Inspiration and the Mentor Who Guided Me -- Part 3

 

Here is the first blog post of this series where I share how I started my Software Testing career.  I continue with the next question in this blog post.   The second question from Trending in Testing is -- "Who is your inspiration or mentor to guide you towards your journey?".

To start, I will thank my fellow testers and programmers with whom I worked and working today.  They influence my practice to get better each time.  I continue to learn from them.

People and Networking

I had just stepped into the second year of my Software Testing career.  One evening, I went to the desk of my friend and colleague Kantharaja MP.  He was reading the blog Thinking Tester by Shrinivas Kulkarni.  I got curious and asked what it is.  I did not know what the blog is then.  He explained to me what the blog is.  I got to know Shrinivas Kulkarni, James Bach, Pradeep Soundararajan, Ashok T, Rahul Verma, and Michael Bolton from the blog of Shrini.

Further, I got to know Vipul Kocher, Rahul Mirakur, Meeta Prakash, Ben Simo, Scott Barber, Gerald Marvin Weinberg, Martin Fowler, and Dr. Cem Kaner.  I connected with these practitioners and started to observe their practice.  Thanks, Kantharaja MP.

As I continued, I met Ajay Balamurugadas, Santhosh Tuppad, Parimala Hariprasad, and more friends who joined this network.

I'm continuing to connect with practitioners every day.  I interact, I observe.  I'm learning from each person with whom I interact.  I'm learning by observing the work of practitioners with whom I do not interact in person.

Mentor and Mentoring

I see, we must set out to find the mentor in our journey!  Find your mentors.  Yes, I said mentors and not a mentor.

My Mentor

I did not have a mentor.

I wish, I had a mentor who could connect, understand and help me to be competent, and know the craft, industry, and skills.  I continued to practice and learn from my mistakes, and by observing other practitioners.

I was seen as fun and the topic of fun for my attire, how I spoke and I write the English.  This made me distant from people whom I approached seeking help.  Today, I understand, could be this is the help I was offered for being better and I feel good about it.  I continue to respect them.  These people have inspired me to practice better.  I silently observed how they practiced and I experimented to develop my ways to practice.

I seek and step up to learn from all people when I see that, I can learn from a person or they can help me to learn.  This is doing good for me!

Today, I seek the help of people in the community by approaching them for their suggestions and guidance.  I give the credits and say their name in public and this is important.  I apply the suggestion, guidance, and what I learn from this appropriately based on the need and demand of context.

Ravisuriya as a Mentor

Today, 

• I want to be a mentor who understands the mentee and assists in the practice
• I want to connect with a mentee and listen

I understand,

• Each person is unique and comes with different
• emotions
• mindset
• attitude
• family situations
• personal life situations
• physical health conditions
• mental health conditions
• aspirations
• problems witnessed, and 
• connecting frequency levels
• and, it varies every day with a person

I try to connect, listen, learn, and assist where I can.  I'm a jovial person but at the same time, I'm committed and disciplined when it comes to practice and working.  I see the fun where we all enjoy and get involved in the learning, practice, and work.

Working with a Mentee

I do not associate and work with a mentee by seeing:

• her or his social identity
• how his or her English is
• how she or he appears in dressing
• how she or he socializes and opens up to conversing  

All these are needed in the professional life of a Software Engineer.  I do not deny it.  These have to be groomed every day.  Today, I want to and will dress better than I did in the early 2000s.  I speak!  I express what I have, feel and think, and communicate.

But, it is not a mandate to me for listening to a person (mentee) and getting started unless I can make time.  These all will change gradually when one sees self and puts in efforts to get better.  And, a mentor has a role to play here as well.

If mocked for this, probably the mentee or whoever wants to be a mentee will build the distance and more barriers.  This will disturb the communication and relationship between the mentor and the mentee.  All have different conditions and environments in which we grew up and it has an influence on a person (mentee and mentor).

I look for how serious, disciplined, and committed is the mentee in progressing where she or he wants to aspire.  I see the communication is consistent in whatever form between the mentee and mentor.  By the way, communication is not English; the spoken language is one of the mediums through which we communicate.  And, English is one medium to communicate in the communication.

I try to see how can I assist and to what extent.  If I can, I will assist; if I do not have the skills to assist, I will try to connect them with other practitioners who can help better than me.  I talk and make sure we smile together in discussions.

I do not make fun of a person who asked for help and assistance.  I wish no others undergo what I went through.

