You are not a drop in the ocean. You are an entire ocean, in the drop. ~Rumi

How to Deal with Negativity and Strife

Positive outlook towards life is one of my greatest strengths. It ensures I stay hopeful even in the face of extreme negativity, which in the world today seems to be a constant growing thing.

It could be that this world had this negativity, this pervasive evil all around but as I grew older, I began to take note of it. It may be that in this world of instant knowledge gains, and constant deluge of information, it is easier to feel this cancerous chaos. It feels like the chaos of civilizations, where the world is reverting to the survival of the richest, most powerful and the lesser beings caught within that struggle are being crushed by the mammoth ambitions of those wielding the power.

Rumi said it best. 'You are not a drop in the ocean. You are an entire ocean, in the drop' is my mantra for dealing with this. A few things that help me meet that mantra are:

1. Keep the positivity going: Irrespective of your situation, know that you are better than a million others who would LOVE to be where you are. This helps when you know that your very worst day is better than someone's very best one. It grounds you and lets you focus on the positive. In any situation, try to think of the pros not the cons. Once you start this way of thinking, you will notice the difference in the way you evaluate everything around you.

2. Be grateful: Keeping the context of your life as compared to others is what keeps a person grateful and humble. I may be ONE person but being grateful for friends, coworkers, and FAMILY is the single most important choice I can make. It will color everything I do in a minute, a day, a week.

3. Keep in touch with your feelings: Before giving birth, I thought keeping my innermost feelings hidden was the way to go. Having kids changed all of that. That is the single most terrifying thing you can do in your life. To have someone so dependent on you for everything means you are constantly struggling with feelings of insecurity, being overwhelmed and plain scared. However, being successful at it despite your insecurity means that you are braver for it. Keeping your soul intact means letting out your feelings and just FEEL.

4. Be Aware: This world may be in strife and turmoil but it has a lot of beauty to offer. However, if you are scared of opening up, you will miss the beauty in the middle of the ugliness. For every story, I hear of a war torn place, of unfairness or evil, I hear ten more of people trying to battle it, of reaching out to help, of just being there with a kind word. If I never try to listen, I will never hear anything.

 ‘Unfold your own myth.’, as Rumi said. If you want to leave a mark in this world, YOU can. However, you have to start TRYING first.

Traits and Goals of a great Quality Engineer

Just a few things to get started in your professional life being the VERY best at what you do. It never has to do with technical skill, though that does help; it never has to do with connections or your network, though that does help; it only has to do with what you are willing to learn and your ATTITUDE.

ALWAYS be a part of the solution not the problem.

If you are always raising problems, never creating solutions, you will never succeed, in life or in your career. Think of things that could make your life better then extrapolate them to apply to others around you.
Example: As a QA engineer, do not wait for someone else to fix your issue, be a part of the fix. Ask what the issue was, understand the solution, document it so you can share it/ reference it if it happens again.

Do not wait for others to help you, help yourself.

Life is too short to be a passive being. Be a go-getter from the start and learn how to help YOURSELF by ASKING for help. Too often, we get into a rut and forget that to learn something, WE have to DO the learning.
Example: If you are blocked from doing something, find the resources to unblock you. Do not reach out to someone and if they do not respond, wait for them indefinitely. Follow up personally, ask them if they are the wrong resource, research documentation and/or search your knowledgebase/issue tracking tool for similar issues.

Gather information but do not hoard it.

If you run into a problem, chances are many before you and many after you will run into the same issue.
Example: If you get a question from a team member about a particular issue, answer it and save it for later use. If you see the answer coming in handy on a regular basis, create a library to save the useful answers. Do not wait for that library to magically be created or maintained. Promote it and when it becomes useful, others will automatically start adding to it and maintaining it.

Think Leader Mentality Not Hive Mentality

I have been worker bee. I have liked been a worker bee. But being the core building block of a  company means that you see first hand the issues that plague the company. There will come a time when your voice will be heard and be ready to have ideas to make things better.
If we think of the whole, the absolute, as opposed to the specific, the detailed, we think about the cracks that could potentially arise down the line. Spending a little more time to address those cracks ahead of time may mean more time  and effort saved down the road.
Example: Always think of the whole after you finish working on a feature. For a QA Engineer, this could mean thinking of additional scenarios that are more edge case, of regression impact, of even making it easier on the next resource by documenting something that was not called out.

Be Prepared to Explain Yourself - multiple times to multiple people

Public speaking is by far one of the most useful tools in a person's arsenal. If you don't like speaking publicly or get nervous, PRACTICE! There is something to be said for practicing a presentation 10/20 times so it becomes so ingrained in your psyche that when you are facing a crowd, you subconsciously do well.
Example: As a QA Engineer, I get a plethora of chances to explain myself each day. Why are you pointing this story so high? Why do you have to test so extensively? Why did you find so many bugs (this one's my favorite- Answer: Because there were so many bugs to be found???)

Learn to speak calmly, objectively and clearly. It helps to have some predefined reason for your process ahead of time because you will be asked these questions. And you will be asked again and AGAIN.