WIMTACH Student Profile: Keval Patel

Joining Centennial College, Keval Patel was very passionate and eager to learn more about Information Technology (IT) in his Artificial Intelligence – Software Engineering Technology program. For him, IT was a lifelong passion that he decided to develop through an internship in addition to his academic studies. A professor from a class Keval attended happened to know about an internship opportunity available on campus with WIMTACH and advised him to apply. “Initially, I was skeptical; I did not think an on-campus internship in IT would be interesting. I could not have been more wrong,” he said. WIMTACH was starting a new major project, and Keval was designated to play a big part in it.

The project Keval worked on was developing the online marketplace for Naborino, a marketing agency based in Toronto. He was assigned with a team of four other students to work on the back-end development of the platform. “WIMTACH gave us the opportunity to work without being micromanaged, giving us professional flexibility and the ability to learn under the adequate supervision of professionals,” he said. Keval and his team utilized the Agile Methodology and the Scrum Framework to further improve their approach to problem-solving in daily activities. This method allowed Keval to optimize his tasks and establish a steady workflow. For four weeks, Keval’s team worked on preparing for this project and after they transitioned to implementing it.

During his time working at WIMTACH, due to Covid-19, Keval didn’t get a chance to work from the office. “It was unfortunate that we had to work from home. However, we still were able to do so much great work in a great team environment,” he said. Keval would get on a call multiple times a week with his team, and their Team Lead to discuss the current work schedule and any other updates. If anyone in the group had any issues, “help was effortless to come by,” he said. On his project with Naborino, Keval had different tasks he had to complete on schedule. Still, deadlines were established to provide all students with enough time, resources, and support to meet their goals consistently and on time. For any professional, delivering the results of a completed task or project to the client is a fantastic feeling. For Keval, it wasn’t any different. “When the clients mentioned our names on the conference call and appreciated our work, the whole team and I were ecstatic,” he said.

At WIMTACH, Keval substantially developed his skills and became a natural leader capable of scrupulous problem-solving. After joining WIMTACH, the senior students, who worked for a year when Keval joined, taught him how to communicate with clients professionally and effectively. Now his professionalism in negotiations and professional communications can not be undervalued. Also, to implement many of the requests made by the client, Keval had to learn new concepts of programming, which allowed him to increase the area of his professional expertise substantially. “I think WIMTACH became a second college for me in terms of how much I learned and grew here,” he said.

Recently, Keval was offered the position of Software Developer at the Bank of Montreal (BMO), which he happily accepted. During his interview with BMO, Keval was evaluated on his knowledge and experience in working with different cloud-based solutions like Amazon Web Services (AWS). While at WIMTACH, he did a great job working with AWS and optimizing its performance. This experience made Keval much more knowledgeable in the field of cloud-based solutions, making him the perfect fit for the role. “The main reason why BMO hired me was my experience with WIMTACH. I could not put into words how much it helped me,” he said. In the next five years, Keval is looking to secure a supervisor role with BMO or any other major organization in need of IT solutions. Also, he is very ambitious about his potential career opportunities but wants to take it steady to have some spare time for his family. “My classmates are just starting to send their resumes out now, and I am already accepting my offer letter. This is what WIMTACH gave me,” he said. “I strongly advise [students] to apply to WIMTACH, as any and all skills are needed there.”

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