Sherry Shahbazi

“After finishing my foundation degree in Mathematics in Iran, I moved to Malaysia to study a Bachelor of Information Technology (Honours) in Software Engineering. I knew I then wanted to move to an English speaking country to pursue my studies and would need to find a job after I finished. I went to a few conferences about migration to New Zealand and other English-speaking countries and found I could receive a year-long work visa after my studies in New Zealand. I also discovered my major (Information Technology) was in the country’s long-term skill shortage list. I realised the job market matched my major perfectly and I would potentially get a job I wanted. The friendly society and beautiful nature of New Zealand made my final decision.

“The Master of Engineering provided me with the unique opportunity to learn research and technology skills to come up with innovative solutions to problems. It gave me the chance to get into a field where I’m encouraged to never stop learning and this is what I loved the most about it. This programme opened up a number of different career directions for me. For example, I could become a computer network architect, computer programmer, database administrator, information security analyst, web developer and so much more! It also taught me that professional roles in IT are not only about programming but also things like collaboration as a team.

“During my research-based masters, I developed a benchmarking framework for testing tiered cloud storage. This programme enhanced my knowledge in many technologies and gave me an opportunity to study cloud storage more closely. It also helped me to develop and enhance my skills in research, and critical and analytical thinking.

“I found out about Serato at a career exhibition at the University of Auckland, succeeded in the interview and was given the job. I started as a graduate web developer in 2015 and became a web developer a year later. In this role, I spend 80% of my time on project work which mostly backend web development and about 10 to 15% in meetings and on general communication. The rest is spent on learning, immediate requests and fixing bugs.

“I’ve been involved in so many different projects and I am proud of most of them. These include designing and developing serato.com, seratodj.com, seratopyro.com, store.serato.com, Serato DJ online window, Serato Sample API and Serato SDK. In particular, I am proud of letting users purchase our newly created Subscription products through the Serato DJ online window. Subscription had complex business logics and as part of the development team I had to break these complexities and program all of the business logics. I am also proud of developing Serato Sample API which was my very first experience developing a Web API from a scratch. I had to use a lot of new technologies which was exciting and a great learning curve for me.

“In the future, I want to become a better web developer, team lead and architect. My final goal is to be a CTO of a company, have my own business or manage development teams, coaching them and working together to build and improve exciting applications.

“I want to create products that are beloved by millions and bring people happiness and joy. My degree opened up my vision and let me create innovative solutions to problems faced by the population as a whole. Going to the events held by the University of Auckland and learning from my motivational supervisors introduced real-world problems to me and showed me the path to success.

“I strongly recommend students to pursue a Masters regardless of the field. It not only helps them stand out more in the job market, but also opens up their vision and gives them the opportunity to know more about in-depth research and the possibility of pursuing a PhD. Information Technology is a great field if you want to explore your creative side, turn your talent into a career almost anywhere and if you enjoy learning and challenges.”