ANDREA MARUŠÁKOVÁRole: senior tester Area: IT Employer: BTL Medical Technologies s.r.o. Language: Czech, English Mentees: students Form: in person, online
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In high school, learning was quite easy for Andrea. She enjoyed mathematics, studying foreign languages and spending her free time playing computer games. Therefore, she chose the Faculty of Information Technology at the Czech Technical University for further studies, where she faced a pretty hard blow after her high school academical successes. She found out that university was all about self-study in addition to attending lectures, which was challenging for her - she didn't know how to learn effectively. After a year, she terminated her studies and applied to CTU in the field of Biomedical Engineering, where she finally found herself and eventually even used the knowledge and skills gained from FIT. When she was looking for a part-time job, she saw an offer for a position as a software tester at BTL. She was captivated by the position, although she would never have thought of looking for something like it. Eventually, she joined it and after completing her master's degree, she stayed full-time. After 4 years in the company, she moved to the position of junior Unity developer and programs computer games.
"I'm a person who needs to understand everything about my job, what I do and why, so as soon as there was an opportunity to work on something beyond my job position, I didn't say no." Gradually, in addition to the normal work of a tester, which includes testing the app, she also took on other responsibilities, such as programming automated tests, documentation and translations. Naturally, she got into the position of a "test lead" and enjoyed training new colleagues very much. She sees this as a hugely profitable investment - if she pays close attention to the person and teaches them well, she herself will have less work in the future. In addition, she likes to see when someone moves forward thanks to her. In her current role, she balances using her senior testing experience with the need to acquire additional skills in game programming as a junior.
In her free time, she enjoys listening to music, reading books on personal development, baking cakes and playing computer games. Thanks to her personal development, she realized the problem with her perfectionism. "A lot of people take perfectionism as an enviable trait, everyone appreciates it, your boss praises you, but it eats you up inside. You're taking on more and more work, and if you really want to do it properly, then it's just too much." As part of her mentoring, Andrea hopes that by sharing her experience, she can help the student with his/her own direction and also takes the program as a space to keep in touch with students who remind her of her own time at university.