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Michael Lumley

I love the opportunity to join different teams for a few months each so that I can see what it’s like in different parts of MYOB.

What's your job about?

MYOB develops accounting software for businesses ranging from payroll to invoicing, there’s also software for accountants to use to manage their clients as well. I’m currently in the rotation phase of the program so my role is to learn by joining teams in various part of the company for three-month or more stints. Before the rotation phase, there is a phase called acceleration where you work with your mentors on small coding challenges to get you ready for rotations.

A typical day for me involves pair programming with other developers in my team on a job that we pick up in the morning. We work together to complete the task, normally I’ll be the one coding and I can bounce ideas off them, we’ll also discuss different ways of approaching a problem and the pros and cons of each.

What's your background?

I grew up in the UK before my family and I moved to Australia. I went to high school in Tasmania where a got a taste for coding. After high school I did a Bachelor of Science majoring in Computer Science and then a Master of Engineering majoring in Software Engineering at the University of Melbourne.

While I was at the university, I had the chance to help out a charity by developing software for them and I had a part-time job as a web developer for a local web hosting company. As part of the university, I also had an internship at a biotech company. Working in different environments, I learnt a lot about real-world development, how to deal with customers and how to manage a project on my own. I got to experience different company cultures and that helped me to figure out what culture I wanted to work in.

My first contact with MYOB was in a guest lecture about company culture in my second last semester of uni. I really liked what I heard so I applied with the link at the end of the lecture and after a couple of interviews and coding challenge, I got the job. I started at the end of July 2019.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

The really good thing about the MYOB graduate program is that you progress at your own pace and your mentors will be able to guide you in which areas you’re doing well in and where you can improve. I think anyone with coding experience, whether that’s from university, boot camps or self-taught, and a desire to learn would be able to succeed.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

I love the opportunity to join different teams for a few months each so that I can see what it’s like in different parts of MYOB. As part of that, I get to experience a lot of different technologies, domains and ideas. By getting a taste for each area it’s a really good chance to find out what interests me the most and where I’d like to go when I finish the graduate program. 

What are the limitations of your job?

The main focus of the program is on learning and especially early on, you’re not working on software that customers use. Instead, you’re working on small coding challenges to learn particular skills which aren’t all that different from uni. That can feel a bit strange when you’re coming from previous jobs where you have to work on things that directly deliver value to the company.

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

  1. Do hackathons - They’re a lot of fun and it’s a great way to meet likeminded people
  2. Apply for internships - It gives you a way to implement what you’re learning in the real world and it makes applying for jobs after less scary!
  3. Study hard but not too hard - Grades are important, but they aren’t the be-all and end-all so enjoy all the free time you have!