Ivana Pancevska is our alumni student from the Software Testing Academy.
After finishing the Academy and passing the ISTQB certificate, he starts his new career as a Software Tester for the company Web Factory.
In the following, she tells us about her experience related to the lectures and how they influenced her future career development.
Hi Ivana, briefly describe yourself?
Hello, I am Ivana, a law graduate with almost 10 years of professional experience.
By nature I am positive, combative, persistent, ambitious, with a strong desire for constant progress and change. The moment my reality became monotonous and I felt that the job position no longer fulfilled me, I knew it was time for a change. After serious consideration and analysis, I mustered up the courage to end my career at the time. I finished the Software Tester Academy in SEDC and immediately after that I passed the exam for the ISTQB certificate .
The road was not easy at all, but here I am now, more than a year employed as a Software Tester at Web Factory, a company that has existed for 12+ years, with 50+ clients across Japan, USA, Canada, Australia and Europe and 100+ projects in FinTech industry, healthcare, hospitality, entertainment sector, banking as well as HR and recruitment industry. I am finally happy and fulfilled because of the feeling that I am doing what I love, in a pleasant and positive atmosphere with super cool colleagues.
What attracted you to start a career as a Software Tester?
I have been in love with computers since I was a child, I was always my own master of my computer, after of course I broke it myself. Sometimes it would magically work, and sometimes it was necessary to call a friend, but I was always driven by the curiosity of what would happen if I did this or that, if I squeezed here or there. Seen from this perspective, even then I unconsciously tried to discover bugs, and then to find a charm for them.
Obviously, technologies and the IT industry have always interested me, and since it is the most dynamic and fast-growing market at the moment, with the most opportunities and a large selection of different job profiles, it was obvious that it would be my choice for a profession.
I did my research, I came across the Software Testing Academy, I carefully analyzed what is required of a Software Tester and what qualities he should possess and I simply found myself. On the one hand, I thought that I had the capacity to master the material, but considering that I did not have a technical background, I still thought that I could train myself for work in a short time and contribute to raising the quality of work in a company, and from on the other hand, my character traits also perfectly matched here.
What would you take away from the Academy and were your expectations met?
I personally had a very positive experience as a student at the Software Tester Academy. The program is well thought out and comprehensive and is a good foundation for anyone who wants to start a career in this profession. The lecturers and assistants were at the level, real professionals, always ready to explain what they were saying with practical examples.
The lectures were always interesting, interaction and activity was required from the students, it was not a one-way conversation, but they literally questioned us, we solved tasks on the board and wrote homework.
Mastering the material on object-oriented programming and automatic testing was especially challenging, but the lecturers did their best to make it easier for us to understand that whole concept. And of course, at the end of the program, the preparation for taking the ISTQB certificate helped me a lot, all the tips and hints from the lecturer really helped me a lot.
All in all, the Academy provides an excellent basis for starting the job training process, but the hardest part remains for the students. Only with dedication, tremendous effort and work on all projects and tasks throughout the entire Academy, success will be inevitable.
Did the work duties coincide with everything you learned at the Academy?
Literally everything that was ever mentioned in the lectures found a practical application in reality, starting with the job interview itself and the technical testing, until today. The program is designed in such a way that it covers everything that a Software Tester would ever need in his work, even if only as a concept.
Of course, each individual should constantly research, upgrade and expand their knowledge.
What advice would you give to people who want to start a career as a Software Tester?
I will recommend everyone to believe in themselves and their potentials and possibilities. All of you who possess strong analytical skills, your curiosity is at its maximum, you are ready for challenges, you want to push your boundaries, you want to work in a team and dynamic environment and you want to enter into discussions with developers, go for it!
I believed in myself and my potential, so now I’m part of a super cool work environment and I have wonderful colleagues from whom I learn something new every day, both as a professional and as a person!
Take the opportunity and start your career as a Software Tester.
Registrations for the Academy for Manual and Automatic Testing are ongoing.