Endless Opportunities
When Rohan Naik (MS Information Systems ’19) graduated from Mumbai University (MU) in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, he knew his career goal was to work as either a data or business analyst. And he knew that Northeastern University was the place to make that happen.
“Northeastern allows me to take more broad courses to funnel down to a specialization,” said Naik. “Being in Boston, it’s a booming marketplace, it has a financial and health care hub.”
Before coming to Northeastern and after graduating from MU, Naik worked at Capgemini in India for a little over two years, as both a Senior Software Engineer and a Senior Data Analyst.
“In my view, a Business Intelligence professional is a one who is data-driven and has a vision of solving complex business challenges facilitating the lives of the customers. When I worked way back in India, I was a professional who traveled with Capgemini and interacted with clients and helped solve varied business challenges,” said Naik. “What I’m doing now is much in line with what I did before. I’m trying to build up on my skills. I am currently working with technologies like Microsoft Azure, MicroStrategy, Tableau, Power BI, MS SQL Server and other business intelligence tools.”
After starting at Northeastern for graduate school in September 2017, Rohan has been working as a research analyst for the D’Amore-McKim School of Business since January 2018, as well as formally working as a Global Graduate Student Ambassador for the Information Systems Program.
“Since I worked as a Global Graduate Student Ambassador I got an opportunity to connect with aspiring talent across the globe” said Naik. “There are plenty of social groups and events that are conducted throughout the year on campus, and one should get involved with it if you find something interesting, because it has helped my time here personally and professionally.
Since June 2018, Naik has been on co-op at Ahold Delhaize as a Business Intelligence Developer on the Architecture, Strategy, Data, Business Intelligence and Analytics team. They are currently working on building a cloud-based data integration and orchestration platform. He says some of his favorite parts are the company having an open culture, being part of a strong mentorship program, and his current projects.
“I love to talk to people and understand what they are specifically doing as a part of their day to day job”, said Naik. “Also, it helps me to better leverage the current trends in technology. The Customer Insights Project that I am currently working on for the great local brands of Ahold Delhaize has a direct impact on the in-store customer experience, which I find very interesting and outstanding.”
But the opportunities that Naik has found, either in the classroom or through co-op, have been endless.
“Northeastern University has an ocean of opportunities,” said Naik. “The courses that I took as a part of the IS program helped me grow my technical skills required to do the job, and the capstone projects at the end of each course exposed me to the ability to collaborate and work in teams which I could directly translate into my current professional setting.”
While Naik still has more time before he graduates, he feels he has learned a lot about growing in the classroom and professionally and has one last bit of advice to share.
“Students usually just try to focus on their academics or just trying to get done with assignments or getting good grades,” said Naik. “But I would suggest to students here to try to interact as much as possible with new students that they meet, try to get to know them, try to grow culturally, and try to grow professionally. It’ll help you when you venture out in the open markets.”