Meet the Team: Technical Support Engineer, Benj – Always Happy to Help Customers
Written by Michelle Wong – Marketing Specialist
!Comet Backup Technical Support Engineer, Benj Sarmiento
We sat down for a chat with Benj Sarmiento, one of Comet’s Technical Support Engineers who has been with the company since July 2024. This piece has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
#### What does a typical day look like for you as a technical support engineer?
My day is usually a combination of handling simple and complex issues raised by clients. I work closely with our Support Team Lead for any escalations, and I also coordinate with the dev teams to raise any issues with them, when needed, so I can deliver fixes to customers as quickly as possible.
#### You mentioned working with the developers. What does that collaboration look like?
Because not all issues can be fixed by the support team alone, sometimes we need the developers to apply patches or hot fixes. The devs recommend things we can do for the clients, which helps us resolve the issues faster. So instead of the clients waiting for solutions to come out in a future software release, sometimes we grab them directly from the devs to get clients support quickly.
#### Is that unique to Comet, or is it common in other software companies?
At Comet, it’s easy to approach the developers and I can reach out directly to who I need to talk to and get quick responses.
At other companies I’ve worked at, there were longer escalation processes or multiple steps before we could even get access to the developers. But at Comet, we have direct access to talk to the devs, so we can help our clients faster.
#### What do you like most about being technical support?
I’ve been doing technical support ever since I graduated from university and I still enjoy it. I get a lot of satisfaction and I’m happy when I get to help customers and fix their concerns, especially if they are facing complex issues. I like being able to solve problems and contribute to helping their business. It’s nice to get recognition from the clients when they thank us for the help.
#### Can you tell us a bit about your work history and background?
I graduated with a degree in information technology in the Philippines, where I’m originally from.
After graduating, I worked in the Philippines in technical support for a US based company, Verizon. We handled a lot of network issues and computer issues, and hardware and software issues. It was really complex because we were getting a lot of tickets per day, but I was able to manage handling those tickets. From there I really started to enjoy technical support.
I transferred to another company a few years later. There were times that I was offered to apply for Senior or Lead management positions. But I realized that I prefer working directly with customers and clients who use the product, which is why I decided to stay on the frontlines of technical support.
#### Do you have any tips for clients who are using Comet Backup?
The best advice for someone new using Comet would be to read the documentation and articles in our knowledge base. There are helpful answers to common questions.
#### What attracted you to work at Comet?
It’s really the environment that I enjoy here. We have a flexible set up for our schedules, and I can work at my own pace, we aren’t micromanaged here. I pick up my own tickets and work on them.
The work culture is good, everyone is easy to talk to, like Mike, our support lead, and everyone else in the team are also very approachable.
#### What’s your favorite thing about Comet?
My favorite thing about Comet is the product itself, because I’m always learning new things that allow me to help our clients more. Plus, I really like working with the people at Comet and the environment. I feel comfortable working at Comet, the culture is very welcoming.
#### How do you feel about CometCon, our internal company conference?
CometCon is great, especially for team bonding and spending time together. It’s nice because CometCon is a combination of work-related activities and learning from each other, but there’s also time for socializing with each other outside of our day-to-day work.
#### What do you like about living in Christchurch?
It’s quiet here, especially compared to back in the Philippines where it’s busy and noisy, and there’s less traffic here. If I want to relax, I’m finding time to relax in Christchurch. I can still enjoy my week aside from work, I can play basketball every week and hang out with my friends.
#### What are some of your interests and hobbies?
I’ve played basketball ball since I was seven years old, and I still play now. I also like gaming, including playing NBA and Tekken on the PS5 with my partner. Besides that, I love traveling, and back in the Philippines I liked riding motorcycles.
#### We know everyone at Comet loves food. What’s your favorite food?
Yeah, I love Italian food, like spaghetti, pasta, and pizza. That’s the food that I always want.
!About Michelle Wong Comet Backup Marketing Specialist
Making Customers Happy From Feature Request to Reality with Software Developer, Noel
Written by Michelle Wong – Marketing Specialist
!Comet Backup Software Developer, Noel Reyes
We sat down for a chat with Noel Reyes, one of Comet’s Software Developers who has been with the company since October 2022. This piece has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
#### Where have you seen Comet’s dev team make an impactful difference for customers?
In our feature voting system, we had a highly requested feature for user groupings. I’m proud of the work Ben Frengley and I undertook to build that feature together.
Before customers were using the tenant feature in a way we hadn’t anticipated. We heard that feedback and built user groups specifically to make it easy for MSPs to group their clients and users, and for companies to group users by department. It really made a difference for customers and is a very handy feature.
#### How does the feature voting system inform what makes it onto Comet’s product roadmap?
Whenever we’re making decisions about what will be included on the quarterly product roadmap, feature requests heavily influence what we decide to build and work on because we can see which features customers want.
If it’s a highly requested feature, it goes into consideration for the roadmap, then we start developing. We listen to our customers and their needs. Feature voting allows us to see the number of customers that want a feature. When a feature gets a lot of up votes, we say, let’s make these customers happy. Let’s make it a reality for them, from feature request to reality.
#### What attracted you to work at Comet?
All the new things that I could learn. It’s not just programming, but also actually understanding all the different technologies we back up and the integration partners we work with.
You’re handling Windows, you’re handling Linux, you’re handling Mac, and then there’s a range of storage providers. One storage provider can work differently from another.
More often than not at Comet your day-to-day will be different. The endless learning opportunities is what really attracted me.
#### You were a mentor to Liam, one of Comet’s junior developers. What did you enjoy about being a mentor?
At the beginning of my career, in my first internship, I had a mentor who said something that really stuck with me – he wanted to be the senior mentor that he wished he had when he was a junior developer. He was a really good mentor for me and I wanted to take that same approach and be a good mentor for Liam.
To me, a good mentor means being available for any questions, teaching best practices, and making the mentee feel comfortable with the overall work, so I wanted to pay it forward.
So whenever Liam has any questions, I’m more than happy to answer and help him learn. When something is going well for Liam, it makes me proud. He’s learning and he’s making things that help our customers now. It’s great getting to see his work have that impact.
