Episode 11

About Being a Generalist with April Matias

This episode I spoke with April Matias, a Senior Quality Assurance Engineer from Berlin. April has a background in arts and humanities, worked in quality assurance for several years and has recently taken a developer bootcamp to expand her knowledge and skills.

We talked about what a QA person does at a startup, their value proposition, where they fit into the company, and how learning development skills can help you to fit in and make your goal more scalable.

My favorite quote from our conversation occurs at ~23min:

Being aware that your own experience or own conception of someone else’s experience can not possibly represent your target audience.

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cto.coffee - Episode 11 - QA Generalist To Developer with April Matias or listen to the episode on Spotify.

This episode was recorded on 11-March-2020.

Transcript

You can also read the transcription of this episode.

Show Notes

Connect with April onLinkedin.

~9min Benefits of being a generalist

~11min Having a different point of view and making an impact

~13min Taking interest in the company

~15min Understanding your contribution to the company, bridging business and technology

~20min The glorification of focusing on one thing - rockstars and ninjas

~23min Being aware of yours and others experience

~24min Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell

~25min Seeing what issues of diversity fit in with your own concerns and expanding understanding of empathy

~27min Making an impact, not feeling valued, and making less money than software developers

~30min Changing testers’ image of being a person in technology and being asked what is your contribution to the company

~34min How can you grow and work together

~25min Remaining employable, psychological safety, being vulnerable

~36min Expanding your knowledge

~37min Adding value - learning technologies to do your job better and feeling credible, and taking on more responsibilities

~40min Basecamp - a company with high employee satisfaction

~44min Needing cues that you belong and the concern of employability

The intro/outro music in the podcast was made with Sonic Pi from this code.