How do you stay motivated to try and introduce change as a sole tester?
Iâm going to talk about how I handled a loss of motivation to change an organisation.
Itâs really simple; I left that organisation.
Because when we talk about âstaying motivatedâ, it often leans towards internalising and only internal motivation. And itâs not just you. If you are trying to enact change in an organisation, that explicitly involves others. If itâs not working, itâs not necessarily you that has a motivation problem.
Obviously it takes time and effort to leave a company and find a new job. It can be risky, uncertain, it can endanger your livelihood, loved ones and/or immigration status.
When you go for (solo) testing roles, interview companies as to what theyâre looking for. Testing and Quality roles I have thrived in are organisations that explicitly agree that testing and quality work requires agency of change and I am supported to enact changes.
My current job description is
As a Lead Quality Assurance Engineer you will be responsible for creating, maintaining, and monitoring all operations that affect quality < for your scoped team >.
I am highly motivated in my current role.
And, I wouldnât be where I am today, wouldnât have set the intention of finding a role I wanted, if two years ago I hadnât overhead a developer on my team at a previous role tell a systems administrator âI donât care about that <major issue Iâm causing on your services>, Iâm just an applications devâ
That moment sapped my motivation to work in that organisation, so I started work on removing my emotional investment and labour from there and working to find somewhere that would be motivating to me.
This isnât to say that everything youâre feeling unmotivated itâs time to quit a job; itâs just important to reflect, every so often, especially when things arenât working; is my emotional and labour investment here working for me?
If so, great, now you can look at whatâs unmotivating about a particular change youâre trying to make in an organisation youâre in.
If not, well, itâs risky and it takes a lot, but moving organisations is a great way to enact change for yourself.