#### What advice would you give to an aspiring developer?
Just try to write code as much as you can. Debug for 15 to 30 minutes. If you are struggling or can’t figure out the answer, it’s okay to stop and ask for help. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. We’re more than happy to help.
#### What’s your favorite thing about working at Comet?
At Comet, the work-life balance is top tier. It’s the best company I’ve ever worked for, including other previous workplaces. No one comes close to the work culture and the people at Comet.
My favorite thing about working at Comet is definitely the people. It’s really nice to be working with like-minded people. It’s fun. You can talk about your hobbies, video games, and hiking. It’s not always about work.
I really like CometCon, our internal company conference. Especially hearing talks from the different departments that I don’t normally interact with, like Marketing, Customer Success, and Sales. It’s great to learn about other areas of the business outside of the dev teams and the software side of things.
#### What does your work week look like at Comet?
We have Monday and Friday in the office where you can have a chat and in-person interactions with people. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we have the option to work from home if we want to. I find those days are good for working on things that need a state of deep focus.
It’s really nice because our hours are flexible. As long as you’re doing your eight hours per day, if you have errands during the day, you can make up the hours later in the evening.
#### How would you describe the team culture at Comet?
It’s open. I really like it because everyone feels welcome to ask questions. Even if you are a senior developer or the CTO, it doesn’t mean you have to know everything, you can still ask questions and people are more than happy to answer and help.
People are humble and don’t have egos. For example, I have more years of experience than Jackson. But I find myself sometimes saying, “Oh, I never knew that. Jackson, how did you do that?” Then he will be more than happy to answer my question.
#### What is your earliest memory of technology?
When I was in high school, my sister worked for an internet café in Manila in the Philippines. When she took me there, that was the first time I saw computers. We didn’t have one at home. From then on, when we went to the city, I would look forward to going to the internet café to browse the internet and play computer games like Counter Strike, or pinball on Windows XP. I was really fascinated with how computer games work, and how they were connected with other computers.
#### How did you get into software development?
When I was in university, I had a conversation with my uncle who worked for the Philippines government’s department of science and technology. He suggested that I should study computer science. It wasn’t on my radar, but after my uncle suggested it, when I took a computer science course, I really enjoyed it. I was fascinated with the programming side of computer science and always looked forward to programming.
#### Tell us about your journey of becoming a developer.
I started with an internship in the IT department at a hospital. That was my first time seeing how programming was done in real life and what it’s actually like versus writing code and submitting it to your professor. In the internship, I was writing code and could see when I opened the software that I did that, I contributed to that, so I really enjoyed that feeling.
Then my first developer job was in Manila for a US client, an e-learning platform. That was my first introduction with Git and meddling with the server, configurations and networking, I learned a lot there. I started as an intermediate developer there, then I got promoted to the lead software developer and I was leading the whole team.
When I came to New Zealand, I got hired in the IT department for a geotechnical firm and I learned a lot there, like working with Linux. Then I came to Comet.
#### What do you like about living in Christchurch?
I love that Christchurch is in close proximity to pretty much everything. You’re near the sea, the mountains, the hills, hiking and ski areas. I also love that there are a lot of local walking trails around Christchurch and easy access to outdoor activities. Plus, there’s also a lot of good restaurants and cafes.
#### What are your hobbies and interests?
I love being outdoors, going hiking, and mountain biking. I love exploring the mountains and seeing the views when you’re high up, it’s astonishing. My favorite hike is the Milford Track, it was amazing, nothing else comes close. I’ve done a few of the longer bike trails, the Otago Rail Trail, the Millennium trail, and other bike trails in the Otago area.
!About Michelle Wong Comet Backup Marketing Specialist
Embracing Tech with Energy and Enthusiasm with Marketing Specialist, Michelle
Written by Natalie Marinelli – Marketing Manager
!Comet Backup Marketing Specialist, Michelle Wong
We sat down for a chat with Michelle Wong, Comet’s Marketing Specialist who has been with the company since July 2023. This piece has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
#### How did you get into marketing?
I sort of fell into marketing. My first love was rugby, I wanted to introduce everyone to the sport. I played at the University of Michigan and was in charge of recruiting players for our team. Without realizing I was doing marketing, I hand painted posters, designed merch, ran recruitment events, and created websites and social media pages to get the word out.
I’ve always loved being the hype-person for all the organizations and brands I’ve worked with, whether it was for rugby, the University of Michigan Rec Sports department, Kathmandu, and now at Comet Backup. My approach to marketing is to bring the energy, enthusiasm, and excitement to promote the brand or company.
#### What’s your background in marketing before coming to Comet?
I started out volunteering doing marketing for rugby clubs I’ve played on and various rugby organizations to champion the sport. For a few years, I covered USA Rugby’s day-to-day social media content, and their domestic competitions, international tournaments, and the 2014 Women’s Rugby World Cup in France.
When I came to New Zealand in 2014, I did data admin at Kathmandu, an outdoor retail brand. Then I moved into a customer service role doing community management for their social media platforms. Eventually, I transitioned onto their marketing team, where I specialized in email marketing and campaigns.
#### What was it like coming to Comet and pivoting to working in the IT software industry?
Coming to work in the tech industry and B2B SaaS (software as a service) space was really new to me. Previously, I worked in B2C in the sports and retail sectors where I was the target market and end user, so I was very familiar with how to market to those audiences.
Comet was a new challenge because I don’t have an IT or tech background. But the team was incredibly helpful. They answered all my questions and made the transition easy for me.
#### What motivated you to make the leap between industries and roles?
Before coming to Comet, I never really thought I would work in the tech industry. It wasn’t really on my radar.
But I was ready to try something new. I had specialized in email marketing at Kathmandu for almost four years, so I was looking for an opportunity to expand my marketing skills in other areas.
At Comet, I’ve stepped into a new phase in my career. I’ve had the opportunity to grow into a more well-rounded marketer and lead bigger projects. I get to create and implement the content strategy and own the content calendar, including email, organic social, blog posts, webinars, industry groups and integration partner marketing, and more. I love the variety of marketing activities and having creative freedom and autonomy.
