Sheila Bhati

"My personality types show I'm a developer, explorer and quality controller. Developer strongly matches what I do in my job - I help testers and engineers collaborate together, better, and part of this is understanding what they need and what problems they face. Solving problems is something I also love to do.My biggest driver in my job is curiosity, and this definitely matches with the explorer trait. I ask alot of questions in my job because I really like to understand what I'm working on and how best to approach testing it.Quality controller as a trait is a good match in software testing. Understanding what the risk is, is an important part of what we do, as testers, as well as having a good eye for detail. "

"I test Smartspeaker software which means I really have to think about the way people want to interact with these devices with voice commands. I help the engineers in my team find problems in our code and fix them, before releasing to live. The best part of my job is being curious and trying to figure out why something works the way it does and why there's a problem. My job is quite varied and talking to different people in my team or other teams is a big part of what I do, to communicate about what my team is doing and understand changes other teams are making that might impact what we are doing. So it keeps things fresh and interesting. "

"My current job is a senior software tester. When I was at school, I decided I wanted to be a scientist and chose a degree in cellular and molecular pathology with a plan to do a PhD and research, however I didn't get the right grades. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do then, so worked as a lab technician for a bit after I left uni. I got interested in computers because alot of my friends worked in IT related jobs and they convinced me to maybe think about an IT job as I didn't want to stay doing lab tech work, but I did want to stay doing something science related. When a software support job for a scientific company came up, it seemed like a good fit. I found I was still using my critical thinking and analytical skills I'd learnt at uni to help me with solving peoples IT problems. After a few years, I moved into software testing, because I wanted a change and found solving software problems and investigating problems very much fitted with my skills. I've worked in testing now for different companies and learnt alot along the way. But it was probably something my mum said, when I was doing my A-levels which was the best piece of advice anyone's given me. Do what interests you, pick the subjects you enjoy. If you're not sure what to pick, then pick something you enjoy."

"When I'm not working you'll find me outdoors doing something, whether its working on my allotment, swimming in a lake, Standup paddleboarding on a canal, or scrambling and climbing on a mountain. Its good to get out and connect with nature in whatever way you like, and this is how I like to spend my time with friends, having mini adventures! When I'm at home, I enjoy making some nice home cooked food and have 2 rescue cats that like to keep me entertained with their antics "

"No 2 days are the same in my job. A typical day for me will start with a team meeting which is done on zoom, were we talk about pieces of work we're currently working on to see how they are progressing and if anyone needs any help, or needs a new piece of work to pick up. I test a mobile app on devices like iPads and android phones, so a large part of my job is setting up devices with software builds and using tools to help me test the app. My team is just 1 of 4 teams that all work on the same app, so although my job is technical, communication is a massively important part of it, particularly in the last year were we are all working from home. I spend alot of time talking on zoom, collaborating with engineers or pairing with other testers on pieces of work, or keeping them updating about work going on in other teams or from my team, to make sure changes my team is making doesn't impact another. 1 goal I've had as part of my job os to help testers and engineers collaborate together better and so help develop our app with better quality and fewer problems."

"I completed A-levels in Biology, Chemistry and Art, before deciding I wanted to go down the science route, so I then completed a degree in Cellular and Molecular Pathology. The critical thinking and analytical skills I learnt from doing a science degree were very transferable and help me in my current job testing software."