Career Conversations
Recently I was asked by my daughter's school to participate in a career day. The students were given a list of questions to ask professionals. I thought I would share my answers here, in order to help other students who are considering what career to undertake.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
Throughout my career what I have enjoyed most is helping others. Whether that be showing them how to do something technically that they were struggling with, or assisting with long term planning for a project, or even shaping their future career growth, it's always been the most motivating factor for me.
What education or training did you need for this career?
I have a degree in Computer Science and Games Technology from Murdoch University. I was homeschooled, so I needed to take the SAT (for international students) rather than the ATAR most students will be taking.
When I was younger I used to program games myself as we didn't own a game console or many games, so if I saw a game I liked I would do my best to make it. These skills made it easy to complete the computer science degree.
What does a typical day look like for you?
I work for Canva, which is mostly based in Sydney. This means most days I wake up at 6:30 and start work by 7:30. I try to get exercise in first thing in the morning before my first meetings of the day. Usually there will be slack messages and emails to catch up on, but those can quickly take up your whole day. I try to make sure I can knock off the most important reviews for my team with all communication apps closed to aid focus. I usually support my team by answering questions or meeting them one-on-one
What are the biggest challenges in your industry?
Right now the biggest challenge in the software engineering industry is AI. Not only are more and more businesses using AI as part of their products, but also to build the projects too. Agents are getting very powerful, but aren't plug and play. As a manager I wish I had more time to experiment and get on top of it. So I'm cutting out time for it or making sure I always have an agent running in the background doing something for me. I think the key though is to keep up with the latest developments, but not let it scare or worry you.
How did you get started in this field?
My first job was an internet service provider - iiNet. It was using a relatively rare programming language "Perl". I haven't had to use that language since, but I have still benefited from the general computer science concepts, and the language's emphasis on simplicity.
What skills are most important for success in your job?
The most important skills for succes in technology are counter-intuitive. I've found people or "soft" skills the most valuable. If you hit a technical challenge, learning to network and find the right people to solve the problem is hugely beneficial. When completing a project, managing stakeholders, raising issues to the right people and collaborating will bring you more success than just trying to "code faster".
What advice would you give to someone interested in this career?
A lot of workplaces do work experience or graduate programs. Don't feel you need to be fully qualified before you can try it out. However there's rumours that AI will take the role of entry level jobs. Therefore make sure you're staying on top of AI and what it can do.
How do you see your industry changing in the next few years?
In the next few years I see people as writing less and less code. It will be more important what you can guide AI to do than what you can do yourself. Having the right ideas, the right eye for problems and high expectations for AI will be key to success.
What are the career advancement opportunities in your field?
Most engineers are not a big fan of people skills or people leadership. To get ahead, you can work on these skills and you'll find opportunities opening up for you.
What is the job market like for your profession?
The tech field ebbs and flows a lot with the market. Start-ups are often tech based as they scale the best, which means private market valuations drive demand for talent. Private market is based on the public market, so as the share market dips, less jobs are available, and as it rises demand skyrockets. I don't expect this to change, even in AI.
What kind of projects do you work on?
I work on Canva's "Ecosystem" which is basically apps on Canva. Developers build apps on Canva to get more users for their businesses, or to integrate Canva's easy designing tools into their products.
How do you stay updated with industry trends?
I am a busy Dad so I find podcasts or videos while I'm doing chores or exercising the easiest way to stay up to date.
What is the work-life balance like in your profession?
In tech leadership work-life balance is difficult. I know people that work anywhere from 50 to 100 hour weeks. But I try to make sure I work nothing more than 38 hours a week. I figure I could keep working all night on my list of things to do, but there will always be more important things to do tomorrow, so better to save energy for that.
What are the most rewarding aspects of your job?
Helping my team is certainly the most rewarding aspect. Sometimes it might be years later that you find out what an impact you had on someone or how much they appreciated your leadership.
How important is networking in your industry?
Networking is very important in tech - but sometimes the word is scary. Try not to think about it as networking, just think about it as meeting new people and making friends as you go. Don't limit yourself to networking events, everything you do is an opportunity to meet new people that you could help down the line, or perhaps could help you.
Can you describe a particularly challenging project you’ve worked on?
The most challenging project I worked on was a security incident - it was my first time working on an authentication related issue, and because it required changes to developer code, we had to work quickly to get advise out to the developers. I worked very closely with my team, and consulted with many different team members across the business. The incident went from just me, to about 120 people. It was exhausting and sometimes involved working from 5:15am until 8:30pm. But it was great to see everyone work together and eventually solve it.
What do you wish you had known before starting your career in this field?
I wish I had known about internships when I was younger. It would have been great to learn how to work in the field while I was still studying.
Are you able to earn a good living following this career path?
Yes, I'm very fortunate that my hobby for building games has slowly grown into a very good living. I'm able to comfortably support my family and save a lot, on track to pay off our house in the next few years. Tech companies also often give out equity, which is highly lucrative although long term. A very good thing to consider in your early days as well as later stages, especially if you believe strongly in the long term success of the company you are working for.