What's your employer doing and what are your areas of responsibility?
I'm working as a fulltime graduate student at Re-Leased. This is an automated and intelligent software designed to make property management a more seamless experience and time efficient.
My areas of responsibility within the company are to help maintain as well as add refinements to the current and new features within the product. These features are related the budgets area, which I work on along with my squad (my engineering team).
My day to day usually consists of working on a task assigned to me, this could be fixing a bug, adding a feature and/or writing unit tests. Some specific examples of these features are migrating endpoints (as we are moving from repositories to modules) and am currently working on adding a new section on a budget report which shows details on the corresponding unallocated chart of accounts.
What's your background?
I grew up in Palmerton North surrounded by family, but soon moved here to Hawkes Bay. I’m very thankful to grow up in a large family of five sisters and to have supportive parents which have set a hardworking example to follow. I’ve enjoyed making many memories with them on camping trips and casual sports. I also enjoy training at a Taekwondo class and have been training for an upcoming two-day black belt grading. During Secondary school I gained some experience in customer service at a local cafe and was engaged problem solving subjects such as calc and physics.
After this, Dev Academy caught my interest, as it highlighted how problem-solving skills were used a lot in programming and seemed like a very effective on-line course. I found this 15-week programming 'bootcamp' course challenging but also rewarding and engaging, as it gave me an insight of how work is as a software developer.
Re-leased had set up an online campus to do this course, which meant I was surrounded by the positive work environment. After finishing Dev Academy, I was offered a job at Re-leased and was excited to join the team. I've just completed 3 months at the company which has been great so far!
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Yes definitely! Anyone with an interest in problem solving in programming and is ready to learn would make a great fit for the job. There is so much learning within the job, which makes it engaging but also requires patience and perseverance, which is why I think a growth mindset is key to succeeding within this role.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The sense of accomplishment after building something challenging, I've found very rewarding, especially when reflecting on the past where I wouldn't be able to do it. Developing the code to get to this point can require patience and effort but can also be engaging as it requires thinking critically on which approach to a problem to take next. Seeing the result within the actual product is cool, as I can see the value that I'm contributing towards the product.
What are the limitations of your job?
Sometimes the code just doesn't seem to work! It can be difficult and require persistent effort to find the cause and solve t-he problem within the code, especially when I can't figure out what's gone wrong, which gives me a sense of imposter syndrome. It feels like I’m not getting anywhere and are at a dead end, which is when I ask colleague for help -this gets me on the right track!
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...