Cloud-based solutions for real businesses

Founder of Vend

Senior Back-end Engineer

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Lightspeed (ex-Vend)

_Having never imagined herself working for a tech company and destined to follow her parent's path into accounting, a conversation with her brother convinced Cat to explore Computer Science instead._

_We caught up with Cat to learn more about her career journey into working as an Application Security Analyst at [Vend by Lightspeed](https://www.vendhq.com/nz/), her day-to-day role, and her take on some common misconceptions about working in the cyber security space. Cat also share some career advice that has helped her along the way._

_Thanks for sharing your story, Cat._

> “..there are bad guys out there who want to purchase those toy cars before you by stealing your dad’s money, and we prevent those bad guys...” 

**Firstly, how would you explain to a five-year-old what it is you do?**

Imagine you’re collecting toy cars that come in a limited set edition release. You asked your dad to buy it for you on your birthday. To get this toy, your dad needs to purchase it from your favourite Toy Shop online and it will get delivered right in front of your house.

However, there are bad guys out there who want to purchase those toy cars before you by stealing your dad’s money, and we prevent those bad guys from doing it.

**And for the adults, what does that translate to in regards to your day-to-day?**

My day-to-day includes daily stand-ups and virtual coffee chats within my team. Being part of the retail security team allowed me to work with different stakeholders and engineers in understanding threats and impacts of security issues on our environment.

I help the team in our vulnerability management program which includes managing our public and private bug bounty programs. We invite security individuals with unique perspectives and skillsets to help us identify issues with security impact in our application.

Running these programs allowed us to scale our security testing efforts in a more cost-effective and efficient way. I also get involved in responding to security incidents internally that help us improve our existing processes, controls, and the way we handle our retailers’ data.

We help delight our retailers by making it our top priority to protect and keep their data secure which include their business and customers’ information.

> “The last misconception is when people think only men get to become successful in this career. Women can code and can hack, too...” 

**What are some of the common misconceptions about working as an Application Security Specialist?**

When I say I work in cyber security, people ask me, “Can you hack someone’s Facebook or Instagram for me?” People who don’t know that ethical or white hat hackers exist always think that hacking is bad because it has been stereotyped as an illegal or criminal activity. 

Another common misconception is when people think they can no longer pursue a career in cyber security because they are not good with programming or did not have a degree in IT or a similar field.

Although acquiring a degree is a prerequisite for some companies, everyone has an opportunity to embrace programming and learn more about this field through available tools such as online course tutorials, videos, coding and hacking projects in a safe environment.

 The last misconception is when people think only men get to become successful in this career. Women can code and can hack, too (in a good way). With training, dedication, and network support, women can succeed in cyber security as well.

> “I saw myself pursuing a job as an Accountant like my parents, which was my first choice of degree.” 

**Was working in tech something you dreamed about doing as a kid, if not what was?**

I have never imagined myself working in a tech company.

As a kid, I enjoyed problem-solving, doing puzzle games, and trying to figure out how things work. I began to recognise that there are always different and endless possibilities for solving a puzzle game or math problems.

I saw myself pursuing a job as an Accountant like my parents which, was my first choice of degree. When applying for universities, my brother convinced me to take a degree in Computer Science because the IT industry was one of the most in-demand jobs.

I listened to my brother’s advice. As a freshman student, I experienced the culture shock of adjusting to a university and saw an uneven ratio of men and women in my classes which affected the way I connected with people during my first semesters. I thought I was good at solving problems, but I struggled with my programming classes.

In my second year at uni, we were required to choose a specialisation where I chose Network Engineering because the program track looked promising. It offered a good balance of hardware and software courses related to network devices and Cyber Security.

Courses such as ethical hacking, security web development, and forensics were included in this specialisation which sparked my interest to pursue a career in tech. One of my lecturers told me that jobs in cyber security will eventually start to spike over the next decade and that’s when I started to dream of pursuing a career specifically related to cyber security.

