DECO1400 Lecture 7

Life in the IT Industry John Casey, PhD

Working in industry designing cloud/distributed systems

About Me

• Grew up in Melbourne

• PhD, Deakin University (2008)

• Thesis

• Worked for DXC, FoodStuffs, MegaPort

Roles I’ve Had

• Software Engineer
• Backend/frontend/full-stack developer
• Senior developer
• Tech Lead - in charge of hiring and managing a team
• Software Architect

Teaching and Research Experience

Found that the best way to really learn something is to make a course on it / teach people

• On top of extensive research, also worked as an academic
• Deakin University - Lecturer
• Unitec Institute of Technology - Senior Lecturer
  • Taught Java, JavaScript, Mobile Programming using Android, Web Development, Network Programming, Games Programming in C++

Technical Skills Required in New Graduates

• Have been in charge of hiring new graduates and experienced developers
• Skills required:
  • Front-end: HTML/CSS/JS/React
  • Back-end: Java/C#/NoSQL/APIs/Kubernetes
  • Technology is changing all of the time - important to be willing to learn new things

Problem: Finding the needle in the haystack

• Ww live in a very complicated world with no easy answers
• Recent example - difference of $$ 200 in two financial reports
  • 70 pages of combined data

1.5M of transactions - Accountant's don't like when reports don't match up - A lot of detective work to determine what has gone wrong - Leverage hard won expertise with system + knowledge of recent changes to system to deduce missing line items - Turned out to be some recently added transactions that were missing from the report - Added a new catchall OTHER fee category to the report so that missing fees can still be accounted for - Added the two missing fees to the report - This required a lot of patience ## Vehicle Certification Portal <!-- cSpell: ignore wovr --> - Interstate import - Check WOVR registry - Repairable writeoffs - No re-birthed cut and shut vehicles - Japanese Imports - homemade vehicles - A lot of people in Tasmania turn their old cars/trucks into trailers - Kit cars - Modifications to Heavy Vehicles and Public Passenger Vehicles - Take down all certifications details electronically - Compliance plate: Certification of change to vehicles ## Credit Card Single Page Application (SPA) - Made in React, hosted in S3 bucket - Interacts directly with payment gateway so that PAn cannot be intercepted by a third party - API driven using a RESTful backend - Authentication done using JSon Web Tokens  ## Soft Skills - Almost all job advertisements come with a list of soft skills you are required to have to get a job - Team player, quick to pick up new ideas, flexible, punctual, professional, reliable, being able to resolve conflicts ## Interview Skills - Good CV will get you an interview - the rest is up to you to convince the panel that you are the best candidate for the job - Show up on time (in person, or online) - Dress professionally - don't underestimate the importance of a first impression - Firm handshake (if not online) - Maintain eye contact with all panel members - Have some good examples ready about different projects you have worked on, team work etc - Have some demo code available - Be ready for a technical test