Number 1

I've been told by several peers, mentors, friends, that I should blog. I fear that I am too much of a procrastinator to keep up with it, but I'm willing to give it a try.

I intend this to be mainly about testing (which is my current career), yet other things may creep in from time to time.

In this first post, I'll start with a simple 'where have I been and where am I now'. No way I'm getting into where I am going, as that's any one's guess at this point.

So, I'll skip birth through high school as nothing important happened. College- the only thing worth noting is that I have a degree in music with a minor in anthropology. So, while I ended up in somewhat of a technology based career, I had only incidental background in the field.

After college I managed to finagle my way into a job at the local insurance company making calls to unsuspecting applicants asking them personal questions. It quickly became apparent that this was not for me. I'm more of a 'back office' type as I have very little patience for the general public. Then an opportunity arose for some one to help test a new software program. They needed some one who was familiar with the part of the business that I had been so miserable doing. I volunteered at once and my eyes were opened to an amazing new world.

To this day I am amazed that I get paid to do what I love- point out the mistakes of others. While everyone in the testing field has a different interpretation of what it is that we do, this is the one that keeps me happy. When my non-techie family members ask me what it is that I do, I say "I spend my day telling other people what they've done wrong". The consistent response is "You must really love that". I do.

So, I've been doing that for nearly 10 years now. Personally, I think I should be farther along in my career than I am. My downfall is that I am easily sucked into daily processes of getting through the work and time passes faster than I would like. Now things are changing where I work. We are starting to move to a 'co-souring model'- which is what we are calling the process of sending all of the actual testing work off shore and turning the few testers that are left into administrators. While I lament the loss of the hands on work, I find that this may actually afford me more time to progress in my career. I will still be involved in the daily work, but (hopefully) not in the tedium that is such a black-hole for me.

I'll provide more details in a later post, as I must be going now. It is 10 below here and my pc is near a drafty window. (great for keeping my processor cool- terrible for keeping my fingers functioning)

thanks for reading
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