**Tell us a little bit more about your career journey and ultimately about how you ended up working at Vend?** 

After finishing my degree, I was invited to join a Hackathon event for new graduates. It was a two-day free event of learning from the work experiences of “white hats” or certified ethical hackers, including a capture the flag (CTF) competition, a game designed on how to hack in a safe environment.

Luckily, I was one of the top three teams who won the CTF prize of getting offered a job to be part of the company’s software security team. I was so happy I was able to secure my first job. I got assigned to a security team that validated weaknesses or vulnerabilities in web applications and security issues in source codes.

Two years later, a former colleague invited me to join a research team of ethical hackers called SpiderLabs, where they provide pen testing services. I wasn’t testing pens by the way. I performed security testing against business organisations by trying to get in or break into their internal systems before a real hacker does.

A few years later, my sister convinced me to look for work in New Zealand, her dream destination country. With a few online applications, I got offered a role to join Datacom’s cyber security team as a Security Analyst which led me to move to New Zealand as a migrant.

After a couple of months, I had the chance to explore NZ’s capital city, Wellington and it felt like home to me so I decided to live there to take a new job offer with an independent security company. I continued performing specialised security testing in different government agencies and the bank industry.

I stayed half a year in Wellington when I heard about Vend by Lightspeed’s vacant position within the security team from a headhunter on LinkedIn. As I was browsing through Vend’s website, I instantly had positive vibes and told myself, “ I want to be part of this company someday, it seems like a happy workplace here.”

Joining Vend in 2019 is one of the biggest highlights of my career journey. Not only that I found a deeper purpose in my career, but I also found a new home with the Vend by Lightspeed family. This was the best career move decision that I made.

> “Embrace the career journey that is unique to you and make the most out of it.” 

**What is the best piece of career advice you have ever received?** 

When I was studying for a security training course as part of my learning and development, my manager told me not to focus on the destination – not even the practical exam day or results of the exam; but to focus on the journey.

Oftentimes, we have tendencies to fix our eyes on the destination and on our expectations to meet our desired end results, only to find ourselves losing track of the journey. While it is great to pursue a goal with the intent to reach our desired destination or place where we want to be, it is about going through the journey that’s more important.

Lastly, never compare your journey with others. The more you start trusting the process and owning the journey, the less you feel the need to compare yourself to others that helps you avoid unnecessary anxiety along the way. Embrace the career journey that is unique to you and make the most out of it. 

**What do you love about working at Vend?**

The very core of Vend by Lightspeed’s heart and who it is as a global company is its people and customers. It’s evident in the values and culture within the workplace that highly promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Everyone is supportive and encouraging especially when it comes to personal learning and development. I also love how everyone takes time to celebrate small and big wins and is able to recognize each one’s contributions. No matter how big or small, every contribution counts and makes an impact on our retailers. I

t was when I joined Vend by Lightspeed that I found a true purpose in my career – delighting our retailers by ensuring their data is safe with us and that’s my biggest takeaway.

> “The ability to embrace change in the workplace would be an excellent key trait...” 

**Lastly, Vend continues to grow and evolve, what are the key traits and characteristics of people that will be well placed to work there?**

When there is growth and continuous evolvement in technology, ultimately, there are changes. It’s in our nature to feel worried and scared when there’s a chance. The ability to embrace change in the workplace would be an excellent key trait that can bring growth to yourself both personally and professionally.

Cat Cura, Application Security Analyst at Vend by Lightspeed

_From dreaming of becoming a ballet dancer to working at one of New Zealand's flagship tech success stories, Shona McMahon, Director of Software Adoption at [Vend by Lightspeed](https://www.vendhq.com/nz/) has had an interesting journey into working in tech._ 

_We caught up with Shona to learn more about what her day-to-day looks like, how she got into tech in the first place and some important advice about not underestimating yourself. Thanks for sharing your story, Shona._

> “I dreamed of becoming a dancer with the NZ Ballet.” 

