We’re always intrigued by our team's different career paths to get to where they are today.
To celebrate International Women in Engineering Day, four of team shared their journey into engineering and their experience in the Tech team at Open.
Mixing collaboration, perseverance and continuous improvement, have a read of how Anj, Lintu, Steph and Sashi have forged their own path.
With a whole variety of trajectories leading them to careers in engineering - we were curious to know:
How did your career in engineering begin and what do you specialise in now?
Anj - Scrum Master / Delivery Manager: I’m a BS Computer Science graduate. Initially, I wanted to be a hardcore developer, but in the first company that I joined they only had the QA role available, so I tried that out. I progressed onto Test Lead, then Test Manager. I shifted my career from testing to Project Management which I really thrived at. I was always wearing multiple hats and added the Scrum Master role to help our team be more organised in our deliveries.
After a decade I moved on to Enterprise Technology where I was a Program Manager and a Scrum Master before I left Macquarie Bank. Today at Open, I’m a Scrum Master and a Delivery Lead.
In a nutshell, I love collaborating with people, planning and helping resolve issues and blockers.
Lintu - QA Intern: I got my Masters in Computer Applications and started my career as a .Net developer. I recently re-started my career as a Quality Engineer with Open, after a long career gap of almost 8+ years while I was taking care of my kids.
Steph - Python Engineer: I’ve always been interested in a wide breadth of diverse engineering fields which prompted me to undertake a double degree in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science (EECS) It gave me the freedom to try out work in different engineering disciplines. During covid I landed my first job as a remote Javascript developer in the consulting industry with limited on-the-job assistance…
My experience reinforced my belief that being an engineer is to persevere in constant learning, not being afraid of making mistakes in order to improve your craft and achieve goals.
Currently, I’m working as a platform engineer at Open. My journey as an engineer has just begun.
Sashi - QA: I completed my BCA (Computer Applications) and got placed in Accenture through Campus Interview. I was put into the Mainframe Training Stream and was deployed to a project as Mainframe Tester.I progressed to various testing levels and performed almost all roles in testing. After moving to Sydney, I started doing short-term contract roles. Then one fine day, I wanted to shift to a permanent role and today I am here, in Open, learning a new domain: insurance.
What or who inspires you in engineering every day?
Anj: I enjoy being the glue between the Product and Engineering teams, problem-solving, helping solve day-to-day challenges and seeing our teams accomplish the goals that we’ve set out.
Lintu: Being able to learn new things everyday in areas like domain, technology and communications.
Steph: Professor Jake Xia, who is a joint lecturer in the MIT open course `Topics in Mathematics with Applications in Finance` is the most inspirational figure to me. His strive for learning and curiosity in science and engineering is unsurpassable as he excels in all three fields of EE, CS and finance… He’s an excellent role model when it comes to viewing the world from an engineering perspective by connecting the dots across industries using the natural laws of science.
Sashi: The squad teams and agile method of working in our engineering teams are really very inspiring to me. It allows constant collaboration and continuous improvements.
What’s the best advice you’ve received on navigating a career in engineering?
Anj: Own your career.
In a male-dominated industry, know that your voice is as good as everyone else’s.
Lintu: Try to keep up to date with the new things happening in the engineering space.
Steph: Not to be afraid of challenges even when failing is likely. Failures are just like error logs, each log is simply a signpost on the way to self-fulfilment.
Sashi: Love your job and be proud of what you do. Never stop learning new things around you.
What career development goals do you have on the horizon and how does your work at Open support this?
Anj: I want to do more project and program management… utilise the extensive experience I have in team building and delivering multiple complex projects.
Lintu: Learn API automation testing.
Steph: My role at Open provides me with strong support in learning different technologies and frameworks.
My role doesn’t restrict an engineer from exploring other areas of expertise, allowing room for self-improvement.
The culture at open not only encourages engineers to achieve their personal goals but is also “open” to listening and moving together as a team.
Sashi: I’ve been doing manual testing since I started my career, so I always think about adding new skills to my profile. Here at Open, I get the opportunity to explore API testing and learn more about team collaboration and especially gain insurance domain knowledge.
We’re hiring at Open! From roles spanning Product & Platform, to Engineering and Partnerships, we’re looking for people who want to build the future of insurance with one of the world’s leading FinTech companies. Learn more ›
.png)