From Legacy Grind To Senior Engineer (Cloud & DevOps)

“Making the switch to work in new tech has been fun. I’d been working in a legacy environment where every day was the same, but now on new projects and with growing skills, I am continuously tackling fresh challenges.”

Before Joseph joined LAB³ he had been working in a legacy environment on software development, testing, and sustainment. Not yet at a Senior level, he had little experience in DevOps or Cloud, or working with federal government clients on greenfields projects. 

“Now I work with Terraform as a primary tool and there are always one hundred different ways of doing something,” explained Joseph. “I enjoy the challenge of identifying the ideal way which will ensure other people will easily be able to pick up and make sense of what I’ve done.” 

Joseph also enjoys no two days being the same, with every day presenting “new problems to solve” and the fact the technology landscape is “constantly evolving”. He does not have to wait for “up to a year” for new versions of software to be installed. 

From day one, Joseph has felt he has been given the “right support” at LAB³ to learn new skills and progress in his career. He describes being “surrounded by experts” who are “generous with their time”. As an example, Joseph recalled the time he needed to quickly get up to speed with the new HashiCorp tool Consul, to help with automation. 

“I reached out to a super genius at LAB³ and within a day he’d got back to me. With his help I was able to present to the client with professionalism which gave me a lot of confidence. I very much appreciate having such great mentors.” 

Joseph is on track in developing his career, having a formal plan in place. This gives him “some time off the tools” to learn from experienced Principal Consultants as they show him the “art of strategically understanding the big picture” and the importance of “understanding the synergies” across all projects in a client environment. He is also being exposed to leading important meetings and having strategic discussions with clients. 

As well as the opportunities to advance his career, Joseph enjoys the flexibility of working for LAB³. When he first joined, Joseph resided in Canberra (born and bred), before moving to Sydney where he has lived for the past two years, basking up the warmer weather and array of fun things to do. 

“Given I was already working from home, it did not make any difference where I was located as long as I could still attend occasional onsite client meetings.”

“The funny thing is though,” laughed Joseph. “It turned out that by coincidence one of the Canberra clients I continue work with, has an office in the same suburb in Sydney that I now live, making occasional in person catch ups easy.”