Luthfi: Life as a photographer-cum-QA-engineer
Although Luthfi is a Computer Science graduate from the reputable AMIKOM, initially he refused to pursue his career as an engineer. Months had passed since he graduated, but working in information technology industry was never his dream. He had other thing to love: photography.
“I see photography as my redemption. For me, a photograph is not merely a frozen memory trapped in a painting of light, it is a medium for a photographer to engage his/her soul,” Luthfi said.
Realized that his belly was getting noisier than ever, he chose to work as a freelance photographer. With his determination, slowly he could develop himself as an established photographer, creating a creative agency that focused on event photography. However, It’s no surprise that maintaining early-stage business is never an easy task, especially with limited sources available. Additionally, he alone was struggling financially as his business couldn’t provide him stable income yet.
This inevitable condition made him looking for a steady job while taking care of his business. Because he only wanted to work for a job that wasn’t related to IT industry, his job searching journey went for long. And like others who fell in a long unemployment, he went in extreme disappointment as he still hadn’t found a job that suited him.
In the middle of disastrous time, a friend told Luthfi about an opportunity at Binar Academy. This turned out to be a major turning point for him. As if he was given second chance, he enrolled to Binar Academy as a Quality Assurance (QA) candidate right away. The reason to choose this specialization was simple, “I hate writing code to develop an app. It’s too complex for me. But, I love to spot the flaws in code strings.”
Beyond his imagination, his days at Binar Academy were bright and it seemed that QA engineer fitted him perfectly. He was well-known for his relentlessness in launching massive tests again and again to chase every possible bug. No doubt, his developer peers were often sank deep in his vicious charisma.
After finished his bootcamp program at Binar Academy Batch 4, he continued his journey at the very same place. Later, this reputation grew stronger during his 3 months spell at Binar Academy‘s’ internship program. With Luthfi in the roster, Binar Academy App could be publicly released in less than 4 months.
Shortly after his internship ended, he joined CIMB Niaga — one of Binar Academy’s partnering companies — tech team to boost his career forward. Now, while he is still routinely doing his photographer job, he is also actively participating in CIMB Niaga ambitious project to be the innovation leader in banking industry.
We asked Luthfi to share his concepts about Software Quality Assurance that often goes misleading out there. Let’s check it out.
Binar Academy: Hey, Luthfi. Long time no see. Congratulations for the new job! What are you up to these days?
Luthfi: Hehehe thanks! We’re in the middle of a big project, just wait and see. It’s still confidential, but you’ll see soon.
Binar Academy: It’s okay. Can we get some of your time and ask you several questions?
Luthfi: Yeah, why not?
Binar Academy: Let’s see… you are known as a vicious QA engineer. Knowing that the concept of QA itself is rather blurry —many people don’t know the difference between QA and QC — what is QA for you?
Luthfi: Don’t call me like that, there are lot of skilful QA engineers just at Binar Hackerspace only. Okay, firstly let me tell you. Based on my principles, QA is related to a series of process and rules which aims to predict and spotting failures of our product as far as possible. On the other hand, Quality Control is about maintaining process in proper manner to create a product which conforms to our standard.
Binar Academy: Is there any easy way to put it?
Luthfi: Think like this. Just like when you’re starting to date someone, a newly-created mobile app needs a lot of attention. And that’s exactly what a QA engineer should do: giving a lot of attention. Making sure the app is running well without bugs requires enormous endurance and patience, which reminds me of taking care of my beloved one. Hahahaha.
Binar Academy: What’s the perks of being a QA engineer?
Luthfi: Do you know that a QA engineer always think about the future? In daily basis, we have to provide a list of scenario which users may have on our app. This includes the “abnormal” users who are always unpredictable. Long story short, we are the ones who should predict them.
Binar Academy: In terms of relationship, does it sound like.. rather possessive?
Luthfi: Don’t call us possessive, call us cautious. Hahahaha.
Binar Academy: Bet your girlfriend will totally buy it, if only you have one hahahaha. Moving on, when should I know that I urgently need a QA engineer?
Luthfi: Have you ever tasted a salty coffee? If you have, your kitchen may need a QA engineer because there is something wrong in the way you arrange sugar, coffee, and salt jar. Just like that.
Binar Academy: Cool. Love your fun analogy. Okay, seems like this is the end of our interview. Thanks a lot for your time. See you later, Luthfi!
Luthfi: Yeah, you’re welcome. Bye!
Binar Academy is a non-formal academy to revolutionize education where we teach students to build an app within 10 weeks and transform companies digitally.
We provide several services to transform your company digitally by providing the human capital, technological knowledge and business advisory.
Interested to hire one of our alumni? Visit www.binar.co.id or drop an inquiries at info@binar.co.id