**Firstly, how would you explain to a five year old what it is you do?**

Help shop owners understand how to be better shop owners! Show them how to use cool technology and give them ideas to grow and get bigger.

**And for the adults, what does that translate to in regards to your day-to-day?**

I lead a ‘growth’ team that amplifies the intersection between data, marketing and product to drive awareness, education and upsell, of our commerce platform for Retailers across the globe. Work supports both sides of the Net Revenue Retention equation ie Retention/ARR and ARPU.

Day to day this means defining product habit metrics, improving them with nurture campaigns, building nurture campaigns for upsell and continual comms on value being shipped within the product. Using data and insight from our work, and measuring and iterating.

**What are some of the common misconceptions about working as a Director of Software Adoption?** 

We are a marketing team. We just do comms.

**Was working in tech something you dreamed about doing as a kid, if not what was?**

My first tech was a Mickey Mouse egg catching Nintendo game my parents bought me back duty free from an overseas trip - tech definitely was not on my radar until later in life! 

I dreamed of becoming a dancer with the NZ Ballet.

> “Do not undersell yourself. Develop a mental model and make it your own..” 

**Tell us a little bit more about your career journey and ultimately about how you ended up working at Vend?** 

After graduate roles, stints in large UK based investment banks and at a large consulting firm, I ended up (a mix of right time, place and role) being a Strategy Manager for a large NZ energy business. 

That set me up and gave me excellent skills for frameworks, metrics, planning and pan-organisation understanding - also great facilitation skills and exposure to working on and with an Executive team, and with Boards.

I did this role in a few other businesses and then landed in Financial Services/banking in a similar role. I became tired and frustrated of working ‘on’ the business and being on the outside, and had a desire to get ‘in’ the business and deliver real results! 

This desire led to my foray into tech then working in the banks’ Digital team, leading a large pan-bank digital transformation program (move to self serve metrics with commercial outcomes eg migrating in brand transactions to self serve channels like ATMs and app). 

From there I got shoulder tapped to lead the banks’ Data and Analytics Centre of Excellence and then became Tribe Lead (Head of) a technology vertical (\~ 100 people) to deliver on our business customer proposition and experience.

Moving to Vend was an opportunity to work in ‘pure’ software (and SaaS) and be part of a nimble, fast pace success story. And the rest is history!

**What is the best piece of career advice you have ever received?** 

Do not undersell yourself. Develop a mental model and make it your own - mine is having a strategy, executing well and then communicating the value. Success flows from there.

> “The ability to get things done and see the impact - quickly.” 

**What do you love about working at Vend?**

The ability to get things done and see the impact - quickly. Also the people and culture - incredible how collaborative, helpful and excellent everyone is to work with.  
  
 **Lastly, Vend continues to grow and evolve, what are the key traits and characteristics of people that will be well placed to work there?**

Those willing to learn, take ownership, be curious and have the Retailer at the centre. As we have integrated into Lightspeed we are much larger so being confident to navigate a larger organisation.

Shona McMahon, Director of Software Adoption at Vend by Lightspeed

_Not knowing what he wanted to do when finishing high school and thinking he has missed the boat on becoming a programmer, Marcus Crane, Senior Site Reliability Engineer at [Vend by Lightspeed](https://www.vendhq.com/nz/) eventually found his way into the industry by continuing to expand his education and persistently tinkering with his own projects._

_We caught up with Marcus to learn more about his career journey, what a Site Reliability Engineer actually does day-to-day and some great advice that has helped him along the way._ 

_We loved hearing such an honest account of the struggle that many people can identify with - picking a career path to pursue. [Marcus also has his own blog](https://utf9k.net/) that details things he is currently exploring for anyone curious. Thanks for sharing your story, Marcus._ 

**Firstly, how would you explain to a five year old what it is you do?**

Here at Lightspeed, we help people run their shops.

Our products help store owners with everything they need to do each day like selling things to people, keeping a list of all the items that are available to buy, counting up how much money was made from sales and more.

While there are lots of people who work on those products as their day job, my team and I make sure everything is running at its best.

