LinkedIn Connections

After a long gap, I started to work for Ajay. He told me that I should log in to his LinkedIn account and get the details of his connections in a excel sheet. I said ok.

Then I got my laptop and logged in to his LinkedIn account. I clicked on his connections icon which containedp around 3000+ connections. I thought it will be easy to do that. The moment I saw his number of connections I was stuck and confused how to separate the details in excel sheet. I had to separate location, contact details, experience and name. I started to do in excel sheet imaginarily. Then I thought it won't work because the connections were in different domains like testers, developers, start-ups, students, consultants, etc.

On seeing different types, my mind thought of Xmind. So I started doing in Xmind. In Xmind, the main topic was LinkedIn connections. The sub topics were different places, HR, Start-ups, Abroad, etc. The sub topics contains name and experience.I stopped with 50 connections and then sent to Ajay.

I got a reply from him as he didn't want in Xmind and he wanted in excel sheet as he can filter it when he needs it. I was totally irritated because I spent 2 hours for this.

Before I started in Xmind, I thought to ask Ajay whether it was ok for him or not. I had many queries and clarifications. But I didn't ask him even single question.
This was my first and the biggest mistake.

In the evening, Ajay returned from office and we just had a conversation on this task. I was explaining whole thing which I did on this task.  He showed me an email which has excel sheet of his LinkedIn connections. In that, each detail was separated column wise clearly. He said just fill the excel sheet with their experience and contact details. I asked him how did you do like this.

The answer he told me was he just googled it. He googled how to export LinkedIn connections in excel sheet. He downloaded it from LinkedIn and sent it to me. It was just 10 minutes work.

He said that you should not work over 10 minutes.

Yes, when we are ready to work eagerly, we are not aware of different ways of working. We will go through the flow. But we should think in smarter way.

We should work hard in our smartness. Then the result of the  work will make us smart.

The smartest way to do things in everything is Google it😉

Expense Log: Consider Savings in addition to Income and Expense

Expense Log
(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=arproductions.andrew.expenselog&hl=en)

This app is used to record the income and expense. There are different categories and we can add the income or expense as per the categories. There are other features like calendar, graph, summary and budget.

I love this app as I am able to easily track all the income and expense of the family. One suggestion I have is to add a Savings section. As savings is neither income nor expense, I would like to track savings separately.

Even for savings, we could have few categories like Fixed Deposit, Recurring Deposit, Insurance, PF, Funds and so on.

The summary can then show how much we spend, earned and saved per day, week, month and year.

What do you think?

Where I am now?

Testing is not only test the software but also it teaches how to handle our life’s realistic problems. When I started to learn testing the first line I learnt is “Testing is questioning a product”. Not only for the product, we should ask the questions for everything like what, why, when, which, how. By asking these questions, we will get the information. We will act using that information. Learning is endless since it’s like an ocean. To learn something, we should not blindly believe what’s there on the book. Asking question is very important. 

My parents had told me not to ask questions to the elder. You should obey what elders asked you to do. But this is not the way to teach children to obey elders. My childhood dream is to build a school and I (I am the only teacher to the whole school) wanted to be a teacher in the school. Because I didn’t like the way they were teaching (some teacher’s way). There did not understand the concept instead writing notes and copying. Then by- heart the notes and vomiting in the examination. I was first in the class still I did not know what I deserved. That affects me in the higher classes and colleges. I started understanding the concepts instead by-hearting the book which made me in the next struggle. If I wanted to read or learn new things, I would prefer to read line by line of the book. If I skipped any page, I lost my continuation and dropped to read. These are all my mistakes which no one would find out. 

In my childhood, I had lots of aim like starting a school, crazy about restaurants, computer engineer. I was about to know about everything. I was not aware that one can know and do everything in this world. In my life, everything happened like a magic. After my schooling, got admission in Engineering college that too in electronics stream. At the final year of the college, I got to know what is engineering. Actually engineering is easy if I understand that in first year. Then I thought about to go for a job. But I did not know what I know that time. I was ready for any job. It’s all because of pressure. After schooling everyone asked what’s next? After college, where is the job? Till then I have not asked any question to anyone and not even to me. If I questioned on me to myself, would have got any answer. What if I got job or not? What matters to them? Nothing. 

While thinking about job, again one magic happened. Yes, Marriage. I did not know what I did in school, what I did in college and what about job. Everything was ZERO. Finally I decided to help my husband in his career. So I started learning testing. Till then I thought tester is a device which test the circuit board where power is available. My husband explained about software and the software will be tested by a tester. But if I am not get married, definitely I will not write this blog now. It’s all because of my husband, Ajay Balamurugadas and also Santhosh Tuppad. These two people are amazing and encouraged me a lot that I can do it. Testing is all about mind. Thinking in different way will help in testing. Actually I am but lazy in thinking. But I am improving. I have attended one conference. Really saying, I did not understand what they are talking about. I told to Ajay that I could not understand. He said that when you are attending more conference you will understand slowly. But I know why I cannot understand because I am not working for any concern. If I worked for a company, might be know the terms they are using. But there is one way to meet people. I am attending the meet-up conducted by test insane(https://testinsane.com/) where I can see many people who are working in different companies and they are sharing their experience about their work. There I come to know that somehow about company. The meet-up is really helpful for me. I am worried that I missed the opportunity to work with Santhosh Tuppad due to some reason. I I consoled myself everything is happening for a reason. Hope, my day will come.

I got a chance to go to Germany. Seriously, I was stunned that Germans are not aware of English. They speak only German. I thought that every foreigner knows English. I am not that much good at English but I am proud that I have known at least this much. But I like them really because they have not hesitated to speak anyone without knowing English. Hesitation blocked me many times. Still I am hesitating to tell these. But I am telling my mind “don’t hesitate”. I think we are complicating ourselves with our educational system and government. But nothing will change. So I am changing myself. I am keep asking Ajay how to learn testing. But I don’t like reading that much. I read not like book worm. I asked him that I need to learn testing practically not theoretically. I tried to read some books for testing but i could not understand the terms. He gave me one idea that daily test one app and report about that app. I have done with one app like that. It was interesting. By doing this, I came to know how to test various fields. Daily he gave me feedback about my report and teaches one testing approach and what tools used for what. It is really useful for me.

Finally, the decision what I made is really working. It is useful for me and also for my husband. Am I helping him in testing? Not really now. But in future we both will be a good pair in testing.

Thanks.

First Weekend Testing:-)

 I attended my first session in http://weekendtesting.com/. The session was about https://trello.com/. Our facilitator Mr.Ajay Balamurugadas asked us to check whether the claims in