Andrii Halchun, Middle Software Tester
Andrii Halchun, Middle Software Tester at Exactpro, shares the story of transitioning to various roles and looks back at how a chance encounter with a friend influenced his future career.
– I have been with Exactpro since November 2021. Before that, I studied at the Poltava University of Economics and Trade. Most of all, I liked subjects such as commodity science and chemistry, which taught us how to conduct product quality tests. I liked how the outcome of the work is immediately visible. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I did not manage to get into this field of work and spent several years in various jobs, including some abroad.
One day, I was talking to a friend of mine who works in quality assurance, and he was telling me about what he does. Then I realised that this was exactly what I wanted to see from my work. To start working in the software testing and quality assurance field, I began attending QA courses and hired an English language tutor. And along the way, I started looking for a job in this area. To tell you the truth, the first time I looked at a job offered by Exactpro, I thought, "God, exchanges are so difficult, I probably won't fit them..." But after giving it some more thought, I realised that this would be a great opportunity to get significant experience. I would advise everyone who is currently thinking whether to send their resume to Exactpro, take it in the same way, because, here, you will be taught everything.
That's how I got into Exactpro and software testing. On the first project, I joined the Trading Team, where they explained to me the basics of how trading takes place on exchanges and how we would test such technology. Exactpro uses its own unique tools for this. Basically, my job is to use these tools to check if the exchange is working properly. For example, do trades occur in certain cases? In what order do they take place? And is all the necessary information about it sent to all the necessary places? And so on.
As I mentioned, I really like it when the result of my work is visible. At Exactpro, all of my work is used for its intended purpose, and I really value it. For example, the documents I completed can be sent to clients, the test cases I write will be used by someone to execute them, and the bugs I find will be fixed. All this creates the impression that I am needed here and my work is valuable, this is a completely different feeling in contrast to "I wrote the documents, and they went to the archive where they will lie for years, and no one will ever see them," take my word for it.
As part of my job, I have been involved in a variety of projects, each with its own specifics, but, everywhere, there were people who were happy to teach me something new. In this way, I am gaining more and more experience in the field of quality engineering.
I am very grateful to Exactpro and the people who work here for taking a person with almost no relevant work experience under their wing and patiently teaching me everything I need to know.