Valeria Terpugova, Middle Software Tester

Today, we'd like to introduce you to Valeria Terpugova, Middle Software Tester at Exactpro. Valeria shares the story of her career shift – from the sources of her inspiration to the challenges she navigated to find her path. She also talks about her dedication to self-improvement and unveils her unique passion outside of work.

— I joined Exactpro in 2021 as a Junior Software Tester, having previously worked as a lawyer and a bank consultant. Even though I had neither a technical background nor technical education, I was inspired by other people’s stories about entering the IT world and finding their passion there. Therefore, I spent a lot of time on self-education, and my efforts paid off.

My first project was related to manual testing of the market data management system (Capital Markets division), and it was a pleasure to put into practice everything I knew about testing. I was also surrounded by  a wonderful team. Nevertheless, any knowledge requires development, so I decided to move on and to try my hand at automation testing of a trading system, which is how I joined my current project in the Global Exchanges division. This project turned out to be much more challenging, and, although it has been a little over a year since I transferred, I'm still learning something new and have a huge “to-do” list of things to be developed (especially in terms of programming skills). However, overcoming these challenges makes me a better specialist, and I appreciate this opportunity a lot.

As for life outside of work, I enjoy exploring new places and watching entertaining and educational content. I am also a cat lover (and happy owner) and a perfume lover (it is my new hobby, I find it interesting to try new samples and learn to identify different perfume notes).

I am proud of my job and the things we are doing together, and hope there will be a lot of interesting and inspiring opportunities and projects for us in the future.