Testing the Waterhouse

Here's an interesting statistic for you (granted from the USA): Huffington Post have labelled being a QA Engineer as the second happiest job in America When I stumbled upon this article, I had to read the list twice, really? Being a QA Engineer is the second happiest job!? Someone had better tell that to some people I work with... I joke ;) What is it that makes this job so happy then? To me, it's the challenge of learning new things on a constant basis, the past few weeks have been spent trying to get my head around Espresso an automation API from Google for Android apps, I haven't spent as much time as I would have liked with it, but it's definitely challenging, and very rewarding. If I get to spend a whole day on it, then that does make me happy, so there's that I suppose. Then there's the opportunities to constantly try and think of better ways of doing things, improving how we test so we can spend more time well, testing. It's rewardin...

I often try and think of ways that I can offer value to my company by going above and beyond that of a standard QA. Whilst this will vary from company to company, I've decided to list ways that I try and go above and beyond in my company and my role to help out and offer as much value as possible. These are in no particular order, but here goes: 1 - Share your domain knowledge, whilst this should be a given, all too often this isn't the case. If someone asks for help on a particular subject, help them, don't just say I'll do it and let you know when it's done. If you show them then they will hopefully learn and be able to help others, and become less reliant on you and your time. 2 - Offer your help whenever you can, if you do have an expertise in a particular system, or something you have worked on in the past, when issues arise, don't shy away from offering advice, or offering solutions to problems. This will get your name out there and people will tak...