Graduate’s Co-op and Classroom Experiences Turn to Success in Software Industry
Kabir Shaikh, MS’24, information systems, graduated Northeastern University with a plethora of classroom and real-world experiences that helped further his career in the software industry.
Kabir Shaikh is a graduate of the MS in information systems program, Class of 2024. Prior to joining Northeastern University, he earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Mumbai University in India. During his undergraduate studies, Shaikh pursued three internships, making meaningful contributions to the companies he worked for. His primary focus during that time was front-end development, particularly building web applications using ReactJS. Those experiences gave him a solid foundation in software development and ignited his curiosity to dive deeper into the backend and cloud side of technology.
Shaikh’s decision to pursue a master’s degree was not just about earning an advanced credential—it was about transforming himself from someone who could build interfaces into someone who could architect entire systems. He wanted to evolve beyond simply writing surface-level code and truly understand how scalable systems, cloud infrastructure, and backend technologies power modern applications. Northeastern stood out to him because of its strong emphasis on experiential learning. The co-op culture and the success stories he heard from current students were vital factors in his decision.
Shaikh shares that a significant influence on his choice was hearing from friends who were already studying at Northeastern. They often spoke highly of the “Cloud Computing” course taught by Adjunct Professor Tejas Parikh. Their experiences in the class—learning how modern cloud systems are designed, deployed, and maintained—resonated deeply with the skills he aspired to gain.
Later at Northeastern, the “Cloud Computing” course not only met Shaikh’s expectations; it helped shape his career. It provided him with a strong foundation in backend architecture and cloud technologies, which directly contributed to securing his full-time role in the U.S. Today, he works as a full stack software engineer at an energy-focused company in Portland, Maine, and much of his expertise in backend and cloud systems traces back to what he learned in Northeastern.
Co-op Experience
Shaikh secured a co-op at Bright Horizons, where he gained valuable experience with data pipelines, enterprise software, and working within U.S. tech environments. He landed the opportunity through Northeastern’s co-op program. The interview process included a mix of technical coding rounds—primarily LeetCode medium-level problems—and questions related to his prior work experience. Shaikh notes that the well-built preparation and support provided by the co-op program, combined with his previous internships, were key to his success. He credits Professor Josie Cucciniello for offering invaluable guidance on career planning, co-op preparation, and full-time job strategies that extended well beyond technical skills.
During his time at Bright Horizons, he worked on a PySpark-based project that involved converting over 1 million Spanish words to English in real-time. It was a high-scale data processing task where efficiency and correctness were critical. The project required designing an optimized pipeline that could handle both speed and accuracy in processing large datasets.
Group projects
Shaikh collaborated with a friend to build an online marketplace platform specifically for students. The goal was to enable students to easily buy and sell items such as textbooks, furniture, and electronics within the campus community. It was a full-stack application that gave them hands-on experience in both backend architecture and front-end design.
One of the biggest challenges they faced was designing a system that could handle multiple users interacting simultaneously without performance bottlenecks. As user activity increased, such as browsing, posting, or chatting—the app began to slow down. This challenge pushed them to move beyond writing functional code and start thinking critically about scalability and system design. They optimized database queries, implemented caching strategies, and adopted asynchronous processing where needed. Reflecting on this, Shaikh shares, “Writing code that works is only half the job; the real challenge is building systems that continue to work when scaled.”
Future Perspective
In the long run, Shaikh aspires to become a software architect—someone who can design and build scalable, robust systems that solve real-world problems. Shaikh hopes to apply everything he has learned at Northeastern—especially principles of clean architecture, cloud design, and backend scalability—to grow that venture into something meaningful.
His advice to current and future students is simple: “Work hard, stay curious, but also make time to enjoy the journey. Build meaningful friendships, create memories, and embrace challenges—because time flies, but the foundation you build here lasts a lifetime.”