What's your job about?
I am working as an intern in Theta’s Product team, which is responsible for building proofs-of-concept for new ideas and developing software that Theta can sell to its customers. I am working on building new features and improving existing ones for a product that is used by kids to host digital content, such as digital art, 3D models, video and audio files, and create AR and VR content.
What's your background?
I grew up in Palmerston North and moved to Wellington to study at Massey University Wellington. After spending 8 years teaching, a few overseas trips and starting a family, it was time to try something new. I had become curious about programming through involvement in school code clubs and teaching some basic coding in my classes and so the Masters of Software Development program at Victoria University of Wellington’s ICT Graduate school seemed like a great option. This led me to Theta as an intern!
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Absolutely! People from all sorts of backgrounds are transitioning into software development, including me. It’s not easy though! It is a very technical field and so for someone like me, that came from a non-technical background, it can be quite a challenge. There is also a lot to learn, even for experienced developers and so you have to be willing to be learning and trying new things constantly.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The people in the teams are fantastic developers and it is great having the opportunity to learn from them and see how they approach problems. While it has been a big step up from studying, it is cool being given responsibility for developing features within a large existing code base and being exposed to a range of tools that I probably wouldn’t have come across on my own.
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