🐤 Day 10: How do you productize yourself?

🙋 Questions
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At TestBash @parwalrahul spoke about productizing yourself.

Amongst many things covered, it meant things like getting yourself out there, seizing opportunities, being the leader of you and having a learning mindset.

One quote that he mentioned that I loved was:

Who knows you is more important than who you know. - James Clear

Here’s some notes by @lhughes on the talk.

This is a handwritten mind map-style poster created for a presentation by Rahul Parwar at TestBash 2024, with input from Lynda Hughes. The central theme focuses on building a professional portfolio as a tester and how to productize yourself. Key Sections: Top Left Quote: "Who knows you is more important than who you know." – James Clear Social Media: Posts on LinkedIn Join communities, be active in them "Top work – if you can, mentor others" Office: Talk to people outside your project Conferences/Meetups: Meet top people, those who are really passionate Need a group to support you Microgroups: Support each other Learning: "Don't stop at learning" Implement learning Develop apps Participate in contests Study notes Central Question: "What to be a leader? Lead yourself." Topics Related to Leading Yourself: Self-learning Differentiation Health Branding Growth Influence Finances Bottom Right Notes: "Make visually available what you offer" "Just start, then focus on iterations" – Lynda Hughes Top-Centered Note: "Never too late to start" Starting channels with code, blogs, articles, etc.
This is a handwritten mind map-style poster created for a presentation by Rahul Parwar at TestBash 2024, with input from Lynda Hughes. The central theme focuses on building a professional portfolio as a tester and how to productize yourself. Key Sections: Top Left Quote: "Who knows you is more important than who you know." – James Clear Social Media: Posts on LinkedIn Join communities, be active in them "Top work – if you can, mentor others" Office: Talk to people outside your project Conferences/Meetups: Meet top people, those who are really passionate Need a group to support you Microgroups: Support each other Learning: "Don't stop at learning" Implement learning Develop apps Participate in contests Study notes Central Question: "What to be a leader? Lead yourself." Topics Related to Leading Yourself: Self-learning Differentiation Health Branding Growth Influence Finances Bottom Right Notes: "Make visually available what you offer" "Just start, then focus on iterations" – Lynda Hughes Top-Centered Note: "Never too late to start" Starting channels with code, blogs, articles, etc.1920×1440 237 KB

This personally speaks to my heart as this mindset is crucial to help advance, not just as individuals, but also as a community and an industry.

In today’s challenge consider:

  • sharing what you are doing to productive yourself
  • what can or have you done to support others in their journey
  • try creating or sharing something and dropping a link here
  • what has or hasn’t worked for you in the past
  • share what is the thing you’d love to be known for over the next 12-24 months
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Introduce yourself. So Im joining a new project/delivery and I noticed the Director for the area at the coffee machine. So obviously I introduced myself, and next project meeting he said Thank you :blush:

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I think I’ve productised myself pretty well.

  • I have a clear brand so that people can say “oh Callum said that”.
  • I talk about practical testing concepts and clearly show organisations how I can help them.
  • I focus on being a generalist and not limiting myself to one area of testing.

I’ve helped others on this journey by making a LinkedIn post showing people how to use their social media posts to really show organisations how you can help them. Plus I’m always down for a chat to testers to help give advice on how to widen their portfolio / visibility to show how awesome and hireable they are! :slight_smile:

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I’m working to make a meaningful impact in the QA community by integrating my broad IT experience with my commitment to quality and reliability. Some key contributions include:

  • Started QA Blogging: Created a blog focusing on Cypress to address common issues and ineffective practices that I frequently see in “too many” Pull Requests.
  • Developed Open-Source Plugins: Created plugins for Cypress to streamline the QA process (and make the QA professional’s daily work easier), enhance web accessibility, and address gaps in the Cypress ecosystem.
  • Active Forum Participation: Provide guidance on various QA forums.

By adding a unique and authentic spin to my work (some people might even say quirky, as myself), I aim to ensure my contributions stand out in the QA community.

These are my Blogs:

And these are my Plugins:

  • wick-a11y
  • cypress-ajv-schema-validator
  • how-to-create-a-cypress-plugin
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