Emily, Pooja, Ashlesha and Rinka led by Rachel (Gateway Coordinator) visited with staff at Trade Me on Tuesday 23 Feb. Well done girls for the great job of representing our school, advancing your careers and seeking new learning.

The friendly staff showed us what a day in the life of a software developer looks like. We sat in on a ZOOM call team meeting with five I.T. staff including one from Australia followed by a shadowing session with a software developer (a technical coding job) and with a tester (someone who tries to break the system and find bugs). They also learnt about other roles such as sales staff who promote Trade Me to businesses and product managers (business minded creatives), the investigator staff who liaise with The Police and make submissions in court cases to ensure Trade Me doesn’t sell counterfeit, stolen, illegal or offensive goods.

We now understand more about I.T. careers, Trade Me roles, pathways into the industry, IT terminology (e.g. U.I and Full stack Developer and how The Cloud works). We heard that employers are actively seeking to have a more diverse workplace and would love to hire more women and people from varying cultural backgrounds. Employers spoke about the importance of transferable skills like problem solving, team work, literacy, numeracy and presentation skills. This visit was held with the support of The Ministry of Education, and Trade Me.