The Interview
-   DHL
-   toptable
-   ICAP
-   RollUp Media
-   BNY Mellon
-   TC Consulting
-   MarkitSERV
-   Pinesoft
-   IDBS
-   Vertex
-   LateRooms
-   Betfair  

I chose IT.  I was honoured enough to have been given the opportunity to sell my final project (from my Electrical Engineering degree at the University of Limerick) to a Company who subsequently hired me to make the necessary modifications to fit their business.  The project was a barcode reader for stock control in retail, and is still being used today.  It’s a incredible sense of accomplishment and achievement knowing that something I’ve created is out there in the world!  I was offered several graduate roles after completing my degree and whilst trying to decide with path to take, my father’s pearls of wisdom resonated in my mind...“son; now your degree education is over, you can start your life education”.  I knew that I didn’t want to be ‘just a number’ in a huge corporation; I wanted to learn from people and be inspired.  Despite a number of offers from bigger companies being in the midst of the ‘IT boom’, I chose to work for start-up Virtual Access; a network systems company which consisted of incredible ex-BT engineers.  I chose experience over money; a choice I would still make today.  I wanted excitement and the challenge of a small team where you inevitably get to wear more than one hat as all hands are to the pump!  I was phenomenally lucky to learn from some of the best in the business, and I wasn’t just involved in the ‘techy’ side of things either, but in the creative, finding requirements and getting to work closely with developers.  This enabled me to have a greater understanding and appreciation of various aspects of the business and I certainly owe a lot to Virtual Access for giving me an incredible grounding in my chosen career.

Although you have to always be prepared for the unexpected and be ready to face the various challenges of the day, there are a few things that are quite typical such as stand-ups, plans and meetings.  In our team meetings, we leave titles at the door.  Everyone has a voice and a valid opinion whether you’re in QA, test, development or otherwise; and it doesn’t matter if you’re junior-level or Director-level.  I like to leave my calendar as flexible as possible, approachability is really important to me - I want my team to be able to come to me with anything.  As a leader of anything, you need to be open and flexible, be able to face new challenges...and if the challenges seem insurmountable, then take a step back and re-evaluate.  Take note of the immoveable, and work a way round them.  If the release date can’t change, then don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board and work out a new way, a new system or process to get you to that date on time.  Learn a new skill, discover more information, understand as much as possible.

Something ‘typical’ that I like to impress on my team is to have an appreciation for all other aspects of the business.  One of the first companies I worked for, everyone had to do a ‘cycle’ of other roles, for example; the developers had to join the test team, or the BA’s would join the developers.  We live in a much more ‘open source’ world than when I first started my career - with forums, Linkedin groups and boards, there’s a wealth of information out there for all to access.  It’s great that Graduates have this incredible tool to retrieve information; from degrees, to ISEB and day-to-day business queries.  If you understand more, you can respond better, faster and more efficiently...be proactive and not reactive.

The people.  I am very fortunate to have learnt from some extraordinary people and in turn, it makes me want to be that good influence for the next generation of talent.  Technology changes so quickly, and making yourself constantly relevant is so important.  It’s no good being great, and then as technology inevitably changes and you don’t, then you plateau and eventually start to become superfluous to requirement.  I am fortunate enough to work with some amazing people at Betfair; we have such strong and hard-working teams, and being able to match my auspicious background from my very first job, with the wealth of up-to-date information available really allows me to be the best leader I can be, and ‘pass it on’ so to speak.  With the relatively new Agile-phenomenon, there’s more integration within diverse teams and it allows people to do what they’re good at as well as make a difference in other areas.  Everyone should be a ‘slave to QA’ - we all have a part to play in the central process and we are all equal parts of the same delivery team.

I hate saying it, but the politics.  When companies shift from being a small/medium business to being a large enterprise, there are unavoidable challenges, but its how you deal with them that counts.  I think everyone could list ‘time’ as a challenge, no matter what career you have, and whether you’re a large company or a start-up.  QA is all about, well; quality.  It’s easy to throw that word around so much that eventually it loses meaning or relevance.  The way that technology constantly and rapidly changes, and the power with which it effects people, it forces people in the industry to continually challenge themselves and the way they test, create or develop.  The ‘need for speed’ is colossal, if you don’t get the bigger and better technology out then someone else is just waiting in the wings ready to swoop in.  Having said that, the ‘overlooked’ nature of QA is providing that resounding quality where others may lack.  There’s no point in delivering first, if the quality is bad because there’s so much other choice out there now, that the end user will just move on to the next product or service.  By shaking things up, learning new technologies and striving for better, team members have to be smarter to deliver on time and on budget - so the biggest challenge with the job is learning to challenge yourself!

For me, challenges are motivating.  My wife thinks I’m mad; but the harder the challenge, the more I relish it!  Betfair have a team of excellent people, they are all open to learning from each other and there is definitely a ‘change is ok’ ethos here.  I am never afraid to say I don’t know something, and I like to think I promote that kind of atmosphere within my team.  There is no such thing as a stupid question; it’s stupid if you don’t ask.

To be a leader, you don’t have to know everything.  Trust the team you’ve put in place - just because you’re the leader in ‘title’, doesn’t mean you deserve it.  You have to respect them, and in turn you will earn their trust and deference.  As a leader, you should set the vision but not be afraid to challenge - don’t have your head in the sand!  Accept the individual challenges that people bring, encourage team involvement - just because a company has done something for however many years, doesn’t mean it’s the right way.  Everything has to evolve to get better or stay significant; if you’re passionate about it then it will trickle down through your team and to the end user.  Someone told me once that the best trait of a leader is to make yourself ‘redundant’...if you have a high performing self managing team, then you’ve done your job well.  You’ve empowered them enough to be confident and strong, which means you don’t have to be hands-off process driven, and can be more hands-on with the aspects that you enjoy; I would never ask anyone to do something I wouldn’t do myself and I hope my team would understand that even though there are certain principals and guidelines that are rigid for the company itself, there is definitely an element of flexibility in everything else.

