According to Cyril, being from a computer science background prepared him well for the world of IT and software testing. In fact, during his university days, he also developed his people skills, which helped later in his career to deal with different clients.

However, Cyril believes his tryst with software testing was incidental. He never chose it deliberately. He says, “Funnily enough, I’ve never chosen it but when you find yourself good at something you add it to your skillset.”

Areas of Expertise:

When it comes to picking up programming languages, he considers himself a jack of all trades, except C# and Ruby. Besides these languages, he is well-versed in AGILE Methodology, AGILE Testing Quadrant, Testing Pyramid, Defect Management + Risk Category and Management.

Learning & experience at Qualitest

For Cyril, being in Qualitest has been a delightful experience, whether it is related to improving his learning curve or finding some great colleagues to work with.

Qualitest has been a learning curve for most of my testing skillset, but I’ve had good colleagues that have helped me live the dream,” observes Cyril.

Regarding his experience at the company, he further adds that Qualitest provides a wonderful platform to develop both your technical skills as well as managerial skills.

Depending on your preference you can delve deeper into technical skills or further, a more managerial route where you facilitate,” explains Cyril.

To better illustrates this point Cyril shares his personal experience. “For example, by being a QA Engineer I’ve been exposed to API and Cloud development work in various sectors – which bring a unique use case to one’s understanding and the QA behind it,” he offers.

Cyril believes that as a QA engineer at Qualitest, one gets a lot of exposure, suggesting that “besides Client rotation – the opportunity to work in various sectors (as long as you have the relevant skills) is there – internationally too.”

He states that it can also be fun and refreshing, especially when working with some cool technology. “A wide variety of projects to work on makes it refreshing. Working with cool technology – some clients have cutting edge technology they are trying to leverage, which is a fun challenge to QA,” remarks Cyril.

Advice for budding QA engineers

Cyril has some excellent advice for budding QA engineers.

He says, “Don’t think being a QA Engineer is just testing things alone. Stakeholders will ask for your advice and your team will definitely look to you to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to something going live.”

He also suggests that honesty to oneself and others is paramount. “Don’t be shy to mention what you don’t know but also be just as pro-active to make sure you try to learn what you need to know,” remarks Cyril.

Life beyond Qualitest

Cyril is very passionate about gaming, especially fighting games. He is also an amateur foodie and loves working on creating media, both audio and visual. In addition, he is very fond of listening to these podcasts – New Rory & MAL, The Michelle Obama Podcast and Archwell Audio.

Taking his role as a member of a global society seriously, he knows how important it is to give something back to the community. He is a youth leader in his community, where he organizes fun activities for those aged 11 – 17.