Moving to Tokyo from abroad with technology skills 🗼30. Interview with Mesut, a QA engineer who is passionate about holding conferences in Tokyo, about the secret to becoming a storyteller

Hi Mesut. Thanks for taking the time to do this interview today. I am very much looking forward to hearing about your amazing journey.

Now, can you tell us your name and what you do?

Of course, my name is Mesut and I am a software test engineer. I am from Turkey, but I moved to Japan about 3 years ago. Now I live and work in Japan. As a test engineer, I work to ensure the quality of the products and software we develop.

So you are a test engineer. Tell us about that!

Yes, there are many things I do. Most of the time I automate test cases and users use the product with different usage scenarios and user journeys. It could be a web application or a mobile application.

As a test engineer, what I do is make sure that every user can successfully complete those user journeys. I ask, “Are there any bugs? Are there any problems with the product?” But it is not only functionality.

There are several non-functional aspects too like performance and usability, UI, UX, and so on. For example, on UI, if it is misspelled, hard to read, has a very small font, or is incomprehensible or hard to read for the user, that is a bug for me. As a test engineer, I create back tickets and report them to the development team.

I see! Okay, tell us what brought you to Tokyo?

I got an offer from a robotics company. And I decided to give it a try. As you said, it was during COVID, so I was already looking for some opportunities and started talking with European companies, not Japanese companies at the time.

However, COVID started and we were told that we had to freeze our hiring. In the meantime, we received another offer from a Japanese firm, so our priority was the EU firm, but when the hiring process was frozen, the Japanese firm was very committed.

Seeing their dedication, I found the project really interesting and decided to live in Japan.

Created a community "Japan Test Community”

I see! Serendipity, isn’t it? Mesut, you founded the “Japan Test Community” and have been organizing meetups. You seem to be an extrovert and a great storyteller. Is this nature or nurture?

Actually, I was a shy boy when I was little.

When the teacher asked me a question in class, it was not easy for me to break the silence and step forward to answer the question by raising my hand. In other words, it takes social courage to step forward. So I was not a very brave person, a little shy and introverted.

But I grew up in a kind of countryside, not in a big city in Turkey. So we had a garden, and I think I had a really good childhood compared to today.

In the garden. We climbed trees. I invited friends over and we played ball.

But personality-wise, as I said before, I was not very talkative. But I can say I had a good time.

It’s interesting. I can’t imagine. You are a great storyteller. Then again, you have been invited to many conferences from all over the world, haven’t you?

I can talk about this because I think this is an interesting story. Yes, I’m a public speaker now, speaking at large organizations and conferences. I’ve spoken in more than 10 countries.

I have given nearly 150 international lectures so far. But when I started this, it was not easy. When I went up on stage for my first lecture, I was shaking.

I was worried, anxious, and excited. By the way, I still get excited every time I give a talk. It’s super normal. I’m human. But I forced myself to control myself even if I got excited. I practiced a lot to improve myself.

At the moment, I am not afraid of speaking in front of many people at all. I can give a speech to 1,000 people in a room. No problem. But again, it does not mean that I don’t get excited.

Be a better Storyteller

I’m surprised! So your public speaking experience has made you a better storyteller and more outgoing?

Yes, at least I am more in control of my emotions. I know it works because I’ve been through it so many times.

And one thing which makes me confident is, I know that there is no true or false in what I am talking about. It’s just storytelling. By telling my story, you can gather insights, advantages, and disadvantages. This is my story and there is nothing wrong with it.

But you have to force yourself to do it because it will be difficult at first. For me it was difficult, but now it’s much easier. Besides, I am working on improving myself. I read a lot about good presentations, effective presentation skills, and articles. I also watch a lot of expert videos.

Oh, wow. I see. That’s great. So you improved by practicing little by little and learning from the speaker’s expert videos?

Yes, for example, the speaker professionals teach how to use effective body language and how to control the stage.

