Before any of our product features meet the customer, it must get the tick of approval from our Quality Analyst, or QA, team. Rebecca joined the team in 2021 and she shares her story about the non-traditional path she took to becoming a QA, how it all started with special effects makeup, and the importance of diversity in the Auror QA team.

Hi Rebecca, tell us about yourself! What’s something not that many people know about you?

I’m a Junior Quality Analyst here at Auror. I started working at Auror in April of 2021 and have roughly 2 years of QA experience. An interesting fact about me is that I have a Diploma in Production Design & Sculpting, which means I can do some great special effects makeup including sculpting and creating prosthetics (as you can imagine there is a lot of pressure to look good when Halloween comes around each year).

What did you do before starting at Auror?

I was a QA at a company called Vista Entertainment Solutions for roughly a year and a half and before that I was the receptionist at the same company for two years.

So...what does a Quality Analyst actually do? 

As soon as I figure this out I will let you know…! No, but really this is the question that every QA I know hates to be asked. It is both easy and hard to explain what my job actually is. The simple answer is I help check that our software works before the customer uses it. However there is so much more to it than that.

In a single day I might have helped a developer pair test a feature they have worked on, done my own exploratory testing for a feature in the QA environment, be a part of a discussion around the designs for upcoming work for the project I’m on, and be pulled last-minute into a discussion on functionality to provide a QA perspective.

I guess to explain it another way, I take into consideration the customer perspective and ensure that I share this perspective in all aspects of our process for feature work.

Why did you want to get into QA?

There was something about the problem solving aspect of being a QA, as well as the need to put the customer first, that drew me to it. I loved the idea that when the QAs were using the software they weren’t doing it as themselves, but rather as the customer and having to think, ‘If I was a customer using this what would I try to do?’ Every time I look at our product I have to think whether this new feature or change really does benefit the customer and if it is the best way to do it. 

How did you go from being a receptionist to a QA?

As you may have guessed by now, I originally planned to pursue a career in SFX prosthetics. I originally started working as a receptionist at my previous work to make money  and build up a portfolio. I liked it so much there that I started researching different roles at the company, including QA.

I spoke with one of the heads of engineering there about possibly moving into this role and I was invited to do a technical interview. From there, I completed a trial and roughly two weeks later I fully transitioned into QA and have never looked back.

So you didn’t have to go back to study or have an engineering background?

I always enjoy telling people how I got into QA because I think it’s important to point out that you don’t always have to have a super technical background or a strong engineering education. It’s very ingrained into our society that you need to go to university for 3-4 years to get a degree and only then can you get a job. I like to think more people would benefit from doing something similar to myself, like getting an entry-level position at a company and then working their way up within the company. 

However I know other people in the QA team do have technical backgrounds such as starting out as developers or completing certain certifications like the ISTQB certification. When I first got into testing I looked at whether there were any courses I could take and found that testing didn’t really seem to have a set course, at least not at the time. 

It is definitely a career that you can move into without any educational background as long as you have the right mindset and ability to think about things from different perspectives.

What do you enjoy the most about your work?

One of my favourite things is when I point out something either during a pair testing session or a team discussion and have someone respond by saying, “Oh I didn’t even think of that.” It’s always such an interesting situation for me because a lot of the time these are things that I just instantly think of where I assumed they probably also thought of the same thing. 

I guess it’s just knowing that even though I may struggle to explain to others what I do for a job, that doesn’t diminish the fact that I do provide value to many different aspects of our product.

What about the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your work so far?

Definitely being able to wrap my head around the technical sides of this job. I always feel hyper aware of the fact that I have no education background in anything around IT so there are times where I will be in meetings with all these amazing, smart, very technical people and either have minimal knowledge of what is being discussed or no knowledge at all. It’s hard for me not to feel like I shouldn’t be there because of this so instead, I try to take notes of anything that I don’t understand in these meetings and I will either do my own research or ask someone else to explain after the meeting.

Luckily people at Auror are so extremely helpful and supportive when it comes to learning that they are more than happy to explain anything I don’t understand. I also found that a lot of them kept in mind my background when I first started and made sure to constantly ask if I knew what things were or meant so they could explain if I didn’t.

You work in quite a diverse team in terms of gender, ethnicity and experience. What do you think are some of the benefits of this? 

I started at Auror at the same time as another woman QA and we joined a team of two men QAs, so it took a while for me to realise that the QA team actually has great diversity since I’ve never known anything else. 

Having this diversity ensures that we have great discussions because we always have four very different and unique perspectives from such a vast pool of knowledge. Any time that one QA isn’t sure of how to approach a situation or the best solution we can always collectively come up with a great solution.

The diversity of our team not only improves the quality of our work but also improves our overall team culture. I never find that I am the “odd one out” or feel that I don’t belong. The whole QA team is super accepting and I think that also benefits each of us when it comes to our differing personalities. 

Do you have any tips for others who are thinking about pursuing a career in engineering?

Don’t be limited by what you can’t do. It’s easy to say, “I won’t bother applying for this role because I can’t do ‘XYZ’ on their job ad”. I think it’s important to remember that the worst thing that can happen in this situation is that the company will either never get back to you or just send a rejection email. So why not just go for it?

Ensure you have a great support person because it can be really hard trying to pursue a career in engineering. You want to have that hype person who will continuously tell you that you are great and should go for it, as well as being there for you when you aren’t doing too great.

The last thing is to think outside the box if you do want to get into engineering. Like I said before, there isn’t one specific path you have to take to get into engineering. Some people do it by studying, some people start in an entry position and move within a company, some people spend years working in one career and then change their mind. If a particular pathway isn’t working for you, find one that does. Engineering is a career for literally anyone who wants to be in it.

And finally, do you still do special effects makeup? What’s been your favourite look so far? 

Funnily enough while Auckland has been stuck in lockdown I have actually started getting back into more creative hobbies for the first time in maybe three years. I am currently sketching something that I can hopefully turn into a little sculpted figurine. 

In terms of my favourite look it would probably be a wolf prosthetic that I sculpted for a friend's face while I was studying. I was pretty unsure about how it looked until my tutor said my work reminded him of something Stan Winston had sculpted. This was a huge compliment for me as he was the amazing artist who made the dinosaurs for the original Jurassic Park movies and has always been my favourite piece because of that.