Ronan
Business Technology Graduate
I grew up in suburban East Auckland and I’ve lived there all my life and love it there.
My studies
I studied a Bachelor of Computer and Information Sciences at Auckland University of Technology and graduated in 2020.
My pathway
I think the biggest reason I chose to study IT was because of my computer studies class in college. I really loved the collaboration and relaxed atmosphere. Everyone was there to support one other in our assignments and projects and I think that’s something I really valued other than my already burgeoning interest in tech.
Why Auckland Transport
The biggest question I had once I had graduated university, was what my purpose was when looking for a role? I didn’t want any IT role where I worked for a company who are just there to make profit. I knew I had to find a role that was meaningful and positively impact lives and that’s why I applied for the AT grad programme in 2021. I saw the initiative that AT was going to take to improve sustainability as well lowering carbon emissions for Transport. After going through the long interview process, I was so glad to get an offer and I’ve been currently working for AT for 5 months already and I have been loving it so far!
My favourite part of Nga Kaihoe
Some of things I love about my job is that I work with very modern technologies like Terraform, and cloud platform providers like Microsoft Azure, and I know the skills I’m getting are valuable for my future career. Also, I’ve been able to take part in extra support and training as well as the opportunities to get certifications which is super cool.
My opportunities
At Auckland Transport, I’m part of the Operations division, but specifically the Cloud Platform Team. My responsibility revolves around automating as much of AT’s IT infrastructure as possible as well as helping other AT’s internal teams. For example, one of the interesting projects I’m working on is the AT Web Migration Project, where AT is moving a lot of its legacy, and on premises infrastructure to the cloud, specifically Microsoft Azure. For my part of the project, I use a technology called Terraform which allows me to rapidly build and deploy the infrastructure for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). AKS is very important because it is going to be used to run a lot of AT’s critical applications, like the AT Mobile App and help improve responsiveness and reliability of these applications. It’s super cool because I know the work I’m doing is going to benefit AT customers.
My advice for graduates to Ngā Kaihoe
To not worry too much about what is within your capabilities and instead taking the initiative and being bold to try new things or taking those bigger tasks. Ask lots of questions, especially in a role like this where you have to learn so much, you’re going to have to ask questions so you can get pointers and feedback.