#### What was it like coming to work at Comet even though you didn’t have a background in tech?
Comet is really good at seeing the potential in people. Cultural fit is one of the key things we prioritize during the hiring process. We want to make sure everyone gets along and shares our values of collaboration, creativity and craftsmanship.
I didn’t have a tech background, but I was open to learning, and everyone at the company wants to help you succeed.
#### How did the team help set you up for success?
When I first joined the company, I had one-on-one meetings with people from different departments. People from all areas of the business spent time with me, telling me about their role and how the backup software works.
Natalie, our Marketing Manager, made IT flashcards for me as a fun way to learn some of the industry specific terms. And I was given a lot of time to research and get a grasp on the tech industry and our audience (IT professionals).
Even now, I still spend time every week reading what IT people are saying in different forums and online community groups, learning what they care about, and what their challenges are.
#### What do you love about working at Comet?
Genuinely it’s the people. Everyone actually cares about you as a person. People are interested in what you did on the weekend and ask you about your hobbies or your holiday. Everyone’s really genuine, friendly, and kind. We also have a lot of fun, great conversations and laugh a lot.
I feel comfortable asking anyone questions. I can go directly to the GM, CTO, Product Manager or whoever, and they’ll have always make time for me. Everyone’s really supportive and collaborative. We just want to help each other out.
#### What is the work culture like at Comet and on the marketing team?
What I really love about working at Comet is that I feel valued and that my ideas matter. I can make an impact with the work I’m doing.
The projects I choose are largely self-driven, with input and guidance from my manager when I need it. I have lot of freedom to run with new ideas and try different types of content and marketing activities.
#### What’s it like getting to craft the branding and content for an IT software company?
Comet Backup has a fun outer space theme, so there’s a lot of potential to be creative with the branding and have fun with the marketing.
I feel like I get to be really creative in my role. My manager supports me and helps coach me through areas I’m not as familiar with, and trusts me in areas that I have more experience in. We are always collaborating and learning from each other.
#### What was the inspiration behind the CometCon meme workshop you led?
At CometCon, our internal conference, I gave a presentation on how we can make our content marketing strategy more entertaining and relatable. Our company culture is really friendly, helpful and fun – so I wanted our marketing and brand personality to reflect that.
Personally, I follow brands because they are either educational, inspiring, or entertaining. I wanted to introduce the ‘entertaining’ part to Comet’s marketing mix by incorporating memes and IT humor.
After the presentation, I ran a meme workshop. Everyone at the company contributed and had a lot of fun coming up with memes. It was really cool to see our GM and company owner get involved. They are really into Comet’s space brand and supportive of making our content fun and helpful.
#### Outside of CometCon, what other learning and development opportunities are there?
We are encouraged to attend events and talks. Comet is part of a lot of tech organizations across New Zealand, including the Tech Marketers Group, Women in Tech, and Kiwi SaaS. I’ve also joined a few marketing community groups on Slack, including Generate (an APAC tech marketers group) and The Marketing Club AU/NZ.
I participated in a Women in Tech mentorship program, and a virtual tech marketing training cohort over 6 weeks. It’s been great to connect and network with other tech marketers and women in tech to share experiences and ideas.
#### How do you feel Comet’s work culture supports your lifestyle?
We have hybrid working at Comet. If you’re based in the head office in Christchurch, we have a few days in the office and a couple days working remotely. I love it, I think it’s a great balance of having collaborative face-to-face time, and then the option of working from home and not having to commute on those days.
The flexibility is great, people have varied start and finish times to work with their schedules. I’m more of a standard 8:30am to 5pm. I go to the gym in the morning and I finish at 5pm so I have enough time to bike home and get to rugby league training at 6pm. Some people start earlier and finish earlier, so they have the afternoon off. People with kids can do school drop off or pick up, and finish their hours later. There’s real work life balance.
#### What are your interest in hobbies outside of work?
I really love the outdoors and being outside in nature, hiking, tramping, camping, surfing, and going on road trips in our van. I’m also a rugby union and rugby league fanatic, as a player and a fan. I like also barbecuing, cooking, trying new recipes, and catching up with friends.
!About Natalie Marinelli Comet Backup Marketing Manager
Coding to Make People’s Lives Easier with Software Developer, Josh
Written by Michelle Wong – Marketing Specialist
!Comet Backup Software Developer, Josh Conant
We sat down for a chat with Josh Conant, one of our Software Developers, who has been with the company since July 2022. This piece has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
#### Have you always worked in tech?
In college, I majored in biomedical engineering, but I didn’t graduate. Life got in the way. And I ended up taking a call center job working tech support for Microsoft. They used to have a free virus and malicious software hotline that you could call. It got to the point where I could just hear what the customer was clicking and I could tell if they clicked on the right thing or the wrong thing. It was very interesting. I got to learn all about viruses and backdoors and Windows. That’s how I started my career in tech.
#### Tell us more about your journey in tech and how you became a software developer.
After my tech support role at Microsoft, I worked for a company called Computer Nerds, where I went to people’s houses and helped them out with their computer. Then I worked as an IT admin for a golf course in Texas where I got my foot in the door for administration work. Then I went to Rackspace, a hosting company, for about six years. I went in as email admin, then became a Linux admin.
While I was a Linux admin, I really got into programming. I was making little PHP websites for support. I also got into Python, was promoted to Linux Engineer, and started teaching Python classes on the side. When I got really into coding, I switched over to software development, and I have been a software dev ever since.
#### How did starting in IT before becoming a dev shape your outlook?
Starting in IT operations and then moving into software development gives you a really good perspective on using the software before moving over to making software.
It helps you understand how to make people’s lives easier and how your development choices are going to affect the people trying to run and maintain platforms for your software. This allows you to better architect your software to be more resilient and easier to troubleshoot.
In many ways, keeping operations happy is just as important as keeping the end-user happy, all of which leads to more adoption of your software.
#### What attracted you to work at Comet?
I had done some previous work in the storage realm. The low level storage is always fascinating to me, because it’s very complex and technical. It’s a fascinating problem in an interesting space.
