Monica Ng

What’s your background

I grew up mostly in Sydney, Australia and took an interest in programming during my early high school years. I discovered that there were so many free resources available online, and slowly learned from there. When I was 15 I had the opportunity to enrol in HS1917, which was a course offered by UNSW for high school students to experience an undergraduate-level introductory computing course. Although I found coding challenging at times, it opened my mind to a new way of thinking and I found the process of solving problems extremely rewarding. 

In university, I studied a dual degree in Commerce (Finance) and Computer Science, though I was much more interested in the Computer Science side of things. For a while, I wasn’t sure whether software development was something I wanted to pursue as a career but I knew that I really enjoyed the experience of studying Computer Science. Before working at MongoDB I completed two internships at American Express and Deloitte but found myself wanting to be somewhere more technology-focused and with a stronger engineering culture. Naturally, this leads me to apply to MongoDB, which is where I am currently.

Tell us about your role at MongoDB and what it involves

As Software engineers on the Storage Engines team, we work on maintaining and developing new features for our storage engine WiredTiger. The storage engine sits on the bottom-most layer of the database ‘stack’ and manages how MongoDB stores its data so that users can reliably access their information.

What work have you been most excited about since starting your role?

As a tech company operating in a market with lots of room for growth and disruption, we have regular opportunities to build out innovative features and contribute to new initiatives. I recently completed a project that was part of the serverless/tiered storage initiative, which is about transforming the way we utilise our computing resources and infrastructure so that it is more flexible and dynamic in response to customer workloads, ultimately improving performance and reducing operational costs. I feel excited to be contributing to a high-quality product that impacts a lot of users around the world.

What’s something you’ve learnt about that surprised you on joining MongoDB?

Something that surprised me pleasantly was the team’s attitude towards learning and learning from each other. As a junior developer, I felt that I didn’t have much to contribute and put pressure on myself due to expectations that I should ‘know more, but I later realised that everyone is constantly learning too and the codebase is so vast that it’s not possible to know it all. Hearing a more senior engineer admit that they don’t know how something works but then turn to ask someone else or learn/find the solution together makes things a lot more approachable! 

What do you love the most about your job? Which kind of task do you enjoy the most?

I love that the work is challenging, which means that I’m constantly learning and growing as an engineer and as an individual. I really enjoy coding and the process of finding solutions to complex problems. It’s also really insightful to see how others approach technical problems, and I value the opportunity to have really engaging discussions with other engineers.

 What’s the coolest thing about your job?

The coolest thing about my job is the team that I get to work with! The Storage Engines team is a globally distributed and diverse group of individuals, and everyone is very open to sharing their experiences.

 Are there any limitations to your job? Do you bear a lot of responsibility? Do you have to work on weekends? Are stress levels high?

Initially, I felt that the learning curve was quite steep, especially as someone who had no prior software engineering work experience and was unfamiliar with navigating large, production-level codebases. However, I found that my manager was very understanding of this and was proactive about helping me find opportunities to contribute and learn.

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

1. Don’t just focus on academics and accumulating knowledge but look for ways to apply what you’ve learnt - this could be through doing personal projects, an internship or joining other societies and/or extracurricular activities.
2. Take more (calculated) risks. Have more confidence and don’t be afraid to just go for it even if you don’t know whether it will work out. 
3. Be more consistent - slow progress builds :)

What tips can you share with prospective students who are going through the application or recruitment process? 

• Apply to as many roles as you can but also try to find roles that you’re genuinely interested in. Try to apply as early as possible as recruitment tends to be done on a rolling basis.
• If you’re applying for a Software Engineering role, do some preparation for your technical interviews (it can be helpful to practice with other people as well!). While the programming language and coding practices should be skills that you have already, I find that it’s not natural to simultaneously code and talk through your solutions at the same time.