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Carl Middleton

The IT Development team at MECCA hugely advocates for trying new things, and as technology changes so quickly, there is always something new to learn.

What's your job about?

MECCA is leading the way as a retail giant for cosmetics in Australia & New Zealand. MECCA.com.au is the largest player in the online beauty market in terms of sales and web traffic and, as the Technical Team Lead at MECCA, it is my job to oversee all the development on our backend systems to ensure online orders reach our warehouse and retail systems without a hitch. My day-to-day role involves overseeing and providing support to the backend team, partaking in daily stand up meetings, architecture design sessions, code reviews, research & development around new technology, scoping and designing new features, recruitment and providing technical support to different departments across the business.

What's your background?

I was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand and moved to a small town with a population of 10,000 at the tip of the north island called Kaitaia when I was 5 years old, where I did all my schooling. I then ventured to the University of Waikato to complete my degree as it had the best IT degree in New Zealand. Once I completed my degree, I moved to sunny QLD for 5 years where I got a job as a Graduate, before I packed everything up and moved to buzzing London for 3 years by myself. I would say this was the most important stage of my life, as I really was outside of my comfort zone moving to the other side of the world with no friends, but this is where I felt I grew the most as a person and within my career! I left London after meeting my current fiancé and we moved to Melbourne. After being a Developer at a start-up company for a couple of years I was approached by MECCA for a Senior Developer role and progressed to Technical Team Lead after 8 months - I have now been doing IT Development for 12 years.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes, however in IT Development a fairly technical skill set is required, so some form of Tech degree is a must. As well as the technical skills, here at MECCA we also look for people who are outgoing, social, good problem solvers and have a can-do positive attitude.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

The thing I love most about my job is the opportunity to work on all the latest and greatest technologies. The IT Development team at MECCA hugely advocates for trying new things, and as technology changes so quickly, there is always something new to learn. There is no greater sense of achievement than seeing a big project come together that solves complex problems, streamlines processes and changes the way things have worked at MECCA previously for the better. MECCA is also a great company to work for, and you get extremely looked after as an team member. 

What are the limitations of your job?

In IT Development, we do bear a lot of responsibility as all our systems are required to maintain as much uptime as possible, otherwise the experience for the customer is negative and the cost to the business could be huge. This means fixing ad hoc problems as and w and being available after hours and also having to work the occasional weekend and/or public holiday.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

  1. Mistakes are meant to be made – it’s what you do differently the next time around that matters!
  2. Get as much experience as possible - University is full of so many different opportunities and is the ideal setting to try new things, so why not try new things and find out what you really enjoy?!
  3. Be true to yourself. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life, but do what makes you happy!