When I was reading about Comet, specifically about deduplication, local deduplication and compression, it sounded like they were going to be in the thick of it and working with the all the hard problems of optimizing for data backups.
I like problem-solving, and love having difficult problems and interesting puzzles to figure out. I love coding and I love coding problems. I love working to make people’s lives easier. Helping people out always feels great.
#### What’s your favorite thing about Comet?
My favorite thing about Comet has to be the people, honestly, the crew is awesome. Josh, our General Manager, is such an approachable leader. He’s very honest and very open, and I really appreciate that. Our CTO, Mason, is just a treasure trove of technical information and expertise. Everyone is very nice and amiable. Everyone is always up for a chat.
Before coming to Comet, I was doing contracting work and was very transitory, working on temporary fixes or doing temporary jobs. I really wanted to get back to what I had loved about Rackspace’s company culture which put friends and family first, and the feeling of working with a good team. That’s when I got the job at Comet. I’ve been grateful to Comet ever since because everyone here is so amazing to work with.
#### How would you describe the team culture at Comet?
At Comet, from day one, it’s felt like a family. Everyone’s nice, everyone’s open to feedback, and open to helping each other. The culture of openness applies to the whole company. While we have two dev teams, it’s not isolating or siloing. If I talk to anyone on the other dev team, I still have the same great experience, and I appreciate that.
#### What’s the learning and development culture like at Comet?
At Comet it’s great because if there’s something you’re interested in, and think it will help Comet, they will allow you to pursue it. If I need to take time to research what I’m working on, that’s encouraged. I don’t have to knock out a ticket as fast as possible. It’s not like at a big corporation.
If you’re interested in any part of the code base, and you want to learn more about it, you just tell your Dev Team Lead and they will give you tickets on that area. There’s a tag on tickets called ‘First Projects’, specifically for new devs. If you want to try something new, they don’t just throw you in cold turkey, instead they’ll give you one of those easier ‘First Projects’ tickets. And whoever is the subject matter expert for a particular area of the code base is always willing to talk and they’ll help you get started.
#### Are you the subject matter expert on specific realms?
Yeah, a couple of them, including Microsoft 365. We’ve done a massive rewrite on that over the last year to improve the user experience. My expertise is mostly on the backend stuff, specifically Microsoft 365, email reports, and the internal event system. I enjoy working on the more technical stuff, such as our bloom filter, for example. I’m most adept at all the Go (programming language) we use, which is Comet’s foundation. I’m not a TypeScript or PHP expert, but I can do that in a pinch.
#### How do you find being part of the company when you’re a remote team member?
On Wednesdays, we have the ‘Comet Café’ which is a dedicated Slack channel where people can join a call and just talk about anything. We’re encouraged during that time to chat about things that are not work related, to get to know one another better, and just hang out, which is really nice. Or sometimes Josh, our GM, just randomly starts a Comet Café hangout outside of the regular scheduled time, he’s really good at that.
When I first started at Comet I remember Mike Hall, our Support Team Lead, stayed and chatted for quite a while. It is really good to just talk, and to have a casual meeting with your remote work mates with no expectation, because it allows you to bond with people with no pressure.
#### What advice you would give to an aspiring developer?
My advice would be to just code, even if it’s bad code. It’s similar to writing, you need to actually do it and keep practicing to get better at it. Coding is the same.
If you’re starting a project, even if you unsure what you’re doing, just get started – write some code to get some basic functionality working. Once you have that base, you can build on it. It’s much easier to work on something that exists, than to try to figure everything out all at once.
I would also say don’t worry about which language you pick when you’re starting out. Skills between languages are easily transferrable. Again, just getting practice writing code is the key.
#### What are some of your interests and hobbies outside of work?
A lot of my time is spent on family. I have two kids, they’re both in college. And at home, I have my wife, Sheena, and my dog. Outside of work I try to spend as much time with them as possible.
Other than that, I’m still interested in biomedical engineering, which I studied in college. So I tend to read articles about that, specifically, neurological engineering. I’ve also thought about going back to school for electrical engineering. I would love to go back to college. Because even when I was working at Dell EMC, I was taking biology, biochemistry, and biology courses. I love learning, so I try to keep doing that.
!About Michelle Wong Comet Backup Marketing Specialist
Providing Solutions for Customers with Alex from Sales
Written by Michelle Wong – Marketing Specialist
We sat down for a chat with Alex Robinson from our Sales Team. Alex has been with the company since October 2023. This piece has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
#### Where do you see Comet making a difference?
The biggest difference that we’re making for people is that we substantially streamline the data protection process for organizations, making it easier for people to set up and run backups.
A lot of people I talk to on calls say that their current backup systems have multiple disparate components or they are using several different backup systems to meet all their needs.
With Comet, you have a management console that has the flexibility to do whatever you want from within it. I’ve gotten feedback from people saying that with Comet they can consolidate all their backups into a single platform, and that it is simple to use.
#### What can an IT professional expect when they book a call with you?
I walk prospective customers through a high level overview of the product. I like to focus on understanding their backup requirements and how Comet can meet those requirements. Then I go over how our pricing works.
Often people are coming from other vendors who have more complicated licensing models. I find people are frequently pleasantly surprised that a conversation about Comet’s pricing plans only takes five minutes.
#### What if they need help getting started?
If they don’t have a free trial set up yet, I’ll help them get that going. Or if they’re ready to begin testing or deployment, I can book them in with our onboarding or technical team.
The goal is always for an MSP or an IT team to be up and running backups as quickly as possible to see how easy the product is to work with.
#### What do you enjoy about sales?
Basically, I’m solving a problem for someone or meeting a need that someone has for their business. I really enjoy helping people work through that.
Because my background is in account management and customer success (I actually managed a camera store for many years), cultivating a long term relationship is very important to me. So that’s always how I approach talking to potential partners.
#### What happens if Comet Backup isn’t the right solution for the problem they’re trying to solve?
I’m always up front and honest with customers and will tell them, “I don’t think Comet is the right fit for you.” I’m not trying to push people into buying something they don’t need. I would rather they find the right solution for what they’re trying to achieve.
