What’s The Stack | Season 1, Episode 4: Lachlan Young, Software Engineer at Tanda
Welcome to What’s The Stack! As tech recruiters, every day ask the question – “What’s The Stack?” and now, we’re bringing that question to life as we ask some of our favourite technical friends about their own tech stack all while enjoying stacks of pancakes in Brisbane’s most iconic church turned 24/7 pancake restaurant – The Pancake Manor!
So, what is What’s The Stack?
Every day our Technology and Product Account Managers, Carly Shearman and Emily Conaghan get the opportunity to work with some of Brisbane’s best tech companies and throughout this process, they also get to have insightful conversations with developers and tech leaders about how they got to where they are, where they currently are in their careers and what they’re trying to achieve. But what don’t they get to do? Jump on camera to capture these conversations with some of our favourite people in tech. Until…. Now!
The brainchild of Hunt & Co.’s Emily Conaghan and Carly Shearman, What’s The Stack takes a peek behind the curtain of the careers of Brisbane tech leaders and emerging developers to explore Brisbane’s Tech scene through a series of interviews with some of your favourite faces as well as some that you may not have seen before.
Each episode of What’s The Stack will take you through three levels of conversation:
- Tall Stack: Questions about our guest and their career history
- Full-Stack: In-depth questions into tech-related topics
- Short-Stack: Funny, short sharp questions that no one else is asking
Let’s get into it…
What’s The Stack Episode 4: Lachlan Young, Software Engineer at Tanda
Lachlan Young is one of the busiest boys in Brisbane tech. By day, he’s a Software Developer at Tanda and by night you can find him tippity tapping on side projects and getting involved in the Brisbane tech community.
He is a self-taught programmer who found his passion for software development after completing his Bachelor’s in Game and Interactive Media Design. Lachlan got his start as a Software Developer by building a white-label API for a company called Fabric and programming quickly became his life, filling his day job but also his weekends and nights. The saying goes “find something you love and do it on the weekend” and Lachlan is the living embodiment of that.
Lachlan boasts some of Brisbane’s most treasured success stories on his resume including Max Kelsen, Otso and most recently Tanda. These roles have made Lachlan a valuable go-to resource for different projects including computational point-cloud calculations with C++, web development with Polymer, Full Stack React development and finally, a GraphQL React native app.
Lachlan also took his love for mentoring and mentors for the SheCodes Plus Brisbane program.
*deep breath* We told you Lachlan lives and breathes software development.
We hope you enjoy this Mimosa and pancake-fuelled chat with Lachlan as much as we did.
5 Key Takeaways:
Don’t be afraid to ask questions:
A lot of people enter tech and don’t ask questions. And that is just bananas to Lachlan. He wants to spread the word: do not be afraid to ask more questions.
Particularly for people new to the industry, use your newness as your shield. No one expects you to have all the answers and there is absolutely power in saying, “This is a problem I haven’t come up against before, would you mind sharing how you might solve it?”
Just imagine the time you’d save and the lessons you’d learn if you weren’t afraid to ask more questions!
Back yourself:
We loved hearing Lachlan’s story about building a career (quite an impressive one, might we add) as a self-taught developer. Lachlan firmly believes that you have to back yourself and back the knowledge that you know you have. When you’ve received tertiary training, you can lean on the idea that a higher power (perhaps, a university board for example) has designed a course with the end result of you having a career in tech in mind. When it’s just you, you need to back yourself, your knowledge and your skills. You can do it!
Want to get more involved in your tech community? The best place to start is…. just ask!
Lachlan is always the first person to raise his hand and say “I have free time and this is an area I am passionate about, where can I help?” and in his experience, it’s as simple as that!
A lot of communities, meetup groups and programs are always looking for volunteers and an extra pair of hands.
An interview is a two-way street:
Lachlan took us through his experience interviewing with Tanda and for him, he wanted to be sure that he was going to love the company and love working there just as much as he wanted to demonstrate he had the technical skills they needed.
So, this meant that he was grilling them with questions just as much as they were grilling him.
We are seeing this ‘dating’ approach to interviewing being the new status quo. Candidates want to know why they should work there, what the business is like, what career growth opportunities are available to them and other important questions that will determine their satisfaction in the role. And truthfully, companies who still have a rigid, one-way interview process usually miss out on incredible talent because they forget that interviewing is a two-way street. Why should someone want to work at your company vs. the other opportunities they have in play?
Thank you for watching What’s The Stack! Looking to hire new talent, seeking new opportunities, or just loved this episode and want to let us know, go ahead and connect and email Emily Conaghan (emily@huntandco.io) and Carly Shearman (carly@huntandco.io).
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What’s The Stack… roll the credits
Powered by: Hunt and Co.
Executive Producer: Emily Conaghan
Producer: Carly Shearman
Hosted by: Emily Conaghan & Carly Shearman
Support Crew: Elise Le-Galloudec and Matthew Hunt
Video Production by: BITL
Location: The Pancake Manor
Special Guest: Lachlan Young, Software Engineer at Tanda
A special thanks to The Pancake Manor team and everyone that played a hand in making this project possible.