Everyone has a different path to where they are today. At inflection points in my career I often think back to the jobs that have got me here. I just wanted to list all my paid jobs to reflect on that journey.Candy Mixer at Four Square (1995–96): A family friend owned a dairy (corner store for non-kiwis) and they needed someone to make the pre-packed $1–2 mixed candy bags. Paid $5 an hour and free candy.
Picked Beans in a Field (2004): needed a job for beer money and crawling in the dirt in the middle of summer is definitely work. Paid per Kg so usually under minimum wage, around $8 per hour.
Dish Washer in Gisborne Hospital (2004–05): Over the Christmas holidays the hospital needed someone to wash the evening meal dishes. It felt good to start off with a giant mess and clean it up over a few hours. Paid $9 per hour and got free dinner (but hospital food).
House Mover for NZVanLines (2005): Moved people in and out of houses around the Gisborne area. What I learnt was cloths dryers are usually left behind, Americans tip really well, and movers play Tetris all day long. Paid $9 per hour, but sometimes got free pies and beer.
House Painter (2005): painted a few houses in summer holidays. Sun up to sun down, hard work, wear sunscreen. $9 per hour.
Turners and Growers Fruit and Vegetable Distribution Center (2005): I worked the evening shift by organizing boxes full of food to be picked up by retailers. The people there worked hard but always looked for fun in the tedium. I lifted heavy boxes 5–8 hours, 3 nights a week, for 8 months while mostly eating fruit, my healthiest job. $11.50 per hour.
Tutor/Marker at Massey University (2005–2012): in the courses where I got good marks I was allowed be a lab tutor and/or marker. The best way I have found to make sure I know something is to stand up in front of 100 people and teach them. $15 per hour.
Conference Organizer (2011): A PhD student and a PostDoc approached me about hosting the New Zealand Computer Science Research Student Conference (NZCSRSC 2011). They told me “you won’t have to do much” so I said “ok”. After committing to be organizers, the PostDoc went back to Germany and the PhD student went back to Pakistan, leaving me to alone to run the conference. The first thing I did was rope in more people to help telling them “you won’t have to do much”. With a large and awesome team no one really does that much, so problem solved. One of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Not paid, still a job.
Mix&Mash 2011 & 2013 Winner: About $7,000 in prize money for expressing myself with visualization. Not a job, got paid.
HashBang (2013): After I graduated my friend approached me to work at his Ruby on Rails consultancy. I didn’t know Ruby but wasn’t doing anything so agreed. I showed up, started writing tests, fixing bugs, worked with amazing people, and solving customer problems. Was there only a short time, but learnt so much. Technically my first job as a programmer.
LoyaltyNZ aka Flybuys (2013–2016): full stack engineer, later senior engineer building and maintaining a big Rails application. The engineering team was great, but it wasn’t a software company so engineering concerns were often low on the priority list. Got to work with a small team on a product that served most New Zealand households.
Lecturer (2014): I got to teach some classes at Massey University. This was very rewarding as I was able to meet some very impressive programmers that were just about to graduate and whose careers I still follow.
Coinbase (2016–2021): I joined Coinbase in March 2016 on the infrastructure & security team in my first DevOpsy role. When I joined there were 3 infra engineers, when I left there were more than 60. My first project was to “decrease friction for a commit to get to production”, I ended up doing that for 5 years. The team was so awesome, the scale was immense, I learnt something everyday and I had such a blast.Mostly I try to learn something from every job, even if it is bad. I also try to get different experiences at each job, trying to not repeat myself too much.