Inside stories: From QA to something even more suitable

Our team has grown over the years through the lens of people and their qualities. Because if there’s something we know for sure, it’s the fact that our agency has a super important asset: p e o p l e.

Happy colleagues’ equal productivity and results to measure. Right?

That’s why, within our team, there are constant discussions aimed at taking the pulse of our teams’ vibe. From coffee talks, to 1-to-1s, periodic evaluations and so on. All this to have a real perspective on what we really want.

As a result of those discussions, two of our colleagues realized that they wanted a change of… professional direction.

Ladies and gentlemen… today in the spotlight: Eli and Mirela.

7 mins read

The law major, the QA Tester and ultimately, the content writer Eli's evolution of her seven years at Grapefruit.

After graduating from law school, Eli felt a pull towards the area of development, being analytical, strategic, and passionate about the digital evolution of the world around her. For this very reason, she started working in a software review company, where she focused on the testing area. But this whole decision had an important underlying purpose: not the fact that she graduated from law school, but the fact that she had been passionate about computer science since high school, an avid gamer and always up to date with the evolution of the digital industry.

Eli concentrated her efforts on her professional development, constantly learning and attending numerous conferences in the field. Let’s be serious, she told us how she attended every code camp that was held at the time. It didn’t matter how far she had to travel for an event; what mattered was how much she could learn from it.

At the same time, Eli couldn’t let go of her passion for writing, even though all of this and her constant learning. She was always willing to assist with copywriting or even write for herself when she had free time. And none of this happened by chance, because she realized over time that sometimes the signs coming from within the soul are the most important for the professional growth.

As a QA Tester starting out, Eli was her only team. Basically, she was working and learning this area of development on her own, constantly motivated to learn and grow. Until she started doing more and more testing on the web and got a series of tasks where she had to add content on websites, and then the lights came on for her. Then Eli realized that she would much rather be the one writing the content to be uploaded to the site.

And.. The lights came for Eli!

That was her moment of glory: Eli expressed her desire to move from the development area to the creative area, and the content team welcomed her with open arms. That is when she realized that the best balance for her is to combine her analytical and strategic side with her creative side and passion for writing.

After joining the content team, she discovered a variety of new challenges and things to learn, which she thoroughly enjoyed. She liked her co-workers, the emphasis on the learning plan, and the continuous motivation to grow and learn as much as possible. It also helped her evolution that she attended conferences, even if they were not in her field. As a junior, networking was hugely helpful to her because you don’t know what you want, how to grow, what you like, and so on unless you network. The fact that she was exposed to a lot of it made her realize what she wanted.

Eli also stated that Grapefruit’s biggest attribute is that they encouraged all their desires to grow, learn, and even change their professional orientation from the beginning. As a result, a personalized learning plan was created that effectively guided her to the area in which she wanted to perform.

When we asked Eli how she feels right now, she said awesome, like she’s doing what she loves and has developed as much as she would have liked. But because she never stops learning, she has discovered other areas in which she wishes to advance: management, leadership, project management, and more than just production. Eli is also grateful for all the opportunities that have come her way and wishes she could give back just as much to the company.

That being said… this is Eli’s adventure, sounds like fun, right?

Mirela's chameleonic way led her from the international bubble of foreign languages to QA, and then to Project Management.

Now… let’s find out the story of Mirela, which begins in adolescence.

Mirela discovered her passion for the human side since she was a teenager. Studying Latin, French, Spanish (she loves Spanish) and Italian. Later, continuing in the faculty, studying International Relations within the Faculty of Political Sciences.

Ever since then, she wanted more for herself and her career path, so she joined an outsourcing company where she was part of the IT support team. A cool job by the way. She had the opportunity to work for an international client in the entertainment and film industry.

Here she discovered how much she is oriented towards problem solving and how much she likes this part – offering solutions for apps, various tools used by users and website.

Later she said „Yes” to a challenge within an IT giant, where the adventure of testing and quality assurance began. Her keen eye has greatly aided the company’s processes by providing quality solutions. Mirela didn’t stop there, she started taking part in QA specialization courses, thus her knowledge base was growing more and more.

More about Mirela's career path in Grapefruit?

In Grapefruit, she joined the QA team, and all the accumulated knowledge was very quickly translated into her daily tasks. In time, she actually wanted to go further into QA Automation – which would have meant going deeper into development.

Her project gave her the opportunity to grow very quickly, thus breaking the barrier of testing, doing many other extra things – from estimating to team coordination. Although it all took place over the course of a year, it was all so intense that when we asked her „How long were you on QA team?” she thought for a while, because everything felt like more. Mirela talks about this stage as an important one in her career. But wait… there is more!

Mirela is the lady who changes hats – from QA to Product Owner, Project Manager, Content Editor, Maintenance, Account Management, Strategy, to Marketing.

This chameleonic way of hers caught the attention of the agency’s management team, and after almost a year with the QA team, she completely changed direction, going to Project Management. Mirela didn’t think twice and accepted the new challenge.

If she had been asked on her first day at Grapefruit if this was how she saw her evolution, she would surely have laughed and said, „No way!”. But here she is after two years of Project Management, smiling and buzzing like a cute bee. She feels very close to her human side – dealing with people requires having some social skills, and the planning part keeps her close to her pragmatic side.

We think that this part of the organization fits her like a glove. The fact that she changes projects and industries gives her a sense of enormous satisfaction – until today she has worked on projects in the energy, baby food, automotive, banking and tobacco industries.

Sounds crazy cool, right? We think so too!

Inside stories: From QA to something even more suitable

7 mins read

The law major, the QA Tester and ultimately, the content writer Eli's evolution of her seven years at Grapefruit.

And.. The lights came for Eli!

Mirela's chameleonic way led her from the international bubble of foreign languages to QA, and then to Project Management.

More about Mirela's career path in Grapefruit?

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