My 100th blog post! Curiosity, sharing knowledge, helping each other
Wow, my 100th blog post. Incredible! A post at a time over the years has led to this milestone of 100 posts. I am glad that I started those years ago. For this post I thought I would reflect and share some of my personal journey. At the moment I am doing some pre-work for a course that is helping me explore who I am and what I want to do in my career going forward. Some very deep questions, such as:
- What are my comfort zones?
- What are my fear zones?
- When am I engaged?
- Who are the people that have influenced me over the years?
The area that I have focused on is my timeline and who has influenced me. Thinking about my journey, what has stood out to me back in 2009 when I started my software testing journey was my curiosity. I had no idea what a “cookie”, “session”, “database” even was, however, in my team questions were welcomed. They were so helpful and there was never an air of feeling like I was stupid. These are the people that have influenced me. The people working in my team that share knowledge and help others be the best version of themselves. It’s not the stand out “leaders” or “managers” that have have influenced me the most. It is the people within the team working side by side with me. The people that have encouraged questions, going out of their way to help me, teaching me something new or collaborating with me to solve a problem. This is what influenced me to move towards senior tester and then leading teams of testers. Helping create that environment where there is that sense of humility (a modest view of your own importance), inclusivity (everyone on a team is valued and adds value), collaboration (working together to achieve an outcome).
As I continue with my career I am going to continue with the theme of helping others by sharing knowledge, remaining curious and advocating for an environment where people can ask questions and learn together.
After all, nothing is a potato (silly) question. We can only do our best work when we band together like a group of potatoes singing out with our hearts content. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npx2NK3Utrw
