What was your first job?
My first job was during high school. I worked part-time at a bookstore near my house. I remember applying for the job on a weekend. I called the store asking if they were hiring. The owner interviewed me over the phone and then asked me to come in that afternoon for a short shift.

That job taught me so much during those formative high school years. I learned what good customer service looked like and how much it meant to our customers. I learned what the regular shoppers preferred and how to keep an eye on the questionable characters that would sometimes roam the store. I developed a disciplined work ethic and quickly honed my time management skills to balance my study and extracurricular activities with a part-time job. It was also exciting to start saving money that I’d earned.

Most importantly, the job taught me about people. It taught me how important listening is, remembering someone’s name, and giving someone your attention. These simple acts can make an interaction incredibly memorable.

What led you to your current work?
I’ve been with August for 10 years. I never planned to be in marketing, and I never even considered I’d do the job I am currently in. But I’m not surprised that I’m part of a multidisciplinary team of highly skilled and creative people who are curious, kind, and deeply ambitious while maintaining stoic humility. They are the type of people I love being around and learning from.

My career started in the Arts—again, because of the people. I was running Arts events, managing classical artists, and thinking about how to eventually build a company from that—maybe buy a venue and grow from there.

Then, that all changed. A former musician had founded a company building an online video streaming platform way before its time and asked if I wanted to come and work for him. I said yes. From there, I started to build a career in marketing.

Over the years, I’ve maintained a range of other interests. I went back to university while working full-time and became a lawyer. I’ve completed a research project on multidisciplinary teams in the legal profession and continue to conduct research on that topic.

To answer the question of what led me to my current work: I’d say it’s the people. Finding a team where you can be yourself, where you can get to know each other really well and solve problems together over and over—that’s special, and it’s rare in our industry.

What’s one thing you wish you knew when you first started your career?
To never lose the quiet confidence that comes with backing yourself. No one person has the answer to the problems you’re looking to solve, so figuring out how to work with different types of people is valuable but also requires you to back yourself and your convictions.

Developing confidence takes time, but it’s important to do the work to develop those skills. It doesn’t happen on its own. Reading a lot, especially nonfiction, and writing—both exploratory and deliberate—helps build communication skills and learn about people.

What music can you listen to on repeat but never get tired of?
I’m a classical musician, and this genre remains very close to my heart. In particular, you could put on Fratres by Arvo Part, the arrangement for violin and piano, and I’d never tire of it. Another standout is The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams, as well as Elgar’s Cello Concerto.

I’m a huge fan of chamber music. The Australian chamber music scene is wonderful, and brilliant musicians perform throughout the year. There are two string quartets outside Australia, though, that I’ve been listening to a lot recently—the Danish String Quartet and Vision String Quartet.

If Sailor by Vision String Quartet is on, you’ll find me tapping away to the beat. Equally, Shine You No More by the Danish String Quartet is utterly mesmerizing.

What’s the last thing you saw that inspired an idea?
I’ve seen two things recently that have inspired my thinking. I was working through some drafts, trying to develop a model to explain a concept about multidisciplinary teams I’ve been researching. I wasn’t having much luck. It sounded trite, somewhat vague, and just not that interesting.

One of my favorite places is the National Gallery of Victoria. I love visiting on my own and looking at the Impressionist and Surrealist permanent collections. I’ll bypass everything just to stand in front of Gustave Caillebotte’s ‘The Plain of Gennevilliers’ and Camille Pissaro’s ‘The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter’s Morning’. Those two paintings, among a couple of others, impart a sense of musicality for me when I look at them. Whenever I come away from the gallery, my thinking is clearer and more inspired.

The second thing I’ve seen recently is my toddler playing with Lego and problem-solving. I watched how different combinations of movement, coordination, and logic played out. The earnestness with which young children problem-solve is inspiring.

A combination of these two events made me change my perspective—figuratively and literally. They demonstrated the importance of ‘holding’ a problem lightly. I encountered something that I’m now expanding into deeper content, something clear and simple that I can test further.

What are you looking for in entries at The w3 Awards?
I am looking for entries that demonstrate meaningful contributions to the Web and to our industry. High-caliber examples where teams have taken a risk not just to be tokenistic, but because they’ve made a choice to go above and beyond what would have simply ‘met the brief’.

This can happen to varying degrees, and that’s what’s exciting. A small enhancement in accessibility, for example, can impact millions of people. When that complements the design, you’ve often got a very compelling outcome.

When you submit your digital projects to the w3 Awards, they land on the desks of digital luminaries like Sarah. We’ve had a lot of requests from our community who still want to enter this year, so we’ve extended the deadline to enter. Your last chance to submit work is Friday, August 2nd.