That might mean regularly oiling the machinery, helping with computer accidents and more.

> “Changes happen all the time with modern SaaS products behind the scenes but human error is unavoidable.” 

**And for the adults, what does that translate to in regards to your day-to-day?**

The general gist of site reliability engineering (SRE) is "What happens if you take a software engineer and have them work on infrastructure/operational problems".

With that in mind, we generally work across a range of areas from assisting product teams in keeping their systems stable and performant, aiding in incident response and generally reducing the amount of manual work or "toil" required for tasks that can be automated.

To provide a concrete example, let's take a closer look at that last point through the lens of a real reliability issue we used to have: "canarying".

For the unfamiliar, "canarying" here refers to the concept of testing software by deploying it such that only a small percentage of users reach it. If something goes wrong, it can be quickly disabled and a bad software deployment can be avoided.

The vast majority of this process is automated internally but until recently, we had a handful of services running on older style load balancers. This meant that our internal tooling wasn't compatible with them.

As a result, any developer wanting to perform a canary would need to manually configure a load balancer to redirect some portion of traffic towards the canary deployment.

The worst case scenario here is that if it wasn't done correctly, you could potentially send some traffic into a black hole if say; you turned off the canary deployment but didn't remove the load balancer configuration.

Changes happen all the time with modern SaaS products behind the scenes but human error is unavoidable. By investing in automating highly repeatable processes, we can ensure a greater level of stability overall which is our ultimate goal.

A key thing to note here is that in a traditional ops model, you might ultimately perform various tasks over and over without the freedom or flexibility to deal with them once and for all.

With the SRE approach, we have the software background to take these sorts of tasks and automate them such that we can avoid human error and also free up time that developers can better invest back into their products.

**What are some of the common misconceptions about working as a Site Reliability Engineer**

Perhaps that we're solely operations focused?

I'll speak for myself here but I've found myself all over the place (which I quite enjoy) from the edge of SPAs right back to the bowels of infrastructure so for better or worse, I like to think I'm mostly a jack of all trades.

I think there are definitely companies who simply rename their existing operations team to SRE and call it a day which is essentially what you aren't meant to do.

Reading some of the job descriptions that get sent around with SRE in the title is a bit confusing because they don't appear to reflect what an SRE does at all.

> “I had the wrong idea that because I hadn't been introduced to programming at a young age or I wasn't some math genius that I had dropped the ball forever.” 

**Was working in tech something you dreamed about doing as a kid, if not what was?**

I remember that we got our first computer when I was about ten. My dad is a builder by trade so we bought one to make it easier to file his tax returns or something along those lines. It probably just looked cool too.

It came in a huge box and I was fascinated with how it worked. How do icons end up on your desktop? Does someone just draw images of every possible variation, like Icon 1 in the top left corner, Icon 1 in the top right corner and so on? I didn't understand as a kid but it really baffled me.

Despite that, I never saw myself being in the industry. I didn't even really know what that meant or what programs were. I wasn't one of those kids who learned programming at a young age or anything like that. The school I went to had basically nothing but Microsoft Word and Powerpoint when it came to computing topics.

I was still fascinated in my teenage years but most of my interest was through video games. I would read about game engines and how the game development process worked through watching interviews. I didn't want to be a game developer mind you, I just found it all interesting stuff.

If I'm honest, I was pretty well resigned to the idea that I would never be a programmer and that I had "missed the boat".

I had the wrong idea that because I hadn't been introduced to programming at a young age or I wasn't some math genius that I had dropped the ball forever.

**Tell us a little bit more about your career journey and ultimately about how you ended up working at Vend?**

As mentioned, I was fascinated with technology and computers but I never really enjoyed programming.

I had tried a few online courses but I didn't really understand any of the concepts. I also didn't know anyone that could break things down into layman's terms for me.

In my last year of school, I was pretty bored so I ended up skipping statistics to bash out HTML on my laptop. I had a small game review site that I worked on as writing practice, but also an excuse to fiddle with Wordpress. No one read it mind you, and I didn't really care about having an audience. It was just an excuse to produce something.

