How an MSIS–Bridge Grad’s Pivot to Software Engineering Led to Google
Before Yu-Lun (Lena) Zhang finished her undergraduate degree in business administration, she knew her future would be in engineering products rather than promoting them. Drawn to user experience and how people interact with technology, she began teaching herself to build webpages and applications. That interest soon grew into online courses and a job when Yu-Lun landed a software engineering role in Taiwan. But to make a successful business-to-tech career transition, she needed a stronger foundation and a program that could connect her background to engineering practice.
At Northeastern University’s Seattle campus, the Master of Science in Information Systems – Bridge (MSIS – Bridge) provided just that, grounding Yu-Lun’s learning in collaborative, real-world projects and exploration. The experience ultimately led to a software engineering role at Google.
“I knew I needed bridge courses to help me consolidate my learning and the one year of work experience I had,” says Yu-Lun, who graduated from the tech bridge program for non-engineers in December 2025. “At Northeastern, I didn’t just get engineering fundamentals, but also a platform to touch different areas of software engineering, while seeing how my business background could directly apply to the work.”
A Collaborative Seattle Tech Education
Yu-Lun found that at Northeastern University in Seattle, learning rarely happened in isolation. With students entering the MSIS – Bridge program from more than 25 non-STEM fields, classes became opportunities for teamwork. They also mirrored the kind of collaboration she would later encounter in professional settings.
Class projects and assignments, along with taking the initiative to organize projects with peers beyond the classroom, became an impactful part of Yu-Lun’s learning experience.
“The program is an opportunity to connect with students from different academic backgrounds and interest areas,” she says. “For example, I was focused on full-stack software engineering development, but others were very good at statistics or machine learning. When we collaborated, we saw how to ensure the development was more complete and the product we built was more inclusive.”
Those shared learning experiences prepared Yu-Lun for the technical challenges ahead. Through the MSIS – Bridge program in Seattle’s core coursework, she began developing a problem-solving mindset and learning to design software solutions that balanced technical rigor, business realities, and user experience.
“You get courses with projects where you get to learn with your own hands, which is very helpful,” she says. “There are also courses for different interests. For example, I took a course called Business Analysis and Information Engineering. It tells you how a business team approaches products. I had learned some of this in my undergraduate studies, but it was very interesting when it came to software products.”
Yu-Lun’s Google Software Engineering Co-op
The team-oriented skills Yu-Lun honed in class proved invaluable during her co-op search. When she began applying for opportunities and eventually heard back from a Google recruiter, she leaned on guidance from faculty and campus resources. Yu-Lun’s Career Management for Engineers course instructor connected her with a student who had previously completed a Google co-op, giving her direct insight into the interview process and expectations.
She also joined peer study groups, where students ran mock interviews and helped one another prepare
“The students at Northeastern are really hard-working, and we helped one another work through possible technical questions,” Yu-Lun says. “That prep helped me explain my thoughts and ideas much easier during the interview process.”
During her three-month Google software engineering co-op, Yu-Lun contributed to the design and implementation of frontend features that supported advertiser decision-making. By building reusable interface elements and improving how information was loaded and stored, she helped reduce delays for users and made the software easier to update over time.
“At Google, I learned how to take responsibility for a small part of a huge codebase and see how it fits into the whole system,” she says. “You have to reach out to other engineers, discuss design ideas, and think about how your code can be extended and improved. You learn to work with others to make your solution better and more maintainable.”
Navigating Tech Career Pathways in Seattle
Equipped with a strong foundation and collaborative experience from Northeastern, Yu-Lun approached her co-op with curiosity and an open mind. Although her focus was full-stack development, she found herself contributing to a project involving language models. It was an experience that brought to life the diverse possibilities in software engineering she had been exposed to during her grad studies.
In her full-time role at Google, Yu-Lun will build on her co-op experience in a different corner of the company’s ecosystem, moving from Google Ads to YouTube and gaining experience with both backend systems and front-end mobile development.
“Co-op, apart from building professional skills, gives you the chance to explore,” she says. “I just want to keep learning during my journey at Google and stay open to opportunities where I can have the most impact.”