I have spent the last 8 weeks working at a consulting, design and development company in London. I’ve had a fantastic time, felt very welcome and i know that together we did some amazing work.
While i was there i had the pleasure of getting to know Rohit Gogna, who is employed there as a Quality Assurance Tester. Straight away i knew that there was something different about Rohit. In fact i commented early on that i’d never known such an enthusiastic tester. The following quote shows how Ro thinks of testing:
Software Testing is not a job … it’s a passion that turns into a career.
Rohit is keen to create a community of testers in London. LondonTester.com is Ro’s initiative to help testers find jobs and share knowledge. Ro is very keen to improve, learn new techniques and share with other people. In short, perfect apprenticeship material.
I encouraged Ro a lot over the 8 weeks. We spoke about my other apprentices, and what apprenticing and mentoring mean. I encouraged Ro to seek mentors who can guide and channel this enthusiasm, because i can see so much potential, provided Ro receives the right support.
I did not offer myself as a mentor; i waited for Ro to ask me, something like the moment in Avatar when Jake has become one of the Na’vi people and may choose a partner. Jake wants Neytiri but says “she must also choose me”. Neytiri says, “She already has”. If you are an apprentice and want a mentor, you should be the one to ask. Chances are that person might already want to mentor you but is waiting to see if you ask for it!
I take mentoring very seriously, so i made sure Ro knew exactly what would be involved, and knew that it would be hard work and painful at times. Ro understood and was still keen, so we shook hands to begin the formal arrangement, and went to skype call my mentor Enrique to share the great news!
Initially, i want to get Ro learning and blogging about automated test tools, starting with Selenium. I also want Ro to have a second mentor: someone who is more knowledgeable about testing and mentor Ro on these things that i don’t know so well. We’ll get networking and meeting people to see if we can find someone just right.
So please, follow Ro on twitter: Testerpedia, and watch with me, with pride, as we see Ro’s full potential begin to emerge!
a little place of calm 