What's your job about?
I work as a software engineer at Vista, where we build innovative software to help enhance the cinema experience - whether for moviegoers or cinema chains themselves.
Currently, my team is building and maintaining a handful of customer-facing products. This includes Lumos Web, Mobile, and Kiosk, which are solutions that cinema chains can customize and tailor to their branding and functionality needs. A typical day generally begins with a couple of team meetings. From there we will continue with any tasks we have been assigned. This could include implementing new features for applications, investigating customer bugs, or writing tests to reinforce our existing software. Being part of a close-knit team means every day is full of learning and knowledge sharing. A single task is never completed without collaboration and input from other developers as we often review each other's code and provide constructive feedback.
Being a software developer doesn’t mean coding all day. There is usually a lot of discussion and planning that goes into a new feature. It's important to bounce ideas off the other developers in the team to ensure no one dives into a task blindly. And sometimes a whole day is spent using one of a developer's favourite tools, Google, to learn from others around the world who have encountered the same issue as you!
What's your background?
I grew up in the capital of New Zealand, Wellington. Throughout my school years, I had no idea what I wanted to pursue as a career, but I knew I had always loved creating. It wasn't until the second half of my very last year in high school that I first considered heading down the computer science path. I attended an open night at Victoria University where they showcased the work of students from a computer graphics course. This was the moment I knew this was what I wanted to study in university - I wanted to continue creating, through software.
In the summer before my final year at university, I devoted my time to working on my first personal coding project after missing the cut-off date for internship applications. Determined not to make the same mistake, I started the process early the following year, attending multiple boot camp events and career expos. I even entered a hackathon which was miles out of my comfort zone! This ended up being one of my most memorable and exciting experiences, as I got to have a taste of how software development might be in the working industry.
After 21 years of living in Wellington, I needed a change (and less wind!). And fortunately, after a multitude of applications and interviews, I was offered a graduate software engineering role. Since joining in February 2022, it's been almost 10 months with Vista!
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Of course! As someone who did follow the 'conventional' route of getting a degree at university, I'd say it's not an essential step to becoming a successful software engineer. This is especially true since the course I studied, computer graphics is not very relevant to the current role I am in now. However, it is essential to build a solid foundation of coding knowledge. This can be achieved through many other things like boot camps, online courses, and personal projects. Furthermore, software development has such enormous scope, so there is always plenty of learning done on the job. Some key traits of a great software engineer include problem-solving, resilience, attention to detail, and curiosity.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The best part of my job is being able to build and fix things every day. Nothing beats the feeling of finally solving an issue and knowing that users around the globe will benefit from those changes. It's extremely satisfying to be part of the creation of a product and see all the little (and large) improvements you have made.
What are the limitations of your job?
One of the most challenging things for me is being able to switch off after a busy day at work. Sometimes it's easy to continue grinding through a problem for 'just a few more minutes, even more so when working from home. With the recent transition towards flexible working hours and locations, most of us primarily work from home. It can be not easy to find balance when your work environment becomes enmeshed with your day-to-day living space.
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