How two UNSW students turned a university project into careers at IBM

Starting your career at IBM is a dream come true for many graduates. Here’s how two UNSW students, Subiksha and Susan, made this a reality through a UNSW Employability course.

As an undergraduate UNSW Engineering student, Subiksha Karnan thought the corporate world was “super scary.” But she realised the complete opposite is true, working on a project with IBM through UNSW Employability’s CDEV3000 Practice of Work.

“It was very welcoming and supportive. Talking to the client was a casual conversation. They were very kind and friendly, which was not what I thought it would be,” she recalls.

What Subiksha also didn’t expect is how the course would change her trajectory – serving as the catalyst for the beginning of an exciting career at one of the world’s most iconic brands.

Launching an IBM career in engineering

Subiksha grew up around technology; both her parents are engineers. So when it came to choosing a path after high school, engineering at Australia’s #1 university was an obvious choice.

Keen to get hands-on industry experience, Subiksha, alongside 15 other students from a range of faculties, signed up for UNSW Employability’s experiential learning course, offered to undergraduates under CDEV3000 Practice of Work and postgraduates under CDEV6000 Partnered Work Project.

Through the course, students work directly with a partner organisation on a co-designed project in interdisciplinary teams.

Over four weeks, Subiksha and her team collaborated with IBM to help the company reimagine its graduate program. They regularly visited the Sydney office, meeting with the team to understand pain points and expectations, present ideas and get feedback. The experience taught Subiksha to listen deeply – a skill that was pivotal for shaping Subiksha’s problem-solving approach today.

“In most of my group projects at university, the first thing everybody would do is jump to a solution. CDEV taught us to hear out the client first, put yourself in their shoes, understand their needs, their pain points, and shape a solution around that. It’s a skill that has led to the way I am,” she explains.

But it’s the connections Subiksha built during the course that proved invaluable. About halfway through the program, her client, David Provest, Client Engineering Leader at IBM, encouraged her to apply for a six-month internship with IBM Cloud. After finishing that, he reached out about another internship opportunity at IBM Client Engineering. Today, she’s a full-time AI Engineer at the company.

“CDEV was a really good starting point for my career when I had no idea what I was doing,” she says. “It gave me that exposure, that experience, which led to where I am right now. And from now I can leverage the skills I learned to build off into different pathways."

Creating a global opportunity

Subiksha’s story is just one example of what the program can unlock. Across faculties – and the globe – Susan Wang works as a Package Consultant at IBM China. Her journey to a career with the tech giant started much like Subiksha’s. 

As an international postgraduate student doing her master’s in financial technology at UNSW Business School, Susan felt she’d be out of her depth in the Australian corporate world. She lacked the confidence to speak English in front of professionals from a large company. But her experience during CDEV6000 Partnered Work Project course was transformational.

“The course acts like a bridge between the university and the industry. You’re not thrown into a project and expected to figure out everything by yourself. It gives you support. You build your confidence because your identity is still a student, but you get the opportunity to work with professionals.”

Susan’s project, also with IBM, explored how AI could be used to improve patient experience in healthcare. She and her team interviewed nurses to understand the patient journey, uncover the core problems and develop practical solutions.

“We learned how to turn ideas into the practical solutions. It’s easy to come up with ideas, but in the real world the solution only works if it solves the general problem and people will use it. The project taught me that successful innovation is not just about technology. It's about understanding people and business needs.”

The course also offered a supported environment where Susan learned how consultants approach problems and contribute to projects without pressure – experience she didn’t gain through previous internships.

“It was the most enjoyable learning experience I had at university,” she says.

As an international student who built her skills in Sydney, Susan proved that a UNSW education and Employability experiences travel well. When she returned to her home country, China, she secured a full-time role with IBM China.

“Companies are interested in people with real project experience, especially overseas,” she says. “One of my interviewers told me after I started my role that my IBM project on my resume immediately caught her attention.”

Emma Bachner, Client Engineering Leader at IBM ANZ understands why.

“A successful career requires more than just academic knowledge,” Emma Bachner, Client Engineering Leader at IBM ANZ says. “Understanding the dynamics in a workplace, the challenges that we take on together with clients and the methods we use is key to launching an exciting career.”

Mentoring the next generation of thinkers

Over the past four years, IBM’s partnership with UNSW has evolved into a dialogue with students, co-creating solutions to real-world problems. For students like Subiksha and Susan, the exposure to an iconic brand, its supportive culture, challenges and people often prove career-defining.

For IBM, the partnership is mutually rewarding. Students bring fresh perspectives, curiosity, staff engagement, while the company gets to shape its pipeline of future talent.

“This is our way of not only giving back but also getting the chance to influence the next generation of talent with human centric approaches and world-class technology,” Emma says.

It’s a model that clearly works. Two years into her role, Susan is keen to build on her international experience.

“Because I did my bachelor and postgraduate in Australia, I want to step out of my comfort zone again and gain more international views and experience,” she says.

Subiksha, now in her third year at IBM in Sydney, shares that sense of momentum in her role.

“Technology is always evolving. There are new things coming up all the time, and you learn every single day. It’s fascinating,” she says.

It's precisely the kind of outcome UNSW's commitment to accessible, real-world education is designed to create.

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This article was brought to you by UNSW Employability.