the first attempt. He joined iThought's Fellowship Program as an Equity Research Analyst in September 2025, wrote CFA Level 1 in August 2026 and is already asking about Level 2.
B.Com students in Chennai, this one is for you.
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4 AM. The sun has not shown up yet, but Santhosh has.
Some students need motivation. Some students apparently need more things to do. Meet Santhosh Venkatesan.
Skilledgrad has known him since his first year of B.Com at Guru Nanak College, Velachery, Chennai. And he has an unusual habit of making difficult things look ridiculously normal.
B.Com and ACCA, every paper in the first attempt
B.Com and ACCA, June 2025. Zero exemptions. Every paper cleared in the first attempt.
Then came iThought’s Fellowship Program in September 2025, where he joined as an Equity Research Analyst and, in parallel, started preparing for CFA Level 1.
There is an interesting thing about Santhosh: we never specifically trained him for equity research. We trained him holistically. The opportunity came. He figured out what was required. Picked it up. And got on with it.
“So… what about CFA Level 2?”
He wrote his CFA Level 1 exam in August 2026. At this point I thought: surely he will take a break.
Nope. Santhosh does not believe in breaks. A few days ago I called him just to kill some time. Five minutes into the conversation, he somehow ended up asking: “So… what about CFA Level 2?”
That is Santhosh.
- Give him something new: he does it.
- Give him something difficult: he does it too.
- Leave something unfinished: he will not sleep until he figures it out.
And then comes the inevitable: “What’s next?”
That is probably what makes him different. He has a questioning mind. He does not just want to finish something. He wants to understand it completely.
Zero drama
He is also a fine athlete with a good circle of friends, many of whom are with us for ACCA, CFA and Financial Modelling at our Purasaiwakkam centre. And whenever Santhosh’s name comes up, the review is almost annoyingly consistent: “Santhosh? Good dude. Big man.”
Zero drama. Zero complaints. Apparently even his friends have no gossip to give us. Very inconvenient friends.
Where he is now
We met him as a first-year B.Com student. Today: B.Com, then ACCA, then equity research, then CFA Level 1. And he is still moving.
For every B.Com student wondering what to do after graduation, or every ACCA student wondering where the qualification can take you, Santhosh’s journey is a good example. Not because he had everything figured out from day one. He didn’t. He just kept picking up the next thing, learning it, doing it and moving forward, and somehow making the whole thing look effortless.
Proud of you, Santhosh. Now please give the rest of us some time to catch up.
This story was first shared by Sridharan M, Head of Academics & Placement at Skilledgrad, on LinkedIn. Read the original post.
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