The Power of a Post

Shashwat Kakkad (MLDS '25) has a story to tell those who might doubt whether one social media post can positively change their career trajectories.  

Shashwat was early in his time as a student in Northwestern Engineering's Master of Science in Machine Learning and Data Science (MLDS) program when he composed a LinkedIn post about what he was learning in his Generative AI class.  

“I did one post in the winter quarter,” Shashwat said. “And that's when the recruiter came across my profile.”  

That recruiter worked for Premera Blue Cross.  

Shashwat’s post led to a conversation and then an interview. The interview turned into a rich summer internship experience, and that internship turned into a full-time job.  

Today, Shashwat is an AI engineer on Premera Blue Cross’ AI Experience team.  

“One thing that I took away from the MLDS program is that you have to speak up for yourself and for your work,” he said. “If you don’t speak for yourself, someone else will stand up for themselves instead.”  

Shashwat’s work today speaks to the rapidly growing influence AI has inside Premera Blue Cross. He focuses on two key areas in his role—adding AI automation to claims operations and services, and helping customer service.  

Shashwat’s team's focus in the past year has been uncovering the company’s pain points and developing AI agents to ease them.  

His reason and motivation to join Premera Blue Cross came from the confidence he developed during his internship experience. As an AI engineer intern, he helped improve a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) virtual assistant designed for customer service representatives. He also delivered a presentation about his internship to the company’s board and three members of its C-Suite, including the CEO.  

Shashwat was also intentional about working in the company's office every day, despite a two-days-in-office hybrid policy. 

The reason was simple. Even though Shashwat is a self-described introvert, he wanted to put himself in positions where as many people as possible could get to know him. This also helped him understand and learn more about the work culture of Premera. 

It's a lesson he subsequently shared with younger MLDS students.  

“During a summer internship, be visible. Be physically visible and just talk to people,” he said. “It may be uncomfortable, but you have to initiate conversations. It helps you gauge and understand the company culture and projects, and learn from other teams as well. That's how this team that I'm currently on got to know me. They knew me already when I was applying for the full-time position.” 

When Shashwat published that LinkedIn post about his Generative AI class, he wasn't trying to secure an internship. He was just trying to be visible. He wanted to take the lessons he was learning—in this case, about better understanding large-language models—and help teach them to others. He wanted to show how AI could be used effectively and impactfully.  

It's the same goal he strives for today in his full-time role—and one he is able to accomplish thanks to the MLDS program.  

“The current job market is tough. Expectations have changed. They want you to wear multiple hats. You need to be both business savvy and tech savvy,” he said. “The MLDS program did a good job of preparing me for that.”