What makes you excited to start work each day?
The idea of making a difference to someone – A client, team member, co-worker, student/mentee… I love to help. I’m also a hopeless optimist, so even after a tough day, I usually come back the next fresh and with renewed determination! I’m good at what I do – that makes a huge difference.
Up until today, what’s the most significant accomplishment of your career?
Being able to establish myself in the US after moving from the UK, and having a forced three year break from Quality Assurance due to Visa restrictions! It was a risk, leaving behind a career and reputation I’d built up in a relatively small testing community in the UK, and having to first wait (till I got employment authorization), then try to convince companies I wasn’t a fraud, and I was actually a really great QA professional. At times I used to regard career gaps on resumes with some wariness, but this time I was on the other side of that wariness – it was a valuable lesson.
What inspired you to enter the technology field?
I took an IT track during my undergraduate degree (in English Language and Literature; I had initially planned to be a teacher), and wondered if this IT malarkey was worth a try, so I decided to complete a Masters in IT…My masters project allowed me to pair my interest in IT and my love of literature, as I created an interactive educational program exploring Scottish poetry.
What would you be doing if you hadn’t gone into technology consulting?
Probably would have gone into Technical Authoring – Software testing and technical writing were both part of my first job out of college. I am quite a good writer and now have multiple publications in QA press. Here’s a few blogs she wrote for Trissential’s blog page:
Demystifying Testing Maturity
Testing Centers of Excellence: Then and Now
What do you do when you’re not working?
I jog, read, cook and love rocking out on the drums (I learned to play during the pandemic!). I also spend as much time as I can with my family, supporting my two amazing sons and having fun. My oldest is an English major (so I finally have someone to geek out with about our favorite poems and books!) and my youngest is a jazz bassist studying music in Philadelphia, which is so cool (and he even helps me with my drumming)! They are wonderful, incredible young men, and I am so proud of them both.
I also support a fantastic non-profit that helps writer-parents stay on track after having kids, by helping with their website and social media.
What part of Trissential’s core values do you connect with best and why?
I connect with them all, which is one of the main reasons I joined Trissential. However, I have to say that my top value is Passionately Professional. I have loved testing since I started my career many years ago, and always get a thrill when I meet or exceed someone’s expectations, put them further ahead on their testing journey than when they started.
Why did you choose to join Trissential?
I’ve never liked the ‘industrialized’ approach to QA/consultancy, which is why I did a talk a few years ago about ‘Testing Ponchos – One Size Never Fits All’, so when I heard Trissential’s guiding principle of ‘one size fits one’, it felt like a perfect match!
