Technology Talks

I recently delivered a short talk to the Kogan.com engineering team on GraphQL - a technology that has not yet seen adoption at the company, but for which there arguably exists a need. Customers shop on Kogan.com across devices with different data requirements, and our reliance on traditional REST APIs leads to cases of under-fetching and over-fetching. GraphQL is a potential solution to this issue that can also make calling our APIs more simple, flexible and intuitive.

Presentations like these serve two main purposes: to educate and to inspire. Hosting regular discussions around technology practices helps share knowledge between engineers and identify where improvements can be made. At Kogan.com, we hold regular presentations and discussions about technology, typically hosted by members of the engineering team. These come in two flavours – hour-long “tech talks” and 15-minute “lightning talks”. Each is held roughly once a month, and the responsibility to host them cycles between each member of the engineering team. My presentation was a lightning talk, but another engineer in my team recently delivered a tech talk on OpenAPI practices. An effective talk appeals to all members of the audience. Despite having experience with OpenAPI, there were still valuable things that I learned.

Technology talks are important to organisations, so that they can share the best ideas and keep up with continual change. There will certainly be more talks this year at Kogan.com; I look forward to learning more about what my colleagues have to share.

My experience onboarding with the Engineering team at Kogan.com

Can you describe your experience leading up to your start at Kogan.com?

The recruitment process for a software engineering position at Kogan.com was fast, smooth and enjoyable. The whole process - from the initial recruiter conversation to the final interview included a focus on technical excellence and soft skills. It began with a phone conversation, followed by a technical interview, and then a meeting with our Head of Engineering, CTO and Director of People & Culture. The process was efficient and purposeful.

Now that you have joined the team, can you describe what your remote onboarding experience has been like?

I joined Kogan.com at a steep inflection point in the growth of the engineering team. The size of the team roughly doubled in one intake of new engineers. Given this, one would expect onboarding to be chaotic and met with challenges. The reality was contrary to this - onboarding was a pleasant experience met with ample support.

My first day was highly educational and filled with meetings covering technical architecture, business context and culture. Given the pandemic, everything was remote. However, the team did a wonderful job in organising an onboarding that was not impaired by work-from-home conditions. The company even delivered us all food for lunch.

During onboarding and day to day where appropriate, the team practices pair programming. Tell us more about your experience:

Pair programming has been an encouraged practice throughout onboarding. It has provided me with a short feedback loop for rapid upskilling and given me the opportunity to socialise with other engineers, despite the remote conditions of work. In some ways, remote pair programming has advantages over its in-person counterpart. It ensures that both engineers get to use their ideal computer setup, allows for concurrency in certain operations (such as each engineer simultaneously exploring different parts of the codebase on their own screens) and does not require sharing desk space.

Now that we have returned to the office and are working in a hybrid environment, what are you enjoying most about meeting your colleagues in person?

I am enjoying meeting my colleagues in-person. Although Kogan.com has done an excellent job in maintaining company culture whilst we’ve worked remotely, there are some aspects that cannot be replicated. It has been nice to experience the full culture, have lunch and grab coffee with others. I tend to ask a lot of questions, and it’s easier to do that in-person.