Robert has built his own website to share interesting technical project learnings and is keen to help other engineers learn and grow. Engineering News spoke with him about his passion for learning and his position on the YEA Victoria Committee.
What inspired you to choose a career in software engineering?
I studied electrical and software engineering in university. I chose this because I didn't know at the time what I wanted to do, but I enjoy working with electronics and I realised early on I was better with software and logic than electronics and control systems.
I've always been interested in computers and building electronics. When I got to university I learnt how to code, and I was immediately hooked. It was an amazing experience to publish my first website and I've been writing code ever since. I made the choice to focus on software when I finished university and I have been working in the industry since I graduated.
Can you tell us more about Kochie Engineering?
As a full time, software engineer there are a lot of things I've picked up along the way that I've wanted to share with the community. Engineering and tech are a very collaborative environment, so I wanted to share my experience by writing about it. Whenever I have an interesting technical project at work (if I can share) I write about the process, business case, and solution I worked on. I also recently started to work on my own courses and tutorials about topics I thought should be better explained and understood by new engineers.
Another reason I started writing is to improve my feedback process. Whenever I complete a project, I try to reflect upon my actions and what I can do next time to improve my processes. Having a place to write these points down gives me a great feedback loop to improve my skills.
What inspired you to join The YEA Victoria Committee?
I joined the Young Engineers Australia Victorian Committee in 2022 and I helped organise this years' case competition, and I recently became Vice Chair of the Victorian branch through the National Committee.
One of the main reasons I joined the committee is because I felt there was not a lot of representation for software and electronics engineers within Engineers Australia. I'm thrilled to be a committee member and to participate in such a fantastic and dedicated group. We've got a lot of interesting and exciting plans for next year so stay tuned.
What do you like most about being involved in Engineers Australia?
It's great to be a member of such a professional organisation. The best part about being involved is you get to meet and form connections with several different people from across disciplines. While working in software, I don't normally interact with a lot of different engineers so coming to events is a great way to see how different disciplines of engineering are developing and the challenges in those areas.
What have been some of your biggest lessons learnt in this early stage of your career?
The biggest lessons I've learnt are always to back yourself in your endeavours. Being proactive and always being curious about different aspects of my work has opened a lot of different opportunities for me. Another lesson I've learnt is that feedback is a blessing. You're going to make mistakes but in the right environment those mistakes will be opportunities for you to grow and develop into a better engineer.