Q&A with systems engineer Aaron Tighe: How to build a career by learning on the job

As a profession built on deep technical expertise, you probably think of an engineer as typically being focused on one specialty. But according to Aaron Tighe, a lead systems engineer at Resmed, being a “jack of all trades” comes in handy in his field of work.

From flipping burgers at McDonald’s to installing credit card terminals to now driving major efficiency gains on Resmed’s global manufacturing lines, Aaron’s somewhat unconventional career path has offered surprising advantages — giving him skills and perspectives he still draws on after 10 years at Resmed.

In this Q&A, Aaron shares how his career unfolded, why “learning by doing” matters, and what kind of mindset helps people thrive at Resmed.

Q: What is your role at Resmed?

I’m a lead systems engineer in the Test Systems Engineering department in manufacturing. Think of my role as something like an architect for the manufacturing lines. In simple terms, I help design and specify the complex test systems that make sure every product that comes off our manufacturing lines works the way it should.

To be a systems engineer, you have to think about the mechanical side of things, the electronic side of things and the software side of things. Being able to translate software-engineer-speak into a mechanical engineer’s dialect and back and forth becomes really useful. I like to learn by doing. You pick up stuff quickly and just build on it.

Q: Your path to Resmed necessarily wasn’t a typical one. Can you share how you got here?

After graduating university during the global financial crisis, roles in the industry were scarce and I took on a lot of odd jobs. It was during this time that I became an EFTPOS terminal technician and would drive around meeting new people as I installed the machines, and I think that gave me a greater depth of knowledge and people skills than if I came straight into engineering from doing a university degree.

Before that, I’d worked a fast-food job at McDonald’s where I learned very quickly how to talk to customers and deal with conflict resolution. Those early jobs really taught me how to work with people and find solutions on the fly.

My start at Resmed was unconventional too. I wasn’t successful in securing the role that I initially applied for, but my profile was re-considered for a hardware engineer role in the manufacturing team. Then around eighteen months later the team discovered I had a lot of knowledge and skills beyond hardware and so they encouraged me to move into the systems team.

Q: What accomplishment are you most proud of at Resmed?

Making our manufacturing systems more efficient. Testing each product at the end of the assembly line used to take us about five minutes, but with extra scope of testing, we got it down to just 90 seconds. That’s a huge change!

Making sure these testing systems are efficient is an important part of the job. Because if we can’t assemble the product, make sure it works and ship it out in a costly and efficient manner, it simply becomes unprofitable.

I don’t think a lot of people realize that manufacturing is not just assembling something, it’s also about helping designers, who may not know the manufacturing systems, or the technologies used to manufacture it, to understand how they could utilize all those systems. Manufacturing really starts at the design stage. Our team works closely with the product designers to ensure we can find those efficiencies and make sure the product is manufacturable and that it is testable for the things that we need to test here.

Q: What’s the team culture like?

The people I work with are close-knit, highly capable and willing to learn. And if there’s something we don’t know, we will go out and find it because that’s just who we are. We don’t draw hard lines in the sand and stop at the boundary. I like that we can talk frankly with each other. There’s no beating around the bush, no politics. And it means we don’t have to worry about how to interpret or things being taken the wrong way.

On the flipside, if your thinking is very much black and white, you’re going to struggle in this environment. We work a lot in that grey middle area. And if you’re close-minded, uncompromising and not willing to learn, you won’t fit in. Everything is learning on the job.

Inspired by Aaron’s story?

Want to be an engineer like Aaron who is a problem-solver, collaborator and innovator who thinks outside the box? If you’re ready to grow your career in an environment where learning by doing is valued and where team culture truly matters, Resmed could be the place for you.