Coffee with AVOXI: Meet Katy!

1. What is your title at AVOXI?

I am Katy Brockmann, and I am the Quality Advocate for AVOXI. I test our products and the quality, and I make sure that the software developers are doing all they need to do to make sure our product is the best that it can be!

 

2. What does a day in the life of a QA Engineer look like?

So when I first started, I didn't quite have a grasp on how my day would go, and I was kind of all over the place. Now I've developed a routine where I come in and I check our development board to see what things are ready for testing - so who's built what over the past 24 hours, and what can be tested.

So every morning I come in and I check my computer, check the board, and then from there I will go straight into our product and begin running through and making sure everything looks good, making sure everything is behaving the way it's supposed to behave. If something goes awry, that's when I go back to the developers and tell them what behavior I'm seeing.

I then start working on my own mini projects, night watch testing, which is basically automated testing that goes in and acts like a person, but it does it a lot faster- so then that way we find bugs a lot quicker, and we can resolve issues better!

 

3. How did you become interested in software development?

Funny story - so I was a teacher in a previous life, and I was given an opportunity to teach code camp after school to middle schoolers . . . which I had no background in whatsoever.

I learned a lot from my now team lead, Alex Stockholm, and she actually advocated for me to interview for a position here at AVOXI! I was like, "I have no idea what quality assurance or quality advocating is. I don't know anything about coding, I'm just teaching to middle schoolers, which is very basic."

Low and behold, I made the career change, and that's what got me interested in software development - it was teaching kids and kind of figuring out a puzzle, and figuring out how to put the pieces together, and where pieces are missing. Not a physical puzzle, although we do love doing puzzles at AVOXI! More of like the coding puzzle - what's missing, and what needs to be mended, and how can we put all of the pieces together.

 

4. Can you compare the AVOXI development team to the cast of a TV show?

If I were to choose a famous group or cast to compare our development team (or at least the Charleston office) to, it would probably be Parks & Recreation.

Our team lead is kind of like Leslie Knope in that she's very positive and very driven, and works tirelessly because she's very dedicated to her job.

We also have some silly cast members, I guess you would call them. We're part of a team - we work hard, we play hard, but we are unit, in the end.

 

5. Which character would you be?

Jerry Gergich!

I only say that because half of the time I don't know what I'm doing, and half of the time I'm kind of troubleshooting and falling on my face, but picking myself back up and being positive about it throughout the whole process.

 

6. What are some things you like to do outside of the office?

Things I like to do outside of work would include: hanging out with my dogs, and currently wedding planning . . . which is exciting and stressful.

I'm getting married on September 1st, 2019! Woo!

 

7. What are you best known for in the office?

I would say that I'm best known for my laughter. My laugh is really loud; and you know, if I make a mistake, instead of getting really upset about it, I just laugh about it and say "whoops!" . . . and then try to fix it.

 

8. What is your favorite part about working at AVOXI?

My favorite part about working at AVOXI is how challenging it is. I am learning something new every single day, and it's mentally exhausting, but in a good way.