From the Classroom to the CEO’s Office
When Hardik Mody came to Northeastern University in the fall of 2018 he thought he would mostly be studying cloud domain and would hopefully finish with the ability to code in Java. Now in his second year of the Information Systems graduate program, he is working directly with the CEO of the start-up company he is co-oping for, after becoming proficient in Java after one semester.
He began his co-op in May 2019 at Terainium LLC, a software registered service company for supply chain products in Acton, MA. Mody laughingly described the start-up experience as “like landing on another planet” and “a new arena to explore” due to the nature of start-ups being unchartered territory.
“It’s been a great experience and I’ve learned so much,” said Mody. “Software is all about troubleshooting. People usually think that it’s about making something new, but in reality, it is about changing the legacy codes and understanding something that someone has already done and improving it.”
Mody was brought on for a project related to development, which he had become increasingly interested in since joining the Information Systems program. He set up a CICD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery) pipeline for the company, which helped the company serve clients in a timelier manner.
“So when software engineers develop their products, they used to have to fully develop products before sending them to clients,” said Mody. “But now, CICD pipelines allow us to send partially developed products to clients much sooner while we continuously push the upgrades to clients, which eliminates any downtime and allows the process to run more smoothly.”
The CEO at one point enlisted Mody to give a presentation to a client along with opening him up to other learning experiences like having him troubleshoot for a one-on-one meeting.
“The CEO has worked to make me feel like the company belongs to me as well,” said Mody.
Between the coursework and the co-op, Mody can’t believe just how much he has learned in such a short time. After taking the Applications Engineering Development course in his first semester, he had mastered the basics of Java and, as he explained, “understood what applications design really means.” And his co-op experience has developed his decision-making and risk-taking skills among various others.
“At first, before exploring any domain, I would hesitate and try to study it first,” said Mody. “But now I’ve learned that trying to make everything as perfect as possible is not always necessary. Some things should just work as they should and there is no need to do something extra.”
But it was not long ago that Mody was lacking this confidence he’s gained. Before coming to the program, Mody had very little experience with full-stack engineering and was doubtful about how he would compare to other engineers who did. He scoffed at the idea that Java would not be a problem for him after one semester and even grew discouraged during his search for a co-op.
“My co-op advisor, Maricla Pirozzi, kept pushing me and encouraging me to keep applying,’ said Mody. “There was one day where I really panicked about how long the process was taking. I went to her office and showed her my resume and other application materials trying to figure out where I was messing up. But she assured me that I had nothing to worry about and that things will be fine if I just kept applying.”
And she was right.
Mody says his overall experience at Northeastern has also helped him develop better time management skills (he also works two on-campus jobs!) and has learned to use LinkedIn effectively.
He plans to pursue a career in Cloud Domain and is slated to graduate in August 2020.
by Jess DeWitt