#### Why are you proud to represent Comet?
I wanted to be sure I was working for a company that’s actually constantly improving the product for customers and innovating and truly adding value when we release updates to the software. Comet is actively building the product and pushing it forward, which is really important to me.
#### Do you have any top backup tips?
#1 Run your backups regularly. And verify that your backups are configured correctly and are working as intended. Everyone talks about having backups, but the key is – are you checking the reporting around your backups on a regular basis? Have you configured the backup reports and are you actually following up on them?
#2 Are you doing test restores on things occasionally, and verifying the data is there? Don’t just set it and forget it. Set it and actively monitor your backups.
#3 Familiarize yourself with the recovery process. Because when you need to do a recovery, you almost always need to do it in a hurry. Make sure you know how to do it, how long it’s going to take, and what’s involved in the recovery process.
#### What’s your favorite thing about working at Comet?
I love that the Comet team actually listens to the feedback we get from customers and prospects. So many companies claim to do that, but in reality they don’t. Comet is very open to listening and then the dev team prioritizes improving that functionality and building new features people would like to see in the software.
I appreciate the open channels of communication throughout the company. There aren’t any layers of bureaucracy, so to speak. You can talk to anyone about anything. And they will really take that customer feedback to heart.
#### How would you describe the team culture at Comet?
My favorite thing about working here is definitely how collaborative the team is, and that you can ask anyone for help. Especially when you’re coming into a technical product like Comet, although I’ve previously worked in software and tech for a long time, there’s always a learning curve involved with learning about products in a new industry. So it’s been really helpful that everyone, including the dev teams and support team, are willing to help out with the technical learning curve.
#### Were there certain things that attracted you to work at Comet?
I was actively looking for a role that wasn’t a nine-to-five job, something with more flexibility. When I saw the hours were early, that had huge appeal. I like to start early and finish early so I can do school pickup and spend time with my family.
#### What are some of your other interests or hobbies outside of work?
Most of my time is taken up with my family and kids, and the farm animals. I’ve got sheep, a miniature horse, ducks, chickens, turkeys, geese, and a dog. So that takes up most of my time outside of work.
!About Michelle Wong Comet Backup Marketing Specialist
Problem Solving with Software Developer, Rhane
Written by Michelle Wong – Marketing Specialist
!Comet Backup Software Developer, Rhane
We sat down for a chat with Rhane Mercado, one of our Software Developers who has graduated from our Support/Junior Developer pathway, and has been with the company since January 2023. This piece has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
#### How did you get into technology?
When I went to my first ever computer science class at university, I fell in love. It was math, and logic, and all this stuff that I understood and craved to learn. I really enjoy the problem solving aspect of it.
After that, I knew I wanted it to be my main focus, so I switched my major from environmental science to computer science and pretty much fell in love from there.
#### What attracted you to work at Comet?
Before I graduated from University of Waikato, I was applying for jobs and I saw the Support/Junior Dev role at Comet. I checked out the company’s website and thought backup software could be interesting. In university you don’t really get introduced to backup software so it was something new.
Then when I had my interview with Josh (Comet’s General Manager), it was really eye opening, because a lot of companies say ‘we’re like family, we’re really cool, we get along’ etc. But five minutes into the interview, I was like ‘I like this dude, I like his vibe, the company does sound cool, and I would like to work for somebody like him.’
#### What do you love about working at Comet?
Everyone is so willing to tell you about the technology. Everyone is so passionate about everything. Everyone loves to give good feedback, and also everyone can take feedback.
The best thing is that you don’t feel bad about asking questions. It’s really been great, especially as a junior dev, to feel comfortable asking for help if you don’t know something. Even if you make a mistake, it’s okay, you learn from it and you don’t feel bad about it.
#### How would you describe the team culture at Comet?
It’s great! The culture at Comet has been wonderful since I’ve started, everyone from the non-technical team and the dev teams have been really friendly. It’s a safe place where you feel comfortable asking questions and asking for help. And no matter how closely you work with someone or not, everyone across the company is always up for a friendly chat.
#### What do you enjoy about CometCon, our bi annual internal conference?
You get time to look at what everyone else is working on, and you get to understand the product a lot more. Especially as a junior dev, compared to some of the other developers who have been in the industry for ten years, it’s a great opportunity to learn. CometCon is awesome because there’s more interaction between the two dev teams, and it’s cool to see what the other team is working on.
I really enjoy the technical talks from Mason, our CTO, because just looking at the code, it’s hard to understand, but when Mason explains his point of view, everything makes a lot more sense.
#### What does a typical day and week look like for you as a developer?
A typical day is pretty much say hello to everyone, and then you start working on the git ticket that you’ve picked up. At 10am, we have our team stand up meeting, each dev talks about what you worked on the previous day, and what you’re tackling today, then you start working on that ticket.
Sometimes through the support team a problem will pop up, and the dev team leader might ask you to look into the issue. So you might have to put your current dev project aside to work on a bug fix that’s more pressing.
On Thursdays we have team reviews, and Mason (Comet’s CTO) and Callum (Comet’s Product Engineering Manager) both jump on the call, and we show off what we’ve been working on for the past few days.
#### What’s the working schedule and flexibility like at Comet?
When I was working at the head office, I would start early in the morning, around 7 or 7:30am and then I’d finish work around 3:45pm-4pm, and I’d have the afternoon to myself.
When I moved back to Tauranga and started working remotely, I had other things on in the morning, so I shifted my start time a bit later, so it’s nice that we have that flexibility. There are team members who choose to start early and there are team members who choose to start later, so it feels like there’s always someone around you can talk to on Slack.
#### You’re the third person to complete the support/junior dev to developer pathway. What was it like working for support before becoming a full-time developer?
Before coming into the support team, I had never worked in support before, so the first month I was just learning and asking lots of questions. The team was so helpful and patient while I got my bearings.
The beautiful thing about the support/junior developer pathway was that I got to see and experience Comet from a customer point of view. I got to see how everything fits together first before looking at the code.
