Simon Campbell

Developer, Enlighten Designs

University of Waikato software engineering graduate Simon Campbell is enjoying his job as a developer at Hamilton company Enlighten Designs.

"My main duty as a developer is to deliver new software or add existing functionality to software for clients. My typical day involves taking specifications provided by a business analyst and building the software. This may involve making decisions about user-experience, writing tests, discussing how the solution may fit into the bigger picture and actually programming the solution," says Simon.

"I have been privileged to work on some projects for LIC, delivering solutions that help farmers and the dairy industry. It's amazing when you can understand how the software you're building benefits people."

The former Te Awamutu College student says that the practical projects and summer work placements as part of the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) put him in the ideal position to find a job when graduating.

"During the degree I learned a lot about formal terminology and computer science concepts which allows me to communicate with other developers and understand technical concepts quickly. Also the work placements I had at Cisco and Datacom meant I got the chance to see what I did and didn't enjoy in industry, which helped me to find my career direction."

In his third year of study Simon was also part of a development team with three other students. Together they created an application called Printicular for MEA Mobile in our third year.

"The app got quite a few downloads and some public recognition which was exciting."

His advice to secondary school students is to "be open to taking a year off after Year 13 if you don't know what you want to study. Set goals for yourself, no matter how small - know where you're going."

In the future Simon hopes to lead software projects from the conception phase through to completion and says he is working on his ability to communicate and extract requirements from clients so that he can be confident that he is building the right software.