Team Highlight: Jeff Katipunan
Discovering quality assurance as a career path was a revelation for Jeff. From his early days in IT support, verifying solutions to troubleshooting and assembling LEGO sets, his love for quality and assurance in his work was always evident. In his blog, Jeff shares his journey from an IT support role to becoming a Quality Assurance professional and how his passion for verification has shaped his career. From teleported dreams of exploring ancient Egypt to the most challenging aspects of QA, Jeff’s journey is both insightful and inspiring.
1. What led you to pursue a career in quality assurance?
When I was in IT support, one of my favorite tasks was to test and verify that a solution worked. Whether it was my own trial and error, Google results, or code change, I enjoyed verifying the fix for the issue. At the time, I didn’t even know what I was doing was considered quality assurance. It wasn’t until I started to search for a new job that the term ‘quality assurance’ appeared on all my job searches. After reading tons of articles on QA, I decided to pursue a career in it. Looking back at my younger self, it makes total sense that I’m in quality assurance. I’ve always enjoyed verifying things like making sure I had every item listed in the manual before assembling a LEGO set. Or going to the troubleshooting section and making sure that every single item in that section actually fixes the issue.
2. What’s your go-to way to unwind after a busy workday?
Technically, I work out in the mornings because it fits my schedule better but I’m still going to say working out is my go-to activity to unwind. It’s everything to me. It’s therapeutic, fun, relaxing, hard, emotional, rewarding, etc. When I’m at the gym, nothing else matters. Not the tight deadlines, not complex test cases, not the clients, and all their urgent priority needs. For that workout session, I’m free. IYKYK.
3. If you could have any superpower, what would it be and how would you use it?
Teleportation! I mean, c’mon! Just think of a place and boom, you’re there! I don’t have to use any sort of physical transportation, that’s literally the dream. As much as I would love to use it all the time, I would hide it and use my best judgment on when to use it. If there’s traffic or I’m running late, I’d use it. I’d also use it to travel the world and go to so many different concerts and shows. But as far as running errands, I wouldn’t use it.
4. What’s one tool or method you can’t live without in your QA process?
I feel like it’s overlooked but I can’t live without a testing environment. Even with years under my belt, I dislike making changes or code changes straight to production without testing it on a test environment. It’s the assurance part in QA, literally. I want to ensure that whatever is being fixed is actually fixed in a test environment and doesn’t break anything else on the site/app/product.
5. If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
Egypt! As a kid, I was obsessed with anything and everything about Ancient Egypt. From the pyramids, the different gods, and the artifacts, I was just fascinated by all of it. I remember going to my school library AND the public library just to check out books about Ancient Egypt. I’d be geeking out if I was able to see the pyramids of Giza and the Great Temple of Ramesses II in real life. I also think it was because I read about King Tut and how he’s considered the youngest pharaoh. Imagine being nine years old and having to rule a country during a time of conflict. I already had a tough time deciding what I wanted for lunch in grade school, so I doubt I can handle ruling a country! And yes, I can watch The Mummy and The Mummy Returns on repeat for days!
6. What’s the most challenging aspect of QA, and how do you tackle it?
In my opinion, the most challenging aspect of QA is when there are frequent changes in requirements. Every time something is changed, it disrupts testing plans and leads to constantly re-evaluating test cases. The way I’ve been able to tackle this is to always maintain flexibility and readiness to adapt to evolving requirements. I also like to document all the changes just to keep tabs on how it has evolved into what the final requirements are.
7. What’s the last show or movie you watched, and would you recommend it?
Tough question because I watch so many shows and movies. I’m a sucker for a good rom-com so the last show I watched was “Nobody Wants This” on Netflix. It features Kristen Bell and Adam Brody as the two main characters. Trust, you’ll cry but you’ll laugh even more! Highly recommend!
8. What’s the most satisfying part of ensuring a project meets the highest standards?
For me, I think seeing and interacting with the final product before it’s out to the public is super satisfying to me. It’s that feeling of being able to see it before anyone else does. All the bits and pieces are finally put together and you can see how it all interacts.
9. What’s a motto or phrase you try to live by?
”My soul shall live because my mind never dies.” - Chad Hugo. It reminds me that life is all about the memories and experiences we make throughout our lifetimes. In a sense, we truly never die because people will never forget the memories and experiences we share with them.
10. What’s a song that always puts you in a good mood?
If you know me, you’d know that I’m super prideful being from Virginia Beach, VA, so I have to name-drop N.E.R.D on here. Spaz by N.E.R.D always puts me in a good mood. It has that hip-hop element mixed with funk rock. It’s from their album Seeing Sounds. Take a listen, you won’t be disappointed, I can listen to that album on repeat for days!
