At the heart of Instant, alongside our mission to create the future of a frictionless economy, is a small but mighty team of passionate engineers, operators and executives. Tom joined Instant only 3 months ago and has already made significant impacts to the team and infrastructure. Based in Brisbane, he's our resident photographer & axe-throwing champion, but most importantly, he's a brilliant software engineer.
What made you want to join the Instant team?
After working at JB Hi-Fi, which is a rather large corporation, I thought it would be great to work for a startup and experience the fast pace at which they work. The co-founders, Liam (CEO) & Will (CTO), are incredibly intriguing and I thought working for them would be very interesting. I thought - if I was ever to take a risk like this, then now would be the time to do it as it's harder to take those risk as you become more established in your career.
It's been incredibly challenging, but I've loved every moment of it.
What've you done at your time at Instant that you're most proud of?
The Upsell & Recommendations feature that we just rolled out. It was a huge project for such a small team to accomplish. We got this feature up and running in a little under 6 weeks with primarily Will on the back-end and myself on the front-end. All up, that was just over 6,500 lines of code within that time frame - which is no easy feat.
What do you enjoy most about working at Instant?
The speed at which we work and the support we get. The engineering team is fantastic - whenever I need any support Pat (Senior Software Engineer) & Will are there and it really enables us to work at the speed we envision to be working at. They're incredibly encouraging and ensure that I'm never blocked and let me learn other aspects of my job [through their support].
This, of course, also comes with its challenges. There's always so much to do - huge amounts of projects and work to complete with a small engineering team. It's self-limiting and it's frustrating that we are limited by how fast we can work. That being said, it's overwhelming at times, but it's awesome.
What do you do outside of work?
I'm really into photography and I also play soccer. Photography is a huge hobby of mine. My partner has her own photography business and we like to go on large treks and hikes, going into the wilderness whenever we can.
Any words of wisdom for those interested in joining a startup like Instant?
You need to be really good at managing your own learning & be pro-active in figuring out solutions that aren't necessarily taught in tutorials because you're going to have to work fast and around problems that would traditionally be approached by larger engineering teams in different ways. Use your work ethic and your own tools and just have at it.
We love having Tom on the team and can't wait to see what else we'll build and accomplish together. Are you intrigued by our mission and ability to execute at speed? We're hiring, check out our open roles here!
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