Building a Foundation for a Career in Project and Product Management
Through a combination of a personalized curriculum, a challenging co-op, and student opportunities like hackathons, Rakshita Jaiswal, MS’25, information systems, is prepared to pursue a career as a technical project manager with an emphasis on product strategy in the technology industry.
Before joining Northeastern, Rakshita Jaiswal, MS’25, information systems, earned her bachelor’s degree in information technology at Savitribai Phule Pune University in India and worked at two technology companies where she thrived as a technical business analyst and a product business analyst.
But she also wanted to expand her focus to include strategic decision making in a technical systems environment. Jaiswal decided to pursue a master’s degree at Northeastern because of the university’s experiential learning model, industry-aligned curriculum, and strong co-op opportunities.
Several courses at Northeastern played a key role in shaping Jaiswal’s academic and professional perspective. For example, the Planning and Managing Information Systems Development course sharpened her skills in Agile methodologies and stakeholder engagement. The Cryptocurrency and Smart Contract Engineering course sparked her interest in fintech innovation and deepened her understanding of the backend mechanics of decentralized systems. The User Experience Design and Testing course equipped her to evaluate product usability through a human-centered lens.
Jaiswal also notes that the Career Management for Engineers course helped her secure a co-op as a finance and business control analyst at Volvo Group North America. The course helped her strategically research job opportunities, tailor her resume, and refine project narratives.
At Volvo, Jaiswal spearheaded three impactful projects. The first was an end‑to‑end financial‑reporting automation initiative, where she architected a Python‑ and Power Automate–based RPA framework to consolidate general‑ledger data across multiple ERPs. By combining process‑mapping, competitive benchmarking, and Agile sprint planning, she and the finance team cut month‑end close time by 40% and boosted data‑entry accuracy by 25%.
Another was a global parts‑sales analytics dashboard, for which she designed and deployed an enterprise Power BI solution that unified five disparate data sources into a single live view of revenue, margin, and inventory KPIs. Leveraging Azure SQL, DAX, and iterative user‑testing cycles, the dashboard uncovered $2 million in incremental revenue opportunities and slashed manual spreadsheet work by 50%.
Additionally, she created an accounts‑payable invoice‑reconciliation bot, where she used Power Automate, AI Builder, and OCR to match incoming invoices with purchase orders in real time. Integrating Scrum ceremonies and stakeholder demos, the bot reduced daily reconciliation effort from four hours to fifteen minutes. It eliminated 95 percent of manual keying errors, freeing analysts to focus on higher‑value tasks.
Jaiswal participated in two Capstone projects as part of her master’s program. The first was an automated claims processing system, where she engineered a scalable automation framework to streamline insurance claims workflows. By integrating competitive benchmarking and Agile project planning, she and her team reduced average processing time by 30% and increased customer satisfaction by 20%.
The second was an AI-powered credit risk evaluation system for the Klarna payment system, where she built a data-driven model using SQL and Python to reduce false credit approvals and enhance financial risk management. She applied Agile methodologies, including Scrum and SAFe, managed sprints using JIRA and Confluence, and facilitated backlog grooming sessions.
Jaiswal also participated in the MIT Bitcoin Hackathon, where her team developed Unveil, a decentralized, censorship-resistant publishing platform for journalists and whistleblowers. She describes the experience as intense and rewarding, pushing the boundaries of what she had learned in the classroom.
Collaborating with developers, designers, and blockchain experts under tight deadlines gave her a deep appreciation for innovation under pressure and the real-world potential of decentralized systems. The team set out to build a platform where journalism could thrive securely, anonymously, and with built-in accountability. The result was a Bitcoin- and Lightning Network-powered web app that enables authors to publish articles, while readers vote and reward the most trustworthy content.
Looking ahead, Jaiswal aspires to drive large-scale digital transformation initiatives in the fintech industry. Her goal is to work at the intersection of products, data, and automation, helping organizations deliver smarter, faster, and more human-centered solutions. Eventually, she sees herself stepping into a technical project manager or product strategy role, where she can shape scalable systems while mentoring teams and contributing to inclusive innovation.
“At Northeastern, I didn’t just gain knowledge; I found my voice as a builder, mentor, and collaborator,” says Jaiswal.