Find your Mentors

Having a mentor helps very much! 

Find your mentors. Have more than one mentors who have

• the different thought processes,
• ideologies,
• thinking style and pattern,
• different experiences in the area of your practice,
• contrasting questions and approaching ways to learn and solve a problem,
• practitioners of different roles in your field of practice and work,
• practitioners who are not from your field of practice and work,
• and, now you continue to add more to this list ...

Most of the time one will fall into the trap of having a mentor who has got similar thought process and ideology.  This is good.  But, it is never enough to see the perceptions of your subject, work, and practice.

Connect to people of different ages and more importantly who have gone through what you are going through and also who have not gone through it.  

You and your mentor should be able to connect and offer what you both can exchange in return.  Mentorship is a relationship and a partnership where you share and receive.

I try to learn consistently that, the mentor does not have to be older in age and industry experience than I have.  A mentor is one who is able to give and share what I'm looking for in the journey and thereby helps to grow and transform me into a better version each time.

Find your mentors!  Connect to them.

How I Paved my Path into Software Testing! -- Part 2

 

I did not want to cut short sharing my experience for the below question.  I want to write what I want, to share about my journey to my first Software Testing job.  The question from Trending in Testing: -- "Could you please share your story about how you paved your path into Software Testing?"

College and Job Hunt

In 4^th semester, I decided to take Software Testing as my job.  I practiced Java 2 then, and using Core Java is one of my skills.  But, in college, we were said not to pick Software Testing as a career and job but instead to pick programming as a job.  The way I debugged my own code, it showed me that I’m doing better in testing each time.

On graduating B.E. in the year 2005, I walked to the public library to read the Times Ascent every Wednesday. I made a paper booklet that fitted my pocket and I wrote the email-id of companies who published (advertised) the openings and hiring for Software Engineers. All the openings advertised were for experienced software engineers.  I made note of all these email-id published in the Times of India's, Times Ascent. I hardly remember any call for freshers then on Times Ascent.  I did write a cold email to every advertisement for a Software Engineer job published in Times Ascent.

I walked to Software Companies in Bengaluru, asking for the email-id of the HR or email-id to share my fresher resume. I noted them in the booklet I had in my pocket. I gave the hard copy of my resume to the front office staff and asked them to share it with HR. Also, I mailed my resume later and asked for an interview opportunity saying how I will add value though I'm a fresher. I did not hear back!

Then, browsing at the internet centre was on the 52 KBPS modern telephone line and priced at 40 to 45 INR per hour. I had to mail around 30 to 45 individual emails in an hour with that choking internet. I had a credit account in the internet center as I extended 15 to 20 minutes each time, and it cost me 25 INR more. Today, do we have internet centers today in cities?  We do it all on a smartphone now most time.

Interview and My First Job

Those were the days that saw 6000+ freshers in a walk-in drive.  On one Wednesday, I saw an advertisement in Times Ascent from Datacard Software India Pvt. Ltd., looking for senior and lead engineers in Java. I wrote an email and shared my resume saying I'm a fresher and can use Java to program. I did not hear back from Datacard. 

After two months, I got a call from Radhika Muralidharan, the HR head of Datacard, India, asking if I was available for giving the interview. I said, YES!  

The first round was Java programming, and it had ten programs. I wrote the programs, all ten programs; I could see the confidence in me. I got a call after a week for the second round.  

In the second round, the interview panel had Srinivasan Rao the MD of Datacard Software India, and Vasu, the engineering manager. The questions were on Linked List and Double Linked List. I had the idea for these Data Structures; I wrote the programs for traversing the list and nodes.  But, I was not pleased with the logic, and I took 30+ minutes for two questions. The questions were about my logic, and I said, "it does not look good to me". 

This is the feedback I received in this round -- "You are good in Core Java; now you will have to work on Data Structures and optimize the same".   I acknowledged and accepted it.   But, I was confident in the way how I tested the logic I wrote for Linked List and Double Linked List and how I reasoned my logic is not a good one and why so.  I was said to leave as I did not meet the expectation.  I was not happy!  I practiced the data structures better.  I did not even know that data structures are a need and it is most expected in the interviews, then.

I continued my job hunt in walk-ins that saw 6000+ freshers. Three weeks later, I got a call from Radhika Muralidharan. She asked if I'm still looking out for a job, and if yes can I collect the offer letter at 4:30 PM. I said YES!

