When life gives you lemons sometimes it also gives you a visit from Gordon Christie.
If you have iTunes installed do a search for Edinbus which is available in the UK version as it is for Scotland only. Gordon spent his money to become an iPhone developer and made a free application so that other people in his city can more easily use the bus system. He already has a day job. He is a newlywed, married just over a year ago, yet he wants to do something good for software users. He rode the bus around at all bizarre hours to test his application in many phone states. His application is far better than many of the applications other developers are charging for. Yesterday he showed me the objective C program, which to me looks like a bunch of brackets thrown into a pile and mixed all up, but he assures me it is meant to look this way. I showed him my python scripts I'm working on and we talked about procedural vs. object oriented programming design and why a person would do testing or writing or software development for free. His wife designed all of the icons in his program.
Why is Gordon so wonderful? He is one of the few people out there who gets what motivates me. He wants to work on software that he cares about that provides a wonderful user experience. There are very few companies who understand how important a polished and brilliant interface is. He is willing to spend his time and accept the less money to do so. He really loves good computer software. He asked me not to be hasty or distraught about my layoff, and I asked him to write a blog about his iPhone application development project.
He told me yesterday that I have a year to find a job and I should not just "jump at anyone willing to pay me money". In his opinion, I belong at a company who cares enough about the experience they are providing people with their software to appreciate the talent I have, and not a company who is "in the position that IBM is in or will be in 10 years".
What he is talking about is important for me. For people who are motivated by safety, by comfort, and by ego it is much easier to find a job they would like to stay at. For me it isn't just "about the people", it is about the software I work on. If I am set up to fail or not allowed to positively impact the product quality because of the company culture, I won't be happy there long term. I could lose my passion for testing and be gone from the industry entirely. My second lifelong dream is to drive large construction equipment and it is a life goal for me to drive a backhoe. At least then you really feel like you are making progress. See, I need to make progress or I become dangerous. I have lots of energy, generally positive, but if I feel defeated I'm the sort of person who can cause a minor riot, either for good or evil, so it is important to stay positive. It isn't just about the team, it is about the software being produced. I will put up with quite a load of challenges if I believe in the software.
As my friend, Gordon thinks Adobe is being idiotic for laying me off, but he is sweet that way. I know that due to the economy they made lots of tough decisions. I know that from the fine company I'm in because some really talented developers are also on transition.
This is the bottom line. I'm very dedicated to a positive user experience and high overall quality. I am trained to protect that above all else. I believe I am looking for a job where that is a valued attribute in practice and I am willing to pick up the needed skills in the next seven months in order to be hired on the right team. I am not passing around my resume right now, I am in the information collecting stage. I am very lucky to have some people who are willing to help me land on my feet, and of course, Craig who has got my back, and a long time friend like Gordon, one of the first developers to ever believe in my testing talent to help me brush myself off and get back out there.
Why is Gordon so wonderful? He is one of the few people out there who gets what motivates me. He wants to work on software that he cares about that provides a wonderful user experience. There are very few companies who understand how important a polished and brilliant interface is. He is willing to spend his time and accept the less money to do so. He really loves good computer software. He asked me not to be hasty or distraught about my layoff, and I asked him to write a blog about his iPhone application development project.
He told me yesterday that I have a year to find a job and I should not just "jump at anyone willing to pay me money". In his opinion, I belong at a company who cares enough about the experience they are providing people with their software to appreciate the talent I have, and not a company who is "in the position that IBM is in or will be in 10 years".
What he is talking about is important for me. For people who are motivated by safety, by comfort, and by ego it is much easier to find a job they would like to stay at. For me it isn't just "about the people", it is about the software I work on. If I am set up to fail or not allowed to positively impact the product quality because of the company culture, I won't be happy there long term. I could lose my passion for testing and be gone from the industry entirely. My second lifelong dream is to drive large construction equipment and it is a life goal for me to drive a backhoe. At least then you really feel like you are making progress. See, I need to make progress or I become dangerous. I have lots of energy, generally positive, but if I feel defeated I'm the sort of person who can cause a minor riot, either for good or evil, so it is important to stay positive. It isn't just about the team, it is about the software being produced. I will put up with quite a load of challenges if I believe in the software.
As my friend, Gordon thinks Adobe is being idiotic for laying me off, but he is sweet that way. I know that due to the economy they made lots of tough decisions. I know that from the fine company I'm in because some really talented developers are also on transition.
This is the bottom line. I'm very dedicated to a positive user experience and high overall quality. I am trained to protect that above all else. I believe I am looking for a job where that is a valued attribute in practice and I am willing to pick up the needed skills in the next seven months in order to be hired on the right team. I am not passing around my resume right now, I am in the information collecting stage. I am very lucky to have some people who are willing to help me land on my feet, and of course, Craig who has got my back, and a long time friend like Gordon, one of the first developers to ever believe in my testing talent to help me brush myself off and get back out there.
Posted by Testy Redhead at 16 Nov 2009 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: career software user customer user experience
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: career software user customer user experience
I know I drive my manager nuts (as well as everyone up the food chain I dare email). I strongly believe in quality software. I see bugs everywhere I look in the world and a shake my head. I believe that Apple is very good at making polished software. They tend to cut their product down to very few features. But they design those features well and fix all ‘fit and finish’ issues. Microsoft (the company I work for) has a different view. We make a million features. They are all mostly half baked. There is inconsistent usage patterns and lots of PRI 3-4 bugs. Our design philosophy does not let us fix those bugs later in the product cycle. So they creep in and if we don’t catch them early then they are there to stay. We can’t even fix them in a service pack unless a really big customer complains it is stopping their business. I know it frustrates all of us who want to release quality software. With Windows 7 I think we got a little better at this. But there is still a long way to go. I guess the point I am trying to make is don’t blame the worker bees at a company for fit and finish issues. More often than not it is a business decision.
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Hi Travis,
I know exactly what you mean about mostly this type of thing being a business decision. The reason why I lasted 10 years at Adobe really has been the software. I use the software and adore it. Microsoft is a huge company with lots of different products and I think there might be a team there that I could fit with, then again, I can't use Outlook without cursing and freaking out, so not so much that team.
I know that testers are part of a team for sure as it should be. We provide information and other people make decisions taking lots of things into account. I don't think testers should rule the roost or anything, but a strong commitment from the team to the software they create is something I'm looking for.
I asked to work on another project when I felt I could no longer be successful on that assignment. Obviously I chose wrong for staying employed, but for staying sane it was a good call.
I want to find some exciting work and one of my talents is getting people who are stuck to take action, and basically moving from planning to action. I never blame the worker bees for decisions made higher up in the company, but we worker bees do need to think about how a company decides and what direction they are going in. I see the quality at Microsoft improving, and that can't be said about many companies in this economy, so that is something to think about. How many other companies are even staying even in terms of quality?
So, a long term good business decision makes good sense to me. I know that lots of tech people want a new job every year. I've had the same job now since 2006 and worked at the same company for nearly 10 years. It wasn't out of cowardice or because I dislike change. It was because I love the company and the software. I was hoping to stay there 5 more years. Really. I'd like to find a job I grow in and enjoy for 5 years. A job that would make me smarter but where I could be myself too.
Thanks for the comment and thanks for the hope too!
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