Understanding all the different parts was really informative. So after a year of doing the support role and then becoming a developer and coming to the code, it was much easier for me to find certain things, and then understand why certain things are how they are.
Now as a developer, I’m able to make changes and add things to the software to make it better for the customer. It’s fun.
#### What do you like about being a developer?
I love solving a problem. It motivates me. When I’ve been staring at a problem for a good 30 minutes, or an hour, or half a day, and it clicks and I finally understand it, and I code it and it works – that’s the best feeling when you solve a problem. I really love it.
#### What advice would you give to someone who wants to become a developer?
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and expect that failure is part of the learning process. Try new things, and take more risks. Don’t be too harsh on yourself if you don’t know something.
Before coming to Comet, I was always scared to fail, but now working here, everyone is so supportive and helpful. I feel safe enough here to take risks and make mistakes. That’s a really powerful feeling.
#### What keeps you interested and inspired in the field?
Software is never stagnant. It’s always improving. There’s always something new. It’s never boring, every single day you learn something new. There’s not one day that I’ve gone to work and been like ‘I knew everything today’. I don’t get bored, ever, there’s aways something new.
#### What are some of your interests or hobbies outside of work?
For work, we’re looking at our computers all day, so on the weekends and during my downtime I like to do things that don’t involve looking at a screen.
I love being outside, looking at the landscapes and mountains, going for a walk around the estuary and getting some fresh air.
Recently I’ve taken up boxing to do something physically demanding. I go to the 6:30am morning classes, they run for about an hour and it’s a nice way to start the day.
I also love to read. Reading is like my escape, it’s like you’re in a whole different world. Murder-mysteries are my go-to. It’s the satisfaction of putting the pieces together and solving the mystery, and sometimes there are curveballs that you just don’t expect.
#### What is your favorite food?
Rice! There’s been one week in my entire life when I didn’t eat rice because I was in camp, but every single week of my life I’ve eaten rice. You can’t have a complete meal without rice.
#### Do you have any favorite recipes you like to cook to go with rice?
We have a dish in the Philippines called sinigang, it’s a sour and savory soup. Another dish is chicken adobo, which is soy sauce and vinegar mixed with milk. And it’s so good, it’s one of my favorites.
!About Michelle Wong Comet Backup Marketing Specialist
Meet the Team – Wellness with Leandra
Written by Michelle Wong – Marketing Specialist
We sat down for a chat with Leandra Lombard, our Office Administrator who has been with the company since August 2022. This piece has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
#### So I had to go and hunt down your actual job title for this piece because internally we just affectionally refer to your title as Mama Bear. What does your role entail?
Yes, I am known as the office Mama Bear. I look after everyone, so sort of office manager meets people manager.
It’s a mixture of paying the bills, doing payroll, taking care of the office, making sure there are snacks and supplies, spear heading wellness initiatives, checking in with people and seeing how they’re doing, general admin tasks, and event planning.
Twice a year we have a week-long event called CometCon. We get all our remote team members into the Christchurch office for team building events, educational talks, and time to socialize. I ensure everything runs smoothly for those events, from flights and accommodation to making sure there are delicious meals, to booking fun, team-building activities.
#### What attracted you to work at Comet?
During my first phone interview with Josh, our General Manager, he was so real and down to earth. There was no pretence, and I loved that. When I had my second interview, as soon as I walked into the office, I knew I wanted to be here.
The leadership team really look at people, not just their job titles or skills on paper, but who you are as a person and if there is a strong cultural fit. I love that about Comet.
#### How would you describe the team culture?
I’ve worked in many different capacities in different companies and industries, but I have not encountered a culture like Comet before. Everyone is so welcoming and accepting. You can really be yourself and feel like you belong. We like to have fun, work hard, and take care of each other.
#### What’s your favorite thing about Comet?
The biggest thing is the people. Absolutely. Everyone is so genuine and accepting. They talk about companies being like families but for a lot of companies, it’s all talk, no show. Comet really does feel like a little family. In the best way. Without any crazy aunts.
#### Why is wellness so important to you and for the company?
It’s important to me because I’ve seen what a difference it makes when people get the right nutrition, proper rest, and some sunshine. It impacts not only physical, but mental health as well.  For some people, it can be life changing. By emphasizing wellness and giving the team weekly tips and reminders, I feel like I can make a difference in people’s lives and wellbeing.
#### What are some of the health and wellness initiatives at Comet?
One initiative we have implemented at Comet is that the company pays for our employees to have health insurance through Southern Cross. Included in that is an add-on Keeping Well module designed to encourage people to eat well, move more, and take care of themselves.
Every week we have free fresh fruit in the office. We also have an entire Slack channel dedicated to Wellness to share information such as YouTube videos, resources, healthy recipes, and to discuss different wellness topics and ideas. At the Friday all-hands meetings, I’ll go over one of those tips each week.
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#### Do you have any favorite wellness resources?
When it comes to sharing healthy recipes, I am a huge fan of Nadia Lim, a chef from New Zealand. She does healthy in a holistic, delicious way which makes it more fun.
I’d also recommend the Mindset Mentor podcast by Rob Dial. It’s all about mindset, growth, mental health, and wellness. It gives me reminders to keep checking in on myself and be kind to others and myself.
#### What are some of your interests or hobbies outside of work?
Working part time hours at Comet affords me the time to volunteer on Tuesdays as a stylist for Dress for Success. It’s an incredible organization of women helping other women thrive by achieving economic independence through professional development tools and programs.
#### What do you like about living in Christchurch?
I am originally from South Africa. What I love about living in Christchurch is the freedom and the safety I feel here.
Having been through the earthquakes and seeing how Christchurch pulled together to help each other, how neighbours were looking after each other, and people were taking strangers into their homes, seeing the sense of community and how strong it is here is something I truly value.
#### We know everyone at Comet loves food. Do you have a favorite recipe you like to cook?
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I love making a slow cooker chili. It has about 10 different kinds of vegetables, legumes, and a little bit of meat. It is delicious, freezes well for meal prep, and you can just heat it up and put some avocado and tomato on top for a quick, healthy and delicious meal.
