April 25th, 2023 | Interview with Ergin
Tell us a little bit about yourself:
I am Ergin – I’m 29 years old and I work at QESTIT Austria (based in Vienna). I started at the company as a tester around 4 years ago and worked my way up to the Test Manager position.
After finishing my bachelor´s in Electronics and Business, I have started a part-time master´s degree with the focus on IT. I am also a passionate footballer and played it semi-professionally for 20 years.
What is the main goal of your work?
As a Test Manager, my main goal is to ensure that the software or the product tested matches the defined requirements and is of high-quality. I focus on the quality of our team work as well, making sure that all team members (both QESTIT and client´s) can work in the best possible way.
What advice would you give to achieve this goal?
Good communication and clear work processes are key. By communicating well with clients and within the team, all expectations can be clearly defined and structured – what is wished for and what should be done.
Why did you choose software testing?
Actually, it was a recommendation – during my bachelor studies, a couple of my classmates were already working at QESTIT and asked me whether I was interested in starting in the field of Software Testing as well, since I was always into IT. That is how my career began here.
How do you see software testing in 10 years?
It´s difficult to say – it is always developing further and becoming more difficult as well as complex. I believe, it will go further away from manual testing and go more in the direction of automation, however, experts will still be needed to handle these processes and to evaluate the results.
Considering this, what do you do to keep learning about testing advances?
By continuous education – through various courses and certifications that the company offers (such us, for instance, Udemy) or even fairs. However, I would say that the most important thing, is learning from the experience of other colleagues and by regularly exchanging information with them – this is for me invaluable.
What is the one misconception that annoys you the most about your job?
Many underestimate the complexity of testing and that it is a continuous process that needs to be taken care of, from the beginning till the end. Quite often, it is not seen as important.
If you had to give one anecdote about your job, what would it be?
Unfortunately, due to an unexpected injury, I had to be absent from a project for several weeks – I appointed a colleague that had recently started working at QESTIT to take over one of mine projects while I was gone. This turned out to be a great decision – not only did the project moved forward during my absence, it allowed him to showcase his skills and capabilities as well as become a test lead. I was really proud!
What are your personal experiences that are useful in your job?
I would say football plays here a huge role, especially my experience as the captain of the team. I have learnt how to identify where the strengths and weaknesses within the team are as well as how to support them – which is what I am doing in my daily job as well.
Why motivates you to work at QESTIT
It´s definitely the people. I can identify with the values of the company, especially with the people-first approach, which is the reason why I have been here for 4 years.