I don’t have an office; when I was given one, I gave it back!  I like to be in amongst everyone and I believe that a leader should be with his team.  From the moment I was in my first team lead role, I didn’t really have a mentor; so I like to take everything I’ve learnt and passing it on, if it can help someone else along the way then all the better.  There’s few things more rewarding than seeing members of your team slowly fulfil their potential as future leaders.  We recently had a large team meeting to discuss a new corporate structure and when ‘Head of QA’ was mentioned, a junior member of the team commented that Betfair don’t have one!  To be honest, that’s how I like it.  I don’t have an email signature for a reason; I don’t like to use the ‘Head of’ title unless absolutely necessary.

As I mentioned before, my final year ‘bar code reader’ project was bought by a company when I was fresh out of University.  From that brief modification contract, I was offered various graduate roles and joined Virtual Access which was a small start-up and an amazing company to work for.  From there, I was put on-site with various larger Clients, and took on more of a team lead or project manager role.  It was usual for the entire team to be working 12-hour days; and 18-hour days weren’t unheard of either!  I learnt so much in this role, and now having the chance to filter than information to my team is really very satisfying.

After being born in England and moving back to my parent’s native country of Ireland when I was very young, all my working experience from the age of 14 has been there.  In January of this year, my wife and I moved over here with our two year-old son, and have since added to the family with my beautiful daughter.  A life in QA can often result in very long hours and being the proud father of two young children, I already have to look up ‘sleep’ in the dictionary - so you can imagine that having to take calls at 2/3am for hours at a time would take its toll!  The lifestyle alteration when joining Betfair was a necessary one as well as a much-welcomed opportunity to move over here and join a great company.

I have always been a ‘reluctant leader’.  In my first few positions, it made me uncomfortable to be in a position of power and authority, often thinking I wasn’t ready for that kind of responsibility.  I have built on teams, restructured teams and started teams from scratch; and although I don’t gravitate in the direction of ‘leadership’, I seem to naturally travel that way.

As a tester you wear three hats; a customer hat, a business hat and a product hat.  You have to view the product you’re testing as the end user/customer - the functionality might be amazing and it might be feature-rich, but do you want to use it?  The ‘business hat’ is about managing risk, and the ‘product hat’ is helping critique and give feedback on the product.  A common misconception is that testing is all about breaking things and delivering bad news - you have to be able to look at the bigger picture and become more involved in the business and the actual product you’re testing.

When I was at Virtual Access and the company was still very small, a developer and myself went to a Telco ‘bake-off’ in the Netherlands, so show in the ‘best router’ category.  As you can imagine, with companies like Cisco in the playing field, we were very much considered the ‘little boys’.  As great as companies like Cisco are, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd there and that was exactly why I chose to join Virtual Access as a graduate.  Overwhelmingly enough, we beat out all the big guys with our router technology, and they were coming over to see us and asking questions and making comments...it was pretty exceptional.  Knowing that all our knowledge, hard work and long hours had paid off was pretty outstanding and that’s definitely one of my best memories.

Honourable.  Trustworthy.  Trusting and trustful.  Respectful.  Accountable.  These are major ones - and they might seem simple to say, but remembering them each day is really important. Don’t commit to things unless you can deliver - that definitely plays into being accountable and honourable.  The role of a leader is twofold - when there is a success, make sure your team get all the credit...and when there are hard times, shield your team from it.  You wouldn’t have any accomplishments without the team in place, and similarly when a project isn’t going quite as well as expected as there’s pressure from business stakeholders etc, it’s your responsibility to protect your team from external stresses.  Take ownership of everything you do, as well as your team.  Be prepared to play your part - you have to fail to succeed.  No one is expected to know everything, I would never condemn someone for making a mistake.  Don’t get me wrong, if the same mistake is made repeatedly then it’s time for a different conversation, but realistically you’re never going to metaphorically beat someone up as much as they beat themselves, so why add another nail to the coffin?  Trust and respect go hand-in-hand, they are hard earned but easily lost.

I think it needs to start from the Colleges - no one really talks about Test and QA as a choice within IT.  It’s often an afterthought or discovered by accident.  I find that when people spend time in this field, they discover how diverse and rewarding it can be so we need to showcase that more, earlier on.  Much to my disappointment, studying doesn’t stop after Uni!  I’m still studying every day; new technologies, methodologies and information.  If graduates don’t understand test and it’s commonly misconceived ‘negativity’, they won’t even entertain the idea of starting a career as a tester...it’s actually quite a skill being able to successfully break something - I like to call it “creative destruction”.  The industry needs to showcase itself more, and perhaps if there were more speakers brought in to Universities for example people from Facebook or Google, then graduates would understand the draw of ‘popular’ companies.

There is another common misconception that QA can be done by the end user - if they don’t like it then you’ll hear about it.  That’s an issue in itself.  It’s not only getting external people onboard, but convincing other people in the business that quality assurance is of vital importance.

ISEB has certainly come a long way in helping the Test and QA fields; when I first studied there was no qualification you could take to be a tester, and even to this day I don’t have my ISEB certification.  You could show the world you were proficient in Microsoft or QTP for example, but until recently there was nothing to show for testers...this will go a long way towards drawing more graduates to test.