7FACTOR NEWS
The Future of Tech: High School Software Intern Makes Key Impacts on Real-World Solutions
Rising High School Junior Nikesh Patel has officially completed his summer internship at 7Factor Software.
At just 16 years old, Patel has already immersed himself in coding basics, mostly through his passion for robotics. Patel joined 7Factor’s team ready to dive deeper into the world of software engineering and gain insight on client and team interactions. The real-world experience Patel acquired throughout his time at 7Factor has translated into pivotal insights for his future in technology.
Hands-On Experience
In an effort to immerse Patel in a myriad of team environments, his internship was segmented into four rotations, each with a different team/client. These rotations enabled Patel to not only experience different codebases but also to witness different team dynamics. From a technical standpoint, Patel was able to spend time in the front and back end. From independently completing small tickets utilizing JavaScript and TypeScript to mob programming through an infrastructure rebuild in the backend, Patel was able to participate in numerous technical problems.
One experience that particularly stood out to Patel was his time spent working under 7Factor engineer Sean Morris. As a member of his team, Patel was able to collaborate with Morris to integrate front-end change requests from the client.
“Nikesh impressed me quite a bit,” says Morris. “Frontend development was fairly new to him, but he picked up on it quickly. He was super engaged, eager to learn, and had excellent questions.”
His time working under Morris gave him invaluable insight into how to engage in two-way feedback with clients. This soft skill will continue to be useful throughout his professional career.
7Factor Humans
At 7Factor, our top priority is treating people like people, and this goes for our team members, clients, and stakeholders. Patel was guided by industry leaders, benefiting from their mentorship, and experienced firsthand the caliber of our high-performing engineers. Through his interactions with the four different projects, he was able to witness, and problem-solve, through several different real-life scenarios, and his contributions did not go unnoticed by his mentors.
“I was very impressed with Nikesh’s eagerness on standups and huddles,” said 7Factor engineer Noah Arragaw, “Nikesh could’ve easily just stayed muted through our calls, but he asked a lot of great questions and seemed genuinely interested in learning how things work. I can’t wait to see his career continue to grow.”
What’s Next
As his time at 7Factor comes to an end, Patel is refocusing his efforts on his formal education.
“I’m looking forward to my upcoming computer science classes this semester”, says Patel, “It’s going to be interesting to see the concepts I learned from 7Factor be a part of my curriculum.”
Nikesh will complete his secondary education in 2025, after which he hopes to pursue software engineering or development in his undergraduate pathway. 7Factor is eager to continue to support Patel on his journey in the tech industry. No matter where he lands, we are confident that the skills and experiences gained throughout his internship will provide him with applicable knowledge in future endeavors.
7Factor’s Commitment to the Future of Tech
In alignment with our human-centric values, 7Factor firmly believes in investing in the future of tech. Through implementing a culture of psychological safety, our engineers understand that learning something new and sharpening your peers is essential in software development. We have adapted this approach to extend beyond our team members and have nurtured numerous interns and apprentices; all from different walks of life. We value curiosity and compassion over skill level when evaluating technical potential and have found that placing young talent on our teams has given them a launching point that often springboards their career. You can learn more about our dedication to technical education here.