I see. I needed that because as Japanese we are not educated in public speaking and discussion. I think Americans have a good education. This is my challenge for 2024, I want to practice storytelling and presentation.

Okay, Kaori, let’s have a storytelling and presentation workshop in Tokyo!

Passion for creating a great conference in Tokyo

Mesut, that sounds great! Speaking of storytelling, you are passionate about organizing conferences in Tokyo. Can you tell us about that?

Yes. Whenever I am trying to guide the process, whenever I see it, I can help them progress. Sometimes I advise some people and then I’m happy to see the results. That’s my passion.

Conferences are part of that. For example, you can be a part of a conference in different ways. The first option is being a speaker. Explain and share our experiences and stories. We can also make an impact already.

Secondly, we can simply participate as an audience and interact with others. And again, listen to their stories and tell your own. You can make many new friends.

Finally, organize events and build community. This is something I recently started doing in Japan. I run meetups. I started it in Japan at the beginning of this year. It is still growing. We have both online meetings and local meetings.

Eventually, I also plan to hold conferences for this community I have started to build. I have already begun preparations. Hopefully, we will be able to hold it by the end of this year.

That’s great. Mesut, you are planning to hold a conference in Tokyo. Tell us about the concept.

The theme is software quality and testing. However, developers, UI/UX people, product teams, and agile practitioners may also gain a lot from the conference.

For me, the user experience is very important. The user experience for people attending the event has to be at a very high level. They have to feel that this was a really good experience.

They should say to themselves: “I learned a lot of good stories, I met new people, and I made some new friends. Not only technical things but also meeting new people. Just having fun, relaxing, seeing other people having the same problems as I do, or having the Same achievements as I do. “

So networking, having fun, learning some technical all together, and eventually celebrating with an after party. So I wanted to be a full end-to-end journey, a good user journey.

I see. Excellent. Thank you. Okay, last question, what are your dreams for the next 5 or 10 years in your career and personal life?

Yes, it’s a little difficult to see what will happen in 5 or 10 years. Even if you have a plan, even if you have an intention, something will happen and it will go in a different direction.

Who knows if there will be a pandemic in 2020? Let’s go back to 2019, for example. Who could have imagined that the whole world would be on lockdown and everyone would be stuck at home? I mean, that was unpredictable, right?

So sometimes we have those moments. For example, if that had not happened, I might not be in Japan right now, I might not be in Europe right now. So, again, I have some intentions and plans, of course. But let’s see what happens in time.

I might still be in Japan. Maybe not, I might try living somewhere else too. But that might be difficult because I like Japan. So I might have a hard time finding the best place to live.

Regarding the career path, I don’t necessarily have to be a team manager. But I want to lead something. It can be a process. It can be a project. It can be a team, it can be a side business, or a social activity, even if it’s not a job. So I think in five or ten years, I would do this again. As for work, I may or may not continue to work for the same company in the same country.

You are right. we can do A/B testing for our life. You already know life A in Turkey, now it might be life B in Tokyo.

Could life B happen the same way as life C? Or can you choose life A? In other words, we can experiment with different life stages.

Yes. that’ right.

Mesut, Thank you for your wisdom today. I am excited to hold workshops to practice storytelling and presentation with you!

The key takeaway from Mesut:

• Mesut was able to break his limits by forcing himself to improve. He had a lot of public speaking experience at the conference

• One way to beat the imposter syndrome is to accept what you are doing as simply storytelling. Otherwise, you can feel stressed and worry about doing something wrong. This is your story and there is nothing wrong with it. People can gather insights, advantages, and disadvantages from your story

• The most important motto of the conference he wants to create is “good user experience.” Networking, having fun, learning technical stuff, and ultimately celebrating at the after-party. In other words, he wants it to be an end-to-end journey, a good user journey

Our interview video podcast

Today’s guest: Mesut Durukal

Interviewer: Kaori Rei