I was 30 minutes early for my interviews and on the day to collect the offer letter. Radhika spoke to me and asked to be seated in the meeting room. After 10 minutes, Srinivasan Rao came to the meeting room with an offer letter. He said, "What if I offer you the role of Testing?"

Ah! I needed a job. I wanted to be in Software Testing. I was offered a job in Software Testing. I said, "Sir, I will be happy, and I will do my best."  

He said, "Your skills are unique; you and we can benefit from your testing. Can you join on 6th July?".   I said, "I will start tomorrow." I still remember how Radhika and Srinivasan smiled at me when I said that.

I'm happy Software Testing choose me.  I'm happy that I got a job, and I got what I wanted as my job! I'm a Software Test Engineer by choice.  I'm glad, Software Testing is still holding me and uplifting me each day.  I'm a student of Software Testing & Engineering.

I Convey My Thanks and Gratitude

I thank Radhika for looking at my email and for the opportunity she gave me to give my interview. If she had not marked my email to call me for an interview, I don't know!  I thank Srinivasan Rao for the opportunity he gave me. I remember these two people, and they are in my thoughts. I'm grateful for the confidence they had in hiring me. Thank you, Radhika and Srini.  This job helped me to help my family.  I asked my mother to stop making agarbatti's and relax; she was doing it to support the family.  My first salary was 13000 INR.

I had four rupees in my pocket that evening. I looked for a coin telephone box on MG Road. I called my mother to tell her I got a job. up  I called my childhood friend Kantharaju to say I got a job; he picked me that day back home.  

I was on a project the next day with requirements, test cases, and design documents. The tasks were defined with timelines to deliver. Kalyan Kumar, the project manager gave me the book "Effective Methods for Software Testing" by William E Perry. He marked the chapters to complete reading in a week. That is the first book that I read to know and understand the approach and process in software testing.

I started my Software Testing career happily.  I m a Software Tester Engineer by choice.  I believe, Software Testing chose me and I'm grateful for it.  I'm a student of Software Testing and continuing my practice confidently amidst all the chaos that is surrounding Software Testing as a practice and career, today.  

And, this is how I started my Software Testing career.

Questions from Trending in Testing -- Part 1

 

This series of blog posts was supposed to be an article for a testing community.  I'm sharing it here on my blog as I could not finish it on time and respond to the moderator of the community.

On reading these questions, I wrote a draft for it.  I saw what I wrote could not fit into one post.  I tried to make it into one post.  But, doing so, I felt, I'm not doing justice to myself, to Treding in Testing for asking me to write, and to the reader who will be reading it.

As a writer or author of an article or blog, for first I have to enjoy my writing and its content, right?  I have to feel it.  Only then, the readers might feel what I write.  I did not get this feeling when I tried to fit it into one post.  Because, the questions were so contentful in itself. How to bring the value for those good questions?

I decided, I should be giving the credits to Trending in Testing and to make these each questions into a blog post, so that I do justice for the questions, to Trending in Testing, and to myself.

Search for Trending in Testing and read the interview of other practicing Software Test Engineers. Thank you, Trending in Testing for asking me these questions and any credits for this will be to you.

I was asked the below questions and I'm making each question as one blog post.

1. Could you please share your story about how you paved your path into Software Testing?
• Blog: How I Paved my Path into Software Testing! -- Part 2
2. Who is your inspiration or mentor to guide you towards your journey?
• Blog: Inspiration and the Mentor Who Guided Me -- Part 3
3. What are the common challenges that you face as a Software Tester? How do you overcome them?
• Blog: Common Challenges as a Software Tester; How I Overcome it -- Part 4
• Blog: Practice: The Top 5 Challenges I See For Today -- Part 4A
• Blog: Business: The Top 5 Challenges I See For Tdoay -- Part 4B
• Blog: Project: The Top 5 Challenges I See For Today -- Part 4C
4. What can people in the same role do to upskill themselves so that they can keep pace with the changing trends?
• Blog: To Be Contemporary in Software Testing & Engineering -- Part 5
5. According to you, what are the important factors to consider for becoming successful in Software Testing?
• Blog: What is Success to me in Software Testing? -- Part 6
6. What are the upcoming trends in Software Testing that our audience should know about?
• Blog: Difference between Software Testing and Upcoming Trends in Software Test Engineering -- Part 7
7. What advice would you like to give to aspiring testing enthusiasts regarding how they can pave their way in the industry and be successful?
• Blog: The Advice to Test Engineer in Me -- Part 8