Finding Her Perfect Fit

January 28, 2021

By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Communications

Senior Lisa Kestelboym didn't let the pandemic get in the way of learning and growing.

When an internship last summer with Cisco Meraki turned virtual, the women's soccer student-athlete embraced the opportunity, which led to a job and an important step in her career progression.

A Computer Science and Business major, Kestelboym was looking for software engineering internships and saw an opportunity on the platform Handshake.

Cisco Meraki is a subsidiary of Cisco, described on its website as "the leader in cloud controlled WiFi, routing and security."

"I completed a general interview and a technical, coding interview," said Kestelboym. "When all was said and done, I got the internship and was supposed to go to San Francisco and be in the office as a software engineering intern on the business systems team."

But because of the COVID-19 pandemic, those plans changed.

"In March, all employees across Cisco became virtual," said Kestelboym.

Despite those hurdles, it was still an extremely worthwhile experience. Kestelboym worked with the business systems team, which features internally-facing programming.

"We help the sales team work more efficiently when selling products," she said. "We help the business offices of the actual company, versus a client-facing type of coding where you're coding into the product itself."

An advantage Kestelboym carried entering the internship was a strong, diverse background in business and engineering, along with valuable experiences in a team setting (as a member of Lehigh women's soccer).

"Our primary project was a proof of concept for this new software we were trying out," she said. "We took a lot of data about a team and our job was to test out this tool to see if it was effective for that team's use in the future.
Lisa Kestelboym
"We also gained some experience fixing different bugs in the system and doing maintenance work with tickets. If you ever submit a claim into a service desk online, it was like that. We got exposure to the Salesforce platform, and the programming language APEX."

When Kestelboym entered Lehigh, she never would have expected being at this point as a programmer, but she kept her mind open from the beginning and found a true passion.

"I came into college as a premed major and had never coded in my life," she said. "My first semester freshman year, I realized premed wasn't for me and didn't know what I wanted to do."

Kestelboym took the spring semester to try out different things.

"I still wanted to be in science," she said. "My dad is actually a programmer. I initially didn't do it, but then I thought, why not try? That spring, I took Intro to Programming and it resonated with me. I had been learning French; I'm bilingual in Russian and English and it was like learning a new language.

"I found it so cool that something I wrote could simulate a deck of cards being shuffled or a text message being sent. I didn't realize the power coding represents."

Kestelboym had initially found out about Computer Science and Business from one of her friends who was in the program already.

"CSB was perfect for me because I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do," she said.

That program kept many doors open for Kestelboym, and Cisco Meraki ended up being a perfect fit.

"A lot of what we're taught, especially in CSB-specific courses, is being that link between the technical and business sides of the operation," she said. "The language used when translating from technology to business can be difficult to lay out to someone who doesn't know about software engineering. You have to translate it, so it's specific enough that you're still not talking very abstractly, but broad enough that someone who isn't a computer science major understands what you're talking about."

That skill, effectively communicating between non-technical and technical colleagues, has allowed Kestelboym to flourish.

"The ability to manage the in-between gave me more confidence when speaking to stakeholders," she said. "I thought as a software engineering intern I would only be exposed to the technical side of things, but the project I worked on allowed me to incorporate both."

Being on a sports teams practically her entire life has also proven beneficial.

"Having the experience of playing on a team and being able to speak to people professionally allowed me to better succeed in this internship," said Kestelboym. "I even noted that very thing while I was in the internship. It was a lot easier for me to speak with, and be comfortable around, stakeholders."

Coding features a lot of individual work, but there's also plenty of teamwork in what Kestelboym did this summer (and will continue to do in her career).
Lisa Kestelboym
"I was in sprint planning meetings with my team, relaying my progress every day to others," she said. "Lehigh sets us up well because we had classes, especially software engineering classes, with similar formats. They try to mimic this type of work environment where you're on a small team. You have different roles and every time you meet, you say what you did, what you're struggling with and what you're going to do."

The culmination of Kestelboym's experiences helped lead to a full-time job offer at Cisco Meraki, which she accepted.

"I was offered a position in August as a software engineer on the same team where I interned," said Kestelboym. "I'll be more on the coding side of things. As much as I learned from the data side, it grounded my passion in software engineering."

Kestelboym greatly enjoys talking to people and being that in-between… the "glue" between different areas.

"It comes naturally for me to want to be in a place where I can actually talk to the stakeholder I'm delivering to," she said. "I do that in a different sense with soccer, so it feels natural to want to have those stakeholder interactions."

The virtual internship may have looked different than she initially expected, but Kestelboym certainly made the most of it.

"Cisco Meraki brought an ability to learn and try new things," she said. "You're encouraged to gain knowledge. I worked the previous summer at a smaller startup, but this was a very new experience. I realized how much opportunity there is for growth at this company, so I really appreciated that and the way they exposed their interns to so many different areas.

"I also had meetings with senior engineers asking about the career, what they recommend and if they have any advice."

Every piece of advice, and every experience, are important steps in Kestelboym's journey as a professional.

"Throughout my first three years at Lehigh, I realized software engineering was really what I wanted to do," she said. "Initially, this internship was pretty scary because it was on the other side of the country. I didn't get to live and work in San Francisco, but I will soon (as a full-time employee)."

Kestelboym can't wait to join the Cisco Meraki company culture, which she believes is unique.

"It had to be such a positive experience for me to be willing to move to the West Coast," she said. "This positive experience has driven me to make life changes.

"I'm really grateful for the opportunity."