Ultimately my grades were pretty bad towards the end of the year and while I had applied to a Computer Science course, I was rejected for not having enough Math credits.

I had no idea what I wanted to do so the first year after school ended, I just stayed at home until my parents told me I should get a job in the meantime.

I started working at a local supermarket where I learned a lot but it was still pretty mind numbing. I remember there used to be this giant chart on the wall which was like 6 pieces of A4 paper stapled together with all of the incoming delivery dates.

I took a crack at making a small PHP website that lets you search by retailer. I showed the store owners who... didn't get it. I think I shelved what little remained of my programming ambitions after that.

After three years of retail, I was pretty depressed and admittedly not in a great place mentally. Something had to change so on the advice of a counsellor, I looked at what was out there and applied to Enspiral Dev Academy which only had the Wellington branch at the time.

With a goal for once, and months of saving repurposed that was meant to be for a car, I moved to Wellington where I attended EDA and came out the other side. It took me about another year to find my first gig and that first year was pretty miserable. I mostly spent it cooped up in my room churning out side projects and burning through the last of my savings.

To cut a long story short, I did a few odds and ends in Wellington before ultimately getting accepted to the Xero Graduate Program, despite not technically being a real graduate. I joined the SRE team in Auckland as their first graduate and from there, the rest is history really.

After about three years at Xero, I worked at Mercedes-Benz for a bit. Funnily enough, Vend initially reached out to me because unbeknownst to me, an old colleague from Xero had joined and referred me as a fit for the SRE team. As I learned more, it all sounded like great stuff and it genuinely ended up being a great match!

> “When you start out, you might feel that what you're producing isn't very good.” 

**What is the best piece of career advice you have ever received?**

I often revisit a YouTube upload titled [Ira Glass on Storytelling 3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2wLP0izeJE).

The gist of it is that Ira Glass, host of This American Life, recounts when he first started out and he talks about the idea of taste.

When you start out, you might feel that what you're producing isn't very good. To be able to identify that feeling means that your taste, what you consider "good", exceeds what you're able to create at present.

The key part is that your taste is good enough to guide you forward, and as you produce more and more over a span of years, the gap between your taste and your abilities starts to close.

Off the back of that idea, I also think that the idea of being passionate can be backwards in terms of cause and effect. When you start out, it's hard to be passionate about a skill if you're not very good.

In my personal experience, I've found that when the gap between skill and taste starts to close, then I get more passionate because I can actually bring ideas to life that I wasn't able to before.

The hardest part of course is getting started.

**What do you love about working at Vend?**

I guess the proper word would be "pragmatic" but really; people don't care about technology past a certain point and that's a good thing.

As a technologist, it can be tempting to get excited about a particular technology to the point that you're just kind of pushing something for the sake of it and not because it has any value for the business.

At the end of the day, someone running a store doesn't care what's under the hood, just that it works and gets out of their way.

We also have a pretty good balance with experimenting. Lightspeed has a global hackathon every quarter (with prizes up for grabs) and development teams often have a cooldown period to pause and potentially look into new tooling.

Some of the more interesting ideas get converted into RFC, or Requests for Comments, internally. They're basically a README document that details a proposal and if it gets accepted, it can become a new standard for how we do things internally.

I probably can't speak much about them but there are some really cool proposals I've seen floating around from some smart people.

> “No single person has all the answers, and there are plenty of unknowns we'll face as a team so being comfortable with not knowing things is a very good trait!” 

**Lastly, Vend continues to grow and evolve, what are the key traits and characteristics of people that will be well placed to work there?**

Now that we're part of the Lightspeed family, Vend will soon be home to many more customers and with that comes the task of scaling up to meet increasing demand, both in terms of people and infrastructure.

No single person has all the answers, and there are plenty of unknowns we'll face as a team so being comfortable with not knowing things is a very good trait!

