Rey Mark Lucentes | Comments

What resonated most was Judy's point about how multiple QAs help each other grow. My teammate and I were actually hired as data entry for an ecommerce store, but along the way we were also given testing tasks. I really enjoy it, but I can't say the same for my teammate — she wasn't hired specifically for this role, so she does what she can. We don't really feed off each other for growth, and we have no mentor giving us feedback, so I genuinely don't know how I'm doing as a QA. It's been almost six years. I once had the chance to join a dedicated QA team but turned it down, hoping things would improve where I was. There's some regret, but I can't turn back time. I'm hoping to find new work next year once I've saved up. I still can't fully picture what an actual QA team feels like, but from conversations here on MOT, I recognize so much of what people describe — which tells me I'm doing something right. I want this to be my lifelong career, and I hope to join a proper team soon.

I joined MOT back in 2022 as a data entry specialist, hunting for courses on selectors to build a web scraper. I've been testing software on the side ever since — but this year I decided to pursue software testing as a full-time career. Rediscovering this community has been amazing; I'm learning so much and seeing quality in a whole new light.

Shift down works because instead of trying to change how people behave, it changes how the system responds — kind of a stoic move: you can't control what people will forget or overlook, so you control the response instead.

Great session! “Stay Curious” — gotta love that phrase. It’s such a simple but powerful reminder, especially in testing.