#### Do you have any top wellness tips?
Eat the fruits and vegetables. Prioritize sleep. Get some sunshine. Go for a walk. Take your breaks…all the things we know we should do but sometimes forget or deprioritize.
Remember, we are all doing the best we can, some days are going to be amazing, and some days won’t. Allow yourself to be okay with that and give yourself a break sometimes.
Meet the Team – Always Learning with Developer Team Lead, Darwin
Written by Michelle Wong – Marketing Specialist
We sat down for a chat with Darwin Dingel, one of our Developer Team Leaders who has been with the company since March 2022. This piece has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
#### What are some of your interests and hobbies?
I enjoy playing lots of basketball. I have two kids, my son is nine and my daughter is five. Sometimes I play video games with the kids.
With the family, during summer we try to get out and go camping. We’re just starting to do some easy overnight hikes all together.
#### Can you tell me a little bit about your background?
I’m originally from the Philippines. After a couple of years of working, I moved to Malaysia for half a year, then I moved to Singapore for five years. After that my wife got a software testing job in New Zealand and we moved here. We’ve been in Christchurch for 11 years now.
#### You came to Comet with a lot of experience. What’s it like to change industries?
Prior to Comet, I worked on embedded systems – so mostly programming on chips, a more hardware-based application. I was in that field for about a decade and I was looking to do something different.
Sometimes it’s hard to make that change if you’ve been in one situation for a long time; people might think you are only an expert in that one area. Before I left my previous role, I was already studying other programming languages to be able to shift to another product.
#### What attracted you to work at Comet?
You can feel how human the company is. Sometimes when you’re in a company, you know that you turn out work, but you don’t see the impact of that work. At Comet, there is the feeling that customers are not just an account number, they are actual people and businesses that we are trying to help. So, that’s really refreshing for me.
#### What do you love about working at Comet?
I moved from a product where you can’t really see your work – you just see a device there with blinking lights. But with Comet, you can see the differences you’re making with the software and how that’s helping the IT professionals we work with.
I love how we prioritize the customer experience. It’s not, “How are we going to get more money out of this somewhere?†It’s more about, “How do we help the customers get the most out of our product†and actually helping people.
#### How would you describe the team culture at Comet?
It’s really people centric, which is very refreshing. The people at Comet are really nice. When I first started, I was nervous because I was shifting to a new field. During your first week at Comet, you have pre-scheduled “get-to-know-you†catch-ups with lots of team members. Those informal chats were really nice and immediately helped put me at ease.
#### How would you describe the work-life balance?
As a father, I have to be a bit flexible because the kids’ schedules sometimes change. Comet is great about that. We’re allowed a lot of flexibility to prioritize family.
I also enjoy the mix of working two days a week remotely and a few days where you meet people in the office; it’s a good balance.
#### Can you tell us about how you became a Dev Team Lead?
I first started at Comet as a developer. I led the VMware project last year. Then an opportunity came up, Comet was growing and work was going to begin being divided between two dev teams. I was promoted to lead one of those teams.
#### How is work divided between the two dev teams?
Both teams work cross-functionally across the entire product. Some developers do have in-depth expertise in certain areas, but the goal is to cross-train the teams so we’re never overly reliant on a single person for one area.
Our developers work on multiple parts of the product, and because you get exposed to more parts of the system, you learn a lot really quickly.
#### What does your day-to-day usually look like?
As a Team Lead, I facilitate the Astro Dev team’s daily stand up meetings and one-on-ones with each of those developers. Each morning I look through our team’s project management board for progress updates, checking in on tasks that need attention and helping to unblock work. Then I run through any support tickets that have been escalated for dev work. After that I jump into my own development tasks.
#### What’s your favorite part of being a team leader?
It’s exciting to be more across all areas and getting to know how things work. As a developer, you get assigned tasks and focus on that area until you’re finished with a project. As a Team Lead, I enjoy being exposed to other parts of code that I wouldn’t otherwise be asked to look at. I like having a high level understanding of what’s happening across the product, it’s really interesting.
#### What advice would you give to someone who wants to become a developer ?
Just get started, and keep learning. There are so many resources on the internet now, you can start learning anything you want on YouTube. Then there are open source tools, including many of the tools being used by developers in corporate, so you can get started really quickly.
You will fail at times, and the good thing about it is that you can start again, just keep going and keep learning.
Meet the Team – Smashing Software Bugs with Ben Frengley
Written by Michelle Wong – Marketing Specialist
!Comet Backup Software Developer, Ben Frengley
We sat down for a chat with Ben Frengley, one of our software developers who has been with the company for three years since September 2021. This piece has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
#### Where did your passion for tech start?
It probably started with my parents – they both did computing training for agricultural farmers and forestry. Growing up we always had a bunch of computers around. When I was a kid, I was set up playing Pokémon Blue on an emulator on Windows 95.
My earliest memory of programming is my dad teaching my sister and me to write Blackjack in Visual Basic for Applications and Excel. I was maybe ten or so.
#### What attracted you to work at Comet?
The actual interview process was fun. During my interview with Mason, our CTO, we spent 90 minutes talking about writing compilers and emulators. We had an immediate rapport. I could see the clear passion Mason has for technology and programming. I really enjoyed our conversation and could tell Comet would be a good place to work.
#### How would you describe the team culture?
Comet is a very people-first company and very human. It’s a workplace where it’s more about the people than the product. The team members at Comet are clearly interested in and passionate about technology.
The team culture is very collaborative, in terms of how we approach problem solving and goal setting, we work together on addressing how to achieve things and everyone, at every level, can get involved.
Everyone’s contributions and ideas are welcome, from team leads to junior developers. You feel like you can immediately get involved in the discussions, which I think can be intimidating in other workplaces.
#### What does your day-to-day look like?
I work on a lot of different things at once. I’m often the person who looks into obscure software bugs customers encounter. I also enjoy proactively combing through the code to identify issues and fixing them up. So it’s pretty varied each day.
#### You were a mentor to Jackson, one of the junior developers. What did you enjoy about being a mentor?
It was very rewarding because when Jackson came in, he was at the beginning of his career. He was still finishing his university degree while he was started working here in the junior developer / support role, so he was quite fresh.
