Meet the team – Doli Kumari

How long have you been with DPS?

I joined DPS on 30 May, 2022. I have felt so welcomed by my colleagues since arriving at the organisation!

What is your role?

My role is Web Developer and my main motive is to make everything look pretty and to improve user experience.

What are some of the things you’ve learnt in this role at DPS?

Definitely about how to collaborate and work together as a team, because in my previous role I totally worked from home, so this has been a good experience to work within a team in the office. I have learned about how we develop solutions, talk to Aaron (Chief Technical Officer) to resolve issues, and work with the other team members whenever I have issues. So team building has been a big focus.

What is the best thing about working for DPS?

The best thing about working for DPS is being able to assist people who are navigating the aged care and disability sector. Since I was a child my mum has worked in the disability sector, she still works in the disability sector, so I was keen to learn about the system. I think we do a great job in terms of publications, helping others to find retirement villages or aged care homes, and assisting people to find all the support they need.

Additionally, I’m an introvert, so coming into the office and talking to people was also a big deal for me. But the team have been so accepting of me, so I’m really happy that I’m working for DPS.

What is the best thing you have worked on?

So far, my best project would be the first website I worked on, which was the DPS organisation website. When I joined, Aaron gave me this project to develop our organisation’s website into something engaging and fascinating.

I’m really proud of what I’ve done for the DPS website!

What is your greatest achievement?

My greatest achievement so far in my career would be front-end development. Whenever you go to a website, you are diving into the front end – dealing with the user experience. So providing a great user experience on our websites is really important. I’m still learning how to make the user experience even better, but I think that’s my greatest achievement so far.

Now for the fun questions! Which team member would you most like to be stuck on a desert island with and why?

Aaron, DPS’ CTO – he is the Captain of the ship so he would definitely help me out if I’m stuck somewhere, like he always does. He’s quite funny sometimes and I just really like him as a person and as a manager, so it has to be Aaron.

He has good time management skills which could be useful for survival, I’m totally blown away by the time management skills he has, plus he’s a manager so he has all the leadership skills needed when stuck on an island!

What fictional place would you most like to go to?

Hogwarts! As a child, I actually believed that there was a place, a school, that taught magic in London, so I would definitely like to go there.

I’d like to fly on a broom with Harry Potter or at least one of his friends.

I’d also really like to see the huge library they have there.

What could you give a 40-minute presentation on with absolutely no preparation?

Disability and mental health, because mental health is a big deal.

We can all think that we are doing ok – we are laughing, we are doing things – but at a certain point, we can become affected by something. I could give a speech hours long on this because, as I said, my mother used to work in a school for children with disability and there were kids who had depression and anxiety so I have experienced dealing with that sort of thing. During my school holidays, I used to volunteer at her school to teach them basic skills, so I know what it feels like to be depressed or have anxiety and how you cope with it.

From that experience, I can easily talk about it and it’s a good thing if you’re feeling that way to just talk it out, as talking really helps.

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