Orit Leibovitz, an Automation Team Lead from Israel, is ambitious in her professional life and is open-minded, caring and honest with her team as a manager.

“I want them to be happy and satisfied with their job and to know that I’m there for them,” says Orit.

In her personal life, Orit believes in keeping a work-life balance to be with her family and kids, play with them, hang out and travel. She is married to Michael and is the mother to Itay (5.5) and Tahel (2.5).

Areas of expertise

As a BSc in computer science and mathematics, these two fields are her primary areas of expertise. In addition, Java is her favorite program. In her first role itself, she was introduced to the world of testing, and this is when she felt a connection to it.

“It requires out of the box thinking, challenging the system and problem fixing. This was the point I decided I don’t want to be a developer and I want to stay in the QA and automation world,” says Orit.

 

Besides the technical skills, Orit has also developed other problem-solving skills, such as time management and working parallelly on several projects under pressure.

“During the degree you face lots of pressure, need to do all assignments on time, learn several topics in parallel, face all the exams pressure and make sure you pass everything and get good grades. Those are all skills you have to use during your job,” adds Orit.

 

Software testing and the Qualitest journey

Orit’s love for computers has paved the path for her to enter the software testing world.

“In high school I took programing language class, and I knew then that this is my path and that I will study a computer science degree,” she says.

 

Orit joined Qualitest in 2014 as a QA Automation Engineer. In two years, she got her first promotion as Technical Lead and then as a Team Lead. In the last four years as a Team Lead, the team under her grew from 11 to 15-18 people.

Initially, her team had only people in automation positions, but now she manages people with different roles – developers, validators and automation engineers, regression testers and lab support.

“What I really love here is that I had the opportunity to grow and promote to positions I wanted even without experience,” says Orit.

 

She agrees that working in a tech job is not easy, but she loves this challenge.

“I’m in a world that is always evolving, and you have to read and learn to stay relevant. The tech world is contributing to all industries, and you can do great things being a part of it,” adds Orit.

 

Advice to the future generation of testers

Orit has some very simple but important suggestions for aspiring quality engineers.

“Set goals to yourself, define what you want to do, where you want to get, what you want to get from your position and share it with your manager. This is how you can plan your career path and make sure you go along with it,” she says.

 

In addition, Orit also advises newcomers to take counsel from experienced peers and superiors to better understand the work. Finally, she also suggests that everyone should take chances and opportunities that come their way.

Women’s History Month and Women in Tech

Orit has a very interesting take on celebrating women’s history.

“I think it is important to talk about it and raise this issue. But I don’t think we need a special day for it. In my opinion each and every one of us need to do actions to change it, to make the difference,” she opines.

 

Orit understands that men mostly dominate the tech world. However, she also acknowledges that even though women have started joining the tech space, one does not see enough women in management positions.


“I don’t think it is because we can’t. I mostly think it is because, from the beginning, there are not enough women that study these degrees. And less women try to take these positions. I really think if someone wants, she can get it. And we need to take chances,” says Orit.
She further adds, “I believe that if someone is good enough, he/she will get the opportunity regardless of gender. I know I’m doing my part to change these statistics. I’m a woman and a manager in the tech world and I know I’ll continue to be a part of it and move forward towards my goals.”
“I really believe that if you want something, go for it. Don’t be afraid. You need to believe in yourself and improve your capabilities in order to be worthy of what you want to get. It doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman,” she adds.

 

Life beyond software testing

Orit shares her hobby of puzzle building with her husband. Working on puzzles with her husband and kids allows her to get quality family time together.

“We (me and my husband) have a hobby to build puzzles. The last biggest puzzle we built was 6000 pieces, it took us 3 weekends to finish it. In the past we built 3000 pieces and 4000 pieces puzzles,” says Orit.