Marcus-Crane-Senior-Site-Reliability-Engineer-at-Vend-by-Lightspeed.jpg

Marcus Crane, Senior Site Reliability Engineer at Vend by Lightspeed

From aspiring fashion designer to getting her masters degree in computer applications, Shaleen Kaur, Product Specialist at Vend by Lightspeed has no regretted her decision to work in the tech industry. 

We caught up with Shaleen to learn more about how she navigated the early stages of her career into tech, how a Product Specialist differs from a Product Manager and what she loves about her day-to-day working at Vend. Thanks for sharing your story, Shaleen.

> “I would say that I help people who want to grow and start awesome businesses.” 

**Firstly, how would you explain to a five year old what it is you do?** 

I would say that I help people who want to grow and start awesome businesses. I also give them the tools that help them to modernise their business and stay ahead. 

**And for the adults, what does that translate to in regards to your day-to-day?** 

My role as a Product Specialist enables me to gather a wealth of knowledge and insights from our support teams and deliver it to the product teams. I also connect with our retailers on a daily basis and address their product related questions. 

**What are some of the common misconceptions about working as a Product Specialist?** 

One of the most frequent clarifications that I have to provide while explaining my role is how I am different from a product manager. Even though both roles sound quite similar, there is a difference between them. 

The way I explain these roles is that the product specialist normally carries the product vision to the support team and provides feedback to the product teams whereas Product Managers are typically decision-makers in drafting the product strategy, such as what feature the engineers should build next for example.

> “I actually wanted to be a fashion designer but never had good drawing skills.” 

**Was working in tech something you dreamed about doing as a kid, if not what was?** 

I actually wanted to be a fashion designer but never had good drawing skills. It eventually turned out to be an unachievable dream. Tech has always intrigued me and that’s why I ended up doing my masters in computer applications. To be honest, I really don’t regret doing that. 

**Tell us a little bit more about your career journey and ultimately about how you ended up working at Vend by Lightspeed?** 

After completing my masters, I wanted to land myself in an entry-level job where I could use the technical knowledge that I gained during my course and also get some exposure to a good workplace. As they say, getting your first job is always hard, so I started as a volunteer in public libraries where I used to teach computers. 

I then worked as a customer service representative in an electricity company. Both of these jobs gave me enough exposure and skill set to write up on my resume. I then applied for a support role at Vend where I worked for more than two years and finally got promoted to a product specialist role.

> “..continue to learn no matter what stage of your career you are in or what age you are at.” 

**What is the best piece of career advice you have ever received?** 

You can continue to learn no matter what stage of your career you are in and regardless of your age. When you learn continuously, you can gain more skills and be flexible and adaptable in your career path. Having a willingness to learn is a highly valued attribute in today's workforce. 

**What do you love about working at Vend by Lightspeed?** 

Other than Vend’s own unique vibe and culture, the thing I love the most is that I have a great degree of control and freedom within my job. I work full-time, both in the office and remote, and my boss trusts me to produce high-quality work and results. 

I work hard to maintain that level of trust, which keeps me engaged and excited — but at the same time, I love that my job enables me to enjoy my other passions in life.

> “We do everything we can to ensure they don’t just like us, they love us.” 

**Lastly, Vend by Lightspeed continues to grow and evolve, what are the key traits and characteristics of people that will be well placed to work there?** 

One of the characteristics that I believe a person should foster is the ability to delight our retailers. Here at Vend, we put ourselves in our retailers’ shoes. We do everything we can to ensure they don’t just like us, they love us. We can only win when they do. If you are someone who wants to join our mission through helping retailers, then ride along!

Lightspeed (ex-Vend)

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From the archives

Company stories

Founder of Vend

Cat Cura, Application Security Analyst at Vend by Lightspeed

Shona McMahon, Director of Software Adoption at Vend by Lightspeed

Marcus Crane, Senior Site Reliability Engineer at Vend by Lightspeed

Shaleen Kaur, Product Specialist at Vend by Lightspeed

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