Learning, leading and leveraging AI
Dev Shah took his interest in artificial intelligence (AI) to the workplace, where he created innovative solutions to solve company’s pain points.
Dev Shah (he/him), a fourth-year Management Engineering student, has had a co-op journey full of exploration, from new cities to new technologies. He talks about his interest in AI and how he has used it in the workplace to solve problems and optimize processes. Dev’s work terms have given him valuable insights about leading projects, moving to new cities and his career aspirations.
Dev's co-op journey
Software project management intern, Parry Immigration Solutions
During his first work term, Dev developed a customer relationship management (CRM) system where clients could log in and submit their information, which allowed immigration lawyers to find their clients’ information more efficiently.
Project co-ordinator, Northbridge
Dev began exploring AI in the workplace during his second co-op, where he built an AI capability to help make the company’s data entry via Excel easier. He also handled vendor management and supported project managers.
Product manager and lead, Zenith
Dev spent two work terms exploring how he could fit AI into Zenith. In his first term, he identified pain points in the company that could be solved with AI. In his second term, he moved his project forward and helped implement his first product.
Product engineer, Tesla
Dev has been with Tesla’s global payment team for his last two work terms. First, he worked on rolling out new payment methods and supported market expansion, spanning over many projects. He is currently focusing on a project he owns called Tesla credits, an internal currency for customers that can be used on anything within the Tesla ecosystem. He has been working on all of its integration, expansions, upgrades and customer support for the product.
Q&A with Dev
What drew you to Management Engineering?
“Management Engineering offered something different in a way. It had all the basics that you have in most other engineering programs, like math and physics, but it also really honed in on statistics and provides you with a more business-oriented background with economics classes. The optimization courses seemed very cool to me as well.”
“It provides you with a mix of business, software and statistics, whereas other engineers focus more on specific hardware or circuits. Management engineering gives you a breadth of options to span out from while still covering all your basics.”
“The cohort is a really underrated part of management engineering. Since it’s a smaller cohort, everyone’s much more of a tight-knit group. You always know most of the people in your program which is nice.”
What interests you about working with AI?
“I’ve always been very interested in AI. What initially drew me to work with it was when I took my first initiative to use AI at Northbridge. That opened the door for me to do the same at Zenith, and now here at Tesla. Especially because of how everything is moving so fast these days, it’s something that I believe is a very useful skill to have. At the very least, the knowledge of how to use all these different AI tools and configurations is extremely helpful.”
“I think you have to approach it from a mindset that AI is supposed to help you do what you do better as opposed to something that does everything for you. Once you embody that mindset, I think it’s very easy to use it as a tool to be more successful. You can use ChatGPT for anything, but it’s the specific tools that companies have created, like ones that offer AI as a Statistical Analysis System (SAS) that are incredibly helpful. For me, it’s always good to stay on top of those things and have experience in that because it’s never going to stop growing.”
“We take machine learning courses and other courses where we get to learn the fundamentals of how AI works. My applicable AI skills have all come from on the job or going out of my way to learn it, and that always ends up opening doors for me.”
How was your experience moving to new cities for co-op?
“It was really good. The first time around, it can be a little scary and challenging. That just comes from the uncertainty of being in a new place, especially if you don’t have many people you know around you. It makes you wonder what you are going to do with all your time or how you are going to make friends.”
“I think if you always keep an open mind and try to stay connected with people as much as possible, it makes a really good experience. Some of my closest friends that I have made have been from new cities that I’ve lived in during my co-op.”
“It’s a great opportunity to experience something completely different. It also teaches you how to live on your own in another country and how to be confident in yourself in a new place, which is scary at first, but it’s a really good asset to have."
What are some of the challenges you’ve faced during co-op?
“There’s a bunch. I feel like there’s always a learning curve at the start of any work term. There have also been moments in my co-ops where things really ramp up quicker than I was ready for.”
“There’s always a point where you have to sit back and reflect on what you’ve learned so far, what you need to do and plan properly to make sure you’re successful by the end of your co-op. I think what has helped me the most is setting very clear expectations with my managers to know exactly what my progress could look like and trying to reduce whatever ambiguity exists as much as possible.”
“When it comes to a heavy workload, being confident in yourself and knowing that you will get a hang of things is really helpful as long as you keep a very positive perspective.”
What have you gained from your co-op experiences that you’ll carry with you into the future?
“The knowledge I’ve gotten on my work ethic. Working as a product manager (PM) at Tesla has helped me understand what it’s like to work as a full-time PM. It’s been really good to know exactly how I work and be aware of the mistakes I’m making or things I can do better and be able to improve on those.”
What’s great about co-op is it gives you that glimpse into what full time work could look like. It teaches you a lot about yourself, what you like and what you dislike in a full-time position, so you can make the best choices for yourself going forward.
“I think if you put in a genuine effort to make connections with others at the company and seek mentorship, you learn so many valuable lessons from people in very successful positions that you can always refer back to.”
What’s next for you?
“For now, taking some time to think about where I want to be full time, considering between offers and figuring out what’s going to be the best for me. I think people heavily understate how big of a decision it is to make your first full-time offer decision. It’s no longer four months and then going back to school and making another choice for co-op. That could be where you end up for the next three or four years.”
“For me, it’s very important to think about the work that you want to do and where you see yourself five years down the line. Try to cancel all the noise about company reputations and focus on what is going to make you happy in the long run.”
