Her Story
About Roli
I have been in the quality assurance field since 2004, almost 21 years now. I graduated from University of Cincinnati with my bachelor's degree in information technology. While doing my bachelor's degree, I started working at GE Corporate as a business analyst, and that's where I realized this was the right path for me because I was very good at finding issues when testing or working with clients. I followed my instinct and built my career from there. After GE Corporate, I worked at DFAS defense company as a tester, then moved to Acclata as a QA lead where I worked for almost 5 years. I then continued at Seagate in Minneapolis as a QA lead, managing and leading projects and people, dealing with direct hires. After being laid off from Seagate due to cost cutting, I found a job at 3M Health Information System as a QA engineer and QA lead, and I've been promoted to QA manager at Solventum. It took hard work to get where I am today, but not just hard work - it required focus, knowing what you want to achieve from life, multiple skills, and making sure we are committed. Now I'm more enjoying my work because I'm not just influencing myself, I have 10 to 15 direct reports under me, and I'm transferring my knowledge to them. They are learning from me, and I get feedback that they really like my working style and want to adopt it. When I hear those things, I feel very proud that people are learning from me, because at some time I've been learning from other people, but it's glad to know that someone else is following my footsteps as well.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Roli
01What do you attribute your success to?
It took hard work to get where I am today, but not just hard work. It required multiple things - your focus, what you want to achieve from life. It's not just one skill that can help you achieve this, it requires multiple skills and making sure we are committed. I followed my instinct early on when I realized during my time at GE Corporate that I was very good at finding issues when testing or working with clients, and I chose that path because I knew it was right for me. Now I'm fortunate to have 10 to 15 direct reports under me, and I'm transferring my knowledge to them. When I hear feedback that they really like my working style and want to adopt it and learn from me, I feel very proud. At some time I've been learning from other people, but it's glad to know that someone else is following my footsteps as well.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think the challenge right now is if we are in a manual testing field with no experience of coding or automation, there will be lots of changes and a lot of learning curve for those who want to keep up. I've heard many articles that manual testing will be gone, but I don't think that is feasible or possible to get rid of because human touch is needed in any product. Manual testing is not going to go away, but manual testers have to keep their knowledge and technology up to date, and they need to be able to learn new things and participate in automation as well. Learning a little bit automation will be helpful, keeping up with the latest technology, and utilizing AI because that will make them more productive. In my job, AI is helping a lot and I'm saving lots of time. At a certain point, I would say it's a good thing - technology comes and goes, new technology will always be there. We need to make sure we are able to adjust to that instead of complaining.
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