WIMTACH Student Profile: Mohammad Bakir

Mohammad Bakir applied for a Student Researcher position as part of a co-op requirement in January 2020 for his Software Engineering Technology program at Centennial College. Although his co-op term ended, he decided to re-apply for another position because he found his role in WIMTACH invaluable.

He explained that WIMTACH has enabled him to gain a greater understanding of the processes behind Software Development as well as a sense of what a career in the industry looks like. “The work experience that I have from dealing with clients on an e-commerce project and different kinds of projects really taught me a lot about software and specifically about the technologies that we use in these projects,” he said. “It taught me a lot about how a software career works.”

For Mohammad, a key advantage of working at WIMTACH is the opportunity to contribute to a variety of different projects to get a feel of the paths that are available to students in the Software Development industry. “[WIMTACH] has small to large scale projects and in different fields. So that is really what makes [the internship] a valuable experience and I definitely recommend it,” he said.

In addition to his involvement with an E-commerce project as a Front-End developer, he also assisted a team of developers with an EMR project. More, he has successfully contributed to a project called Wavez as a Full-Stack developer. While working on Wavez he was part of a team of developers who effectively created a full identity verification system for users in real time using ID from any country. “That is one of the things that I am really proud of,” he said.

Currently, he is assisting a team of developers to create a proof of concept for BNN chat functionalities with Angular and he is working as a Back-End web developer while using the latest technologies. “The [most] memorable time is when you are delivering a piece of software for the client,” he said. “It makes me happy that we delivered something that I worked on and that I am proud of.”

Through his tenure at WIMTACH, Mohammad has been able to fill in some of his knowledge gaps. “The experience that I got was really priceless,” he said. “The work experience itself teaches you things that college does not and that’s what makes it really valuable for me.”

Some of the technical skills that he’s gained include a familiarity with MongoDB, Express, React, Next JS, Agile Methodologies with Scrum, an ability to implement license verification, along with an understanding of how to deploy applications. “[My] favorite part is the learning curve in terms of really learning a lot of technologies,” he said. “The other part is the team work … it’s really been great to work with a lot of teams.”

He was able to use the experience at WIMTACH to network and connect with his peers as well as clients. “It’s all been good with me. I did a lot of networking and it was a really great time,” he said.

Now, as his time at WIMTACH comes to a close, he is looking forward to his new role as a Backend Software Engineer at Xello Inc. and he’s excited about starting a career in Software Development, armed with an extensive development portfolio. “The work experience that I got with projects and working directly with clients … is required in different careers in software [development] and that’s what [employers] are really looking for,” he said.

He highly recommends other students to apply for Student Researcher positions so that they can learn as much as they can. “The WIMTACH environment is really great,” he said. “The work itself, the experience that a student will get, is really priceless.”

As one of the senior Student Researchers in the WIMTACH team, his advice to students who are hopeful about gaining at internship at WIMTACH is to focus on learning. “Keep learning and always look for new technologies to improve [your] development,” he said adding, “ask about something that you are having problems with.”

Looking towards his future, Mohammad is mainly focused on growth and developing his skills. “I really want to just keep continuing with the experience and basically grow. I see myself in five years, learning new technologies … growing with the software field.

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