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Cindy Cai

One of the key characteristics that is common amongst everyone in my position is the curiosity and willingness to learn.

What's your job about?

MYOB works on software that provides business management solutions. My current position means that my key responsibility is to upskill into a crew by building on my knowledge and skills as an efficient developer. 

More specifically, my day to day looks at learning MYOB’s tech stack and coding standards to develop my own best practices. Every week, I work closely with my mentors to identify areas of learning, where I will apply to an exercise to understand the concepts. 

What's your background?

I grew up on the North Shore in Auckland. I attended an all-girls high school where I found my passion for technology. By my final year, the Digital Technology elective class had approximately 10 people in it and was almost cancelled due to the numbers. At the time, I felt frustrated that there was such a lack of interest in this subject that I had grown to love, thus leading me to pursue the field of Computer Science and Software Development at Auckland University of Technology. I have consistently joined clubs and attended talks and meetups to be part of the effort of bringing more girls into STEM. 

Before starting as a protégé developer at MYOB, I took a month-long trip travelling around 11 cities throughout Asia. It was my first trip I had planned and been on without my family, so it was an incredibly eye-opening and challenging experience. I feel that I was a great way to celebrate moving into full-time work.

While I was in the middle of my final year, I applied to MYOB through a video interview before progressing through to several in person and technical interviews. I received news that I got the job in August and started in February, so I have been in this position for almost two months. 

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Absolutely. One of the key characteristics that is common amongst everyone in my position is the curiosity and willingness to learn. Other than that, the Future Makers Academy is designed to support growth and moving into being an efficient developer. 

What's the coolest thing about your job?

It has been great that there is a very clear path set out for graduates as to how we will transition into being part of the team. I really enjoy that I can apply concepts to exercises and get consistent feedback on what I am doing so that I can see myself being on the right track for each goal and milestone. 

What are the limitations of your job?

The unique aspect is that the entire program is very much catered to you. While this is incredibly supportive, it can also come with the limitation of feeling like you aren’t providing value to the company or doing 'real work.' Once I overcame this hurdle, I became very grateful for this opportunity to really build my skills. It is definitely a process that is important to the company before jumping straight into a team but can come across as a limitation if someone wants to move straight into a developer role. 

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

  1. Don't to worry too much about which specific path I want to take with my career. Moving to working in the industry, I have found so many opportunities to find fields of interest within the scope of technology. 
  2. Get an internship as a previous industry experience would have set me up with helpful skills for moving into a full-time job smoothly. 
  3. Don't be afraid of failing and asking for help! Even the most experienced developers do – it’s all part of learning.