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EuroSTAR Conference

Europe's Largest Software Testing Conference

Track Talk Th7

Bring your Everything! How Clown Training made me a Better Tester

Søren Aasbjerg Andersen

11:30-12:15 CEST Thursday 15th June

Being a Tester is not something most of us were educated to be, specifically. Many of us have fallen into the business by circumstance, luck or happy accident. Being in a “composite” business like ours have many people wondering if their past experiences were just a waste of time or maybe a “shameful” gap in the CV to be explained away to a potential employer.

Let me dispel those illusions!

We are all products of our unique past. Experiences. Jobs. Education. Training. Hobbies. Handicaps. Anything you have spent time doing will shape you. But how do you leverage your unique experiences and personality into a job function? How do you turn socially perceived uselessness into an edge? Which relevant skill set can possibly be derived from clown training? Playing a lot of shooter games? Martial arts? Planting pine trees? Shovelling manure? Working in a warehouse? Scrubbing toilets? Visiting old people? Being neurodiverse and a little bit of this and that?

And how do all of these things come together to make you a better tester and team player? Our uniqueness is what makes us valuable, as people as well as professionals.

I would like to take you on a short, humorous, journey through my life, spotty CV and hobbies to show you how I leverage each and every one of these on a regular basis in my job as a Quality Engineer and how being the most “me” benefits my team, my company and ultimately the customer.

I hope that through this talk, I can inspire in you some confidence to embrace your unique skill set, however colourful.

There is cabbage involved. I promise you the cabbage is relevant.

What you will learn

  1. Your unique skills makes you more valuable than you think, to the team and to the company
  2. Take a structured look at your past and leverage experiences consciously
  3. Why do there always have to be 3?

Session Details

  • Introductory
  • 45 Minutes
  • Includes 15mins Q&A
  • Communication
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Session Speakers

Søren Aasbjerg Andersen EuroSTAR 2023 Speaker

Søren Aasbjerg Andersen

Senior Quality Engineer – Elsevier, Denmark

Master Generalist. Speed talker. Quick thinker. Perpetually curious. Pedantic. A bit too much. Unserious. Ruthlessly honest.Those titles and concepts have all been applied to me at some point or another in my work life as well as my personal life. Those who know me would say they’re all accurate. I invite you to judge for yourself.

BUSINESS STUFF I am a Data Technician by education and have been working in testing since 2007. I have been with my current company, Elsevier, since 2015 where I work as a Senior Quality Engineer. I have worked the in most areas of software test, but most of my time has been spent test automating in various frameworks as well as doing exploratory and manual testing.
In reality, I work with everything from actual test design and implementation to process design and team consultant, both strategic and cohesive.

PERSONAL STUFF Married and 2 kids. 2 cats. Live in tiny village outside Aalborg, Denmark.I like gaming, both 2D, 3D and board, playing the electric bass and watching animated shows.I am interested in scientific advancements, but no particular field. It’s all so interesting! I am neurodivergent and so are both my kids, so you can imagine we do not have a boring life at my house 😉 Fortunately I have been able to turn my handicap into mostly an advantage. I have done many, many weird things in my life and it’s hard to do that complexity justice in a short bio, but come talk to me if you want an interesting conversation, tall tale or just an ear.

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