From Commerce to DevOps and No Regrets 

The best thing about the LAB³ Graduate Program for Nicole was that it 100% backed up her decision to become a Cloud & DevOps engineer. It was her second take on a professional career, and she has no regrets about changing direction… 

Maybe you can relate? Straight from school, Nicole studied Commerce majoring in Accounting and Business Information Systems, and she started her first professional role in the commercial world. However, whilst she landed a great job, it was not too long before Nicole found working in commerce, well, a bit ho hum to say the least. 

Nicole realised she wanted a different career and IT caught her eye. So, she took herself back to university and studied for a Masters in IT. In taking this bold step, Nicole found her true passion – DevOps. She enjoys improving efficiencies and solving problems with automation. 

After graduating (for the second time), Nicole joined LAB³ as a graduate in 2022 and has not looked back. Halfway through the 12-month program, Nicole was thriving. 

“I am enjoying being at LAB³ and working with people who are leaders in technology innovation. Every day I am learning new things and being extended, and not just about my area of practice but the whole business. It has opened my eyes to how the tech industry works.”  

From day one Nicole embraced the opportunity to build her knowledge and gain work-ready skills as an engineer.  

“At first to get my skills up to scratch with the Azure cloud and the type of work being done at LAB³, I attained three Azure/Microsoft certifications, a Terraform certification and completed internal trainings,” says Nicole. With these qualifications under her belt, she was ready for more. 

“What has been most advantageous for me about the LAB³ Graduate Program is getting such broad experience across different areas of the business, and the fact the program is delivered with flexibility, to match individual graduates. Our feedback has been sought and we are listened to along the way.” 

Early on Nicole expressed an interest in being involved with client facing projects and an opportunity was created for her to join a large client account. A principal engineer was assigned to mentor Nicole, as her buddy, and she was welcomed to the team. 

A typical day for Nicole involves working from home and although her usual schedule is to work from nine to five, she values the flexibility provided. 

“I enjoy going into the office once or twice a week to meet with my buddy and other LAB³sters. It is great there is room to move with my hours, so I can make personal appointments when I need to,” says Nicole. 

For Nicole, most days begin with a stand-up because she is working on client-facing work. At these informal team meetings, people connect in to touch base as they collaborate across workloads and share challenges and progress. 

Afterwards, Nicole gets down to business and spends most of the day coding or scripting and investigating or troubleshooting. One thing for sure, there is no shortage of problems for her to solve. 

“The biggest surprise for me has been how supportive everyone is, regardless of their roles. Although people are busy, they are always available and willing to help me. Even when people do not know the answer, they find the best person for me to ask.” 

Given the LAB³ Graduate Program aims to provide graduates with a wide exposure to the tech industry, in addition to client facing work, Nicole has also spent rotations in other areas of the business.  

She recently spent time with the Sales team where she shadowed client executives in meetings and teamed up with another graduate to present a solution who had been doing a rotation with the Solution Design team, and so had knowledge of what this entailed.

“We were given a mock case study. Our challenge was to deliver a sales pitch to the Director of Client Engagement. This experience took me out of my comfort zone because I dislike public speaking and it was great to push myself. It helped of course that everyone was supportive.” 

Nicole has also enjoyed a short stint with Managed Services. 

“As an end user I had always thought of Managed Services as a Service Desk. Now I have a new understanding of the breadth of their work and appreciate the level of monitoring and improving they do – to continuously improve experiences and maintain environments for clients. The degree of development work really surprised me,” says Nicole. 

One thing about LAB³ which Nicole has lapped up is the start-up to scale-up vibe in addition to the leading-edge technology. Both these elements are what inspired Nicole to join LAB³ in the first place.  

“I did a lot of research about LAB³ – asking around through my networks, on LinkedIn, and of course Google. I was impressed by LAB³’s reputation for excellent work and the recognition they attracted from Microsoft. I felt re-assured LAB³ offered me a great chance to kickstart my tech career, and this is what I have experienced.” 

What happened next in Nicole’s career progression?

The above article was written in September 2022 and you might be wondering what happened next? When Nicole’s year as a graduate ended, she progressed to become a fully-fledged Cloud & DevOps Engineer with LAB³. Following is how she has described her ongoing experience with us:

“Starting my career at LAB³ as a graduate and growing into an engineer has been an incredible journey filled with challenges, support and inspiration. The collaborative and inclusive work environment allows me to work alongside professionals who are always willing to share their knowledge and experience. The company’s commitment to continuous learning and professional development helps expanding my skill sets with training support and challenging projects.” 

If you are about to complete your technology studies and are ready to jump straight into your career as an Engineer, then think LAB³…