It really gave me an opportunity to help shape someone’s thinking about software and development and how to approach problem solving. Everybody at Comet is incredibly lovely, so he was just very fun to teach as well.
Being a mentor taught me a lot about communication and understanding how other people approach problems because people think in very different ways. It’s beneficial to see how the other person approaches things.
#### What advice would you give to someone who wants to become a developer?
Always ask questions and ask why. My number one tip for working out what’s going wrong is to read the error messages – read the thing that tells you what’s going wrong. It sounds obvious, but it’s a real skill that takes practice.
You learn when something goes wrong you have to learn how to connect the dots and oftentimes there are very obvious hints on where to look, you just have to pay attention and learn to filter out what’s relevant and how it relates to the internal state of your program when it went wrong.
Thoroughly reading your error messages and your stack traces and all of the information that you get given when something goes wrong is the first thing that you should do. It’s easy to fall into the trap of jumping straight back into your code to find the why without first understanding the what and where.
#### What keeps you passionate and moving forward in the field?
I like problem solving – it is very logical but also creative. I really enjoy digging and understanding why something is the way it is and I think that’s why I end up on a lot of bug investigations.
There’s a lot of satisfaction in learning how something works and then putting all the little pieces together to figure out why it’s not working exactly how it should. I think that’s just a fascination from my entire life that applies extremely easily to software development.
#### What are some of your interests and hobbies outside of work?
I like rock climbing, bouldering, hiking, reading, and playing games. I got a 3D printer recently, which is fun. I also like growing lots of plants; I have chilli plants and a collection of maybe 30 succulents and some orchids.
#### We know everyone at Comet loves food. Do you have any favorite recipes?
I’ve always been into baking. My mother loves cooking, that’s where I get that from. When I was a kid we would always have fresh bread out of the bread maker. Then I got a bread maker for my 21st birthday and I still make bread.
These are some cookie recipes that I’ve been using recently: The Ideal Chocolate Chip Cookie video from YouTube and this Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.
!About Michelle Wong Comet Backup Marketing Specialist
Meet the Team – Leading Comet Backup with General Manager, Josh
Written by Michelle Wong – Marketing Specialist
!Comet Backup General Manager Josh Flores
We sat down for a chat with Josh Flores, our General Manager who has been with the company since before the launch of Comet Backup in 2017. This piece has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
#### What is your role and how long have you been at Comet?
I’m the General Manager and I’ve been at the company for about 10 years, before Comet became Comet. I have done pretty much every job here at Comet, apart from coding.
#### Tell us about when you first started working with this leadership team.
I first joined the company when it was Nexus Data Backup, a large backup provider for medical centers, law firms, and other businesses across New Zealand.
A few years later, we sold that backup MSP side of the business. During this time, we had developed our own internal tool, called MyClient, for monitoring all the backup solutions we were using.
Then after a number of years, we launched Comet Backup based on our experience running those earlier businesses.
#### How did the team decide to develop Comet as a backup solution?
Running MyClient was interesting because we were the integration tool for all of these other backup products. We interacted with the MSPs that were using our tool to manage their backup solutions and we heard a lot from the MSPs about the tools they liked and didn’t like.
We also heard from the MSPs about what they wanted in backup software, but they couldn’t necessarily find. We were getting to the point that the MSPs were asking us to custom build features in MyClient to cover the gap in that functionality that they wanted in their backup software.
Since we were already doing some backup development, we explored the idea of building our own backup solution. That’s when we went through the process of R&D. After beta testing and development, we launched Comet in February 2017.
#### What excites you most about Comet?
Every day there’s something new. There’s always new types of customers, new advancement in the technology. Since the early days, our team has grown dramatically. We now have a customer base spanning 120 countries, and vendor relationships around the world. Every quarter, we’re expanding in really exciting ways.
#### How would you describe the team culture at Comet?
It’s amazing. We have a very dedicated team that are really interested in the company, in our customers, and what they’re doing. And that passion is contagious.
We also have a very diverse and international team, people from different industries and different cultures. All of that adds to the amazing team culture Comet. Work is always fun when you enjoy the people you work with.
#### How have you maintained the team culture as the company has grown?
We’re selective in our hiring process to prioritize ensuring people will be a great cultural fit. Occasionally, we’ve interviewed candidates who have an outstanding technical skillset, but they would have altered the team dynamic and we’ve passed on those opportunities.
I’d rather hire someone who’s hard working, eager to learn and has a positive attitude and train them up a bit. It’s incredibly important to me to nurture and protect the team environment we’ve built.
#### How does Comet support the culture of both the remote and office based teams?
Comet has a hybrid working model with a few days in the office and a few days where team members can work from home. We also have some team members who are fully remote.
We try and do absolutely everything we can do to ensure that if you’re remote, you still feel like one of the team. On Slack we have our weekly virtual coffee catchups. We really encourage people to talk, not just about work all day, but also to connect on a personal level because that makes spending time together so much more meaningful.
We have different Slack channels like the pets channel, food channel, games channel. People often share photos of their holidays. Stuff like that. It keeps things fun.
We also have CometCon twice a year where we get everyone together for a week for our internal company conference to connect and hang out in person.
#### Tell us more about CometCon.
CometCon is an opportunity for us come together to collaborate and connect in person. Teams that don’t work as closely on a daily basis will lead sessions where the whole company gathers to brainstorm and learn from one another.
A recent example of this is our marketing department did workshop on our website. And developers who normally wouldn’t give input on that area of the business had a say in the process.
Everyone is encouraged to share their opinions, to critique how we do things, to offer up new ideas. Anyone, at any level, can propose and give one of the scheduled talks on a topic they think would be useful to the company.
It’s also a chance to have some fun together. The social events and the food is always a highlight during the week, especially the taco truck. We spend a lot of time focusing on building the product, but it’s also really important for us to have balance and have fun.
#### What are some of your interests and hobbies outside of work?
In my free time I really like to chill out – I’m into movies, I do a lot of reading, going to the pub, walking the dogs. I’m also really into cooking and trying new stuff, like barbecuing.