I did the right thing!

I set out on my journey with MakoLab at the beginning of September 2020 as a bank applications analyst, where I had the opportunity of working on automating banking processes.

At a certain stage of the work on the project, our help was needed as testers. And so, rather by chance, I encountered the world of testing, which immediately appealed to me. I even went so far as to admit that I liked it more than creating processes. I came across an opening outside the company. In fact, a friend recommended me for the job and that meant the company instigated the contact and not me. They were looking for junior staff and the entry point was low, so I gave it a shot and succeeded.

When I left, my manager at MakoLab, Kasia Smajek, said she wouldn’t forget me… and she kept her word! It turned out that her husband, who also works here… he’s the head of QA… was looking for people to join his team. I went to the interview more out of interest than anything else and, right at the start, I said that I was in the middle of writing my bachelor’s dissertation, in engineering, and that I didn’t really want to throw myself in at the deep end in a new job. Some time later, Kasia contacted me again, just after I’d defended my thesis, and encouraged me to attend a technical interview. Much to my surprise, even though my answers were off the top of my head, my application was accepted. After that, everything quickly fell into place quickly and, I’ve been back at MakoLab since September this year… in other words, nine months after ‘the parting of the ways’.

Although it’s only now that I’m really getting into the project and exploring it, I can already say that, as far as the potential’s concerned, I did the right thing! I have the chance to learn test automatisation and, even more to the point, I have my first task under my belt. I’m also making the most of the training path that the team has put together especially for new staff.

At university, testing really isn’t treated as a career path at all. Everyone’s focused on programming. As I said, personally, I think that testing’s even more interesting that creating software. A lot depends on the product you’re testing. My job’s a bit different from what I was doing at the company where I was working as a tester before. There, I was dealing with software for vehicles. Here, I’m working on web apps and that’s a completely different thing. At the previous company, the focus was on checking and looking for possible errors in the logs, but here, I can use a product that will wind up with the end user and I can see with my own eyes whether or not there are any bugs or if something not working properly. And that’s really interesting!

I’m doing my master’s in IT and a post-graduate course in PR. In addition to that, I teach once a week for Giganci Programowania [Programming Giants - ed.], which runs programming courses for kids. I’ve got two different age groups. And I also support new trainers. I kind of supervise them. In what free time I do have… and there’s not much of it… I play with combination puzzles. I began with the standard Rubik’s cube. I’m also interested in VR. And, from time to time, I pay a visit to a tattoo studio. I enjoy getting inked!

Well, we love comebacks like Wioleta’s and we’re cheering her on as she flourishes on her new career path. We’d also like to thank Kasia Smajek for keeping her finger on the pulse and for proving by example that, at MakoLab, everyone is treated as an individual and that we do everything in our power to stay true to our company’s fundamental values!

Translated from the Polish by Cary Swift