• Question: What is the hardest part about your job?

    Asked by 493eneq43 to Oliver, Lesley, Leah, Hannah, Graeme, Aleks on 6 Mar 2019. This question was also asked by brooke, Callum.
    • Photo: Lesley Colquhoun

      Lesley Colquhoun answered on 6 Mar 2019:

      Hardest part of my job is a personal thing for me, being stuck on how to solve a problem. I kick myself if i cannot do something first time and take it personally.

      I know that no one teaches you every problem that you will have and you are only able to use the tools in your box to solve it. It took me a long time to realise that i cannot solve every problem because i just don’t have that tool yet! but with every project and job that i do, my toolbox gets bigger.

      Basically i am my biggest challege in my job. There is nothing that me or the team of people i work with cannot solve with our combined tools, it just might not be as easy as we first thought.

      I will say though, the satisfaction that comes from solving your “unsolveable problem” is amazing! and thats another tool for your toolbox.

    • Photo: Graeme Burt

      Graeme Burt answered on 6 Mar 2019:

      Dealing with students in crisis. Around 30% of students have some form of mental health challenge, and the stress of University can bring it to a head. I have been trained to run “look after your mate” workshops, developed by the charity Student Minds, which helps students look after each other.
      Its not something most engineers deal with but its something I am passionate about helping with.

    • Photo: Hannah Griffin

      Hannah Griffin answered on 11 Mar 2019:

      People changing their minds about what they want software to do can be tricky. If they can’t see anything then they think nothing has been done so think they can change their mind without causing problems. However, often a lot of the work of a software engineer is behind-the-scenes and so actually something that sounds like a little change can actually be a big one and take a lot of time to change. My teams use prototypes and agile to try and get a “minimum viable product” out to the customer ASAP as often it is only when they start to see something e.g. a screen with buttons that they realise what they actually want! This saves me a lot of grief and can save them a lot of money.

    • Photo: Leah Morgan

      Leah Morgan answered on 14 Mar 2019:

      Hey! The hardest part of my job is definitely getting stuck. I get annoyed with myself very quickly when I can’t figure out how to solve a problem (like Lesley!). But I’ve learned that, if I stop trying to solve it and do something else, I can usually solve the problem when I come back to it!
      I also really struggle with paperwork. Not because it’s particularly hard, though it can be, but I get bored with it. And then I don’t have any motivation to finish it! D:

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