A day in the life of a QA at Motorway
Hi, I’m Kimberly and I am a QA engineer for TLDR and also the only female tester in the company…..so far.
On a regular day at Motorway, I start at 9:30 am, and start preparing for the day. After a quick scan of my emails and calendar, I begin work on the tickets that need to be tested. I go through the tickets that need testing, known as ‘stories’. These stories are assigned ‘story points’ which is a difficulty rating of the task. If I get a ticket that has a high story point, I will spend the morning to better understand the story, and discuss with teammates on how to go about testing.
At 10:00am, I attend the daily standup meeting with my team, where everyone gives a brief introduction of what they did yesterday and what they plan to do today. We also address any blockers so everyone on the team is well aware of any challenges.
My Motorway colleagues are pretty relaxed! They have their expectations but don’t force requirements on you. They expect good work quality, but if you fall back and ask for help, they willingly teach you.
Our current working arrangement is very flexible. We come into the office one day a week, to work closely with our team. We’ve outgrown our existing office, so it’s not able to accommodate all engineers. However, we are moving to a brand new office in August!
I usually take my lunch at 2.00pm and I normally relax or just watch some videos online to refresh my mind. I often join in on our team bonding / building activities with my colleagues as well.
Testing is not merely pushing buttons on a webpage or writing automation tests. Testing is capturing the essence of the product to release, it is pretending to be users that will use that product, it is preventing issues.
As a QA engineer I need to have a wider vision of the product than all other involved team members. I work with different developers and perform pair testing when needed.
Usually we have two refinement sessions per week, a retrospective and sprint planning session at the end and beginning of every sprint respectively.
We also have company wide meetings like Friday Presentations which are held Monthly on the last Friday and Product Show & Tell every Thursday and monthly All Hands. We also have a Hack day every 2 months from 9am to 4:50pm on the last Friday where everyone is encouraged to participate.
As a female Tester, I am given equal opportunities. I have regular 1–2–1 meetings with my Engineering Manager as well as my QA Lead who supports, guides and encourages me and helps me to set my goals. I find these sessions quite refreshing and helpful and I get an opportunity to discuss various topics or just about anything. Working at Motorway is a fantastic experience where everyone including upper management is supportive and invested in employees growth and development.
For aspiring female software Testers, my advice is to start off from scratch if you have no IT experience. Learning the basics of how software works and thinking systematically and logically is a very good start. While we definitely need more female representation, be careful not to dive in just because of the hype, Go for it only if you are interested and it is something that you will enjoy. If you have a passion to learn and are curious about new things, you can do it!!!
