Insights Blog Meet Alfred Smith III, a Diligent Quality Engineer and Scriptwriter

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Meet Alfred Smith III, a Diligent Quality Engineer and Scriptwriter

Alfred Smith III, a Qualitest Test Engineer from New Orleans, LA, is a keen, determined, and motivated professional.

February 21, 2022

4 min read

His philosophy in life is simple – work hard on a daily basis to show every little kid out there that anything is possible.

Despite his simple and quiet demeanor, Alfred is a highly confident engineer who is passionate about learning and career progression. He is always looking for an opportunity to grow and challenge himself.

Alfred believes that nothing can truly stop you if you set goals and create a plan to achieve those goals. He attributes his fierce motivation to his parents, siblings, friends, and his higher ups at Qualitest.

“I emphasize hard work because I’m a firm believer in the saying – Hard work beats talent when talent does not work hard,” Alfred says.

 

Alfred speaks highly of his university experience and calls it the force majeure in helping him become the leader he is today.

“Being involved in so many different organizations, I got to meet and work with people from many different cultures and ethnicities, but most importantly, I learned what it means to be a true leader,” says Alfred.

 

“I was on the leadership team/executive boards in all of my organizations, all of which granted me the opportunity to gain skills that would seamlessly transition into my job,” he adds.

Areas of expertise

Alfred is generally interested in all things testing, but his heart is into functional testing.

To strengthen his technical skills, he is writing a PMP exam and learning programming languages like Selenium and Python.

Software testing and the Qualitest journey

Alfred’s IT career took off when he realized his disinterest in his finance degree and felt that number crunching was not for him.

About his career, Alfred says, “My career in IT actually happened accidentally. It was my senior year in college, and I was going through the job-hunting phase. A family member then suggested that I would be great in IT. I listened to that suggestion, applied for numerous jobs, and accepted an offer. On my second day of work, I knew that this was the best decision as this is a career path that will allow me to grow as much as I’d like to.”

 

Alfred feels that the best part about working for the IT industry is that it presents ample growth opportunities.

“There is no ceiling, you can continue to grow into as many different areas as you’d like to,” he adds.

 

Alfred is positively motivated by his learnings and journey at Qualitest. He mentions that he enjoys his trainings on the job and his interactions with an open-minded team.

“My journey at Qualitest has been absolutely phenomenal. I like the fact that there’s access to so many different training courses. My team lead was great at allowing me to shadow him along, giving me tips and teaching me the tricks of the trade,” he says.

 

“I am a huge fan of how everyone is so personable and easy to reach. I also love this leadership training that I’ve just been assigned. It’s teaching me so much,” says Alfred.

Advice to the future generation of testers

Alfred feels that a career in IT comes with a great work/life balance and lots of opportunities for growth. You can also change areas of expertise/focus with necessary trainings.

He sums up some great advice for up-and-coming software testing professionals.

  • “Be open at all times.
  • Focus on building relationships.
  • Some days may be more challenging than others.
  • Your way of doing things may sometimes be different than the client’s way of doing things.
  • Develop your own methodology and your own way of doing things (writing test scripts, defect management, etc.) but be aware that this may have to change.
  • Most of all, ENJOY and continually push yourself, challenge yourself, and grow.”

Life beyond testing

When Alfred is done with work, you can find him binge watching YouTube videos, or listening to his favorite podcast: Off Camera with Sam Jones. His other hobbies include traveling, working out, reading plays, and writing film scripts.

Careers Qualitest

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