I have been working in the IT industry for over 23 Years. I graduated with a degree in Information management and while at university started working probono for the Ministry of Justice in Fiji. I was helping them build a records management system. That helped me get a job with the IT HUB For the Fiji Government. Putting things into perspective that department managed software that paid all Civil servants in Fiji. Over 30K people, Records management for every Birth Death and Marriage in Fiji and Immigration and border management at all ports of entry for Fiji. Key learning from this was not to shy away from diving into the details and understanding the issues without jumping into the solutions. We did everything. From Requirements gathering to development, product marketing, release, and training. My 1st project was migrating data from file extracts using Cobol programming language into Oracle 9i database. I moved on to work for the Fiji revenue and taxation system developing and supporting the taxation software.

I have been in the software industry for just over 9 years with 8 of those being at MYOB but my first interaction with the tech space was through a project back in 1990 when the bank I worked for decided to update their systems. This meant we could use computers for customer files regardless of where their home branch was instead of having to call the home branch to verify details, get balances etc. This gave a better customer experience and saved a lot of time for the customer and the customer service team. I was fortunate enough to install and configure the computers for our branch. Such an exciting time when we didn’t even have any tech at home aside from a TV.

I have 7 years of experience in software testing and have worked with a range of products, both cloud and on-prem.

QA is my third choice of profession. First was psychology, and I got degree for that, after which decided it wasn’t my thing. Then was graphic design, for which I got a diploma, but eventually figured out it was also not for me. So while working as a call centre operator I explored the idea of software testing and I liked it a lot. This time I made my way into the job before getting the certificate, and this time the choice was right.

Within MYOB I moved teams multiple times and worked with many awesome people, learning a lot and even teaching a bit. I am always happy to share my experience with others.

Career Highlights: I have been in the IT industry for 35 years. I started off as a mainframe operator in the late 80’s and then worked my way through the IT industry without any tertiary qualifications. My other roles included; ERP Support Analyst, Network Support Analyst, Network Manager, IT Operations Manager, ERP Functional Consultant and finally Business Analyst.

During My years as an ERP consultant I decided that I better get some sort of qualification, so in 2018 I decided to skip a post grad degree and graduated with a PGDIP in Business Administration. But the biggest highlight of my career came in March this year – I achieved my very first official IT qualification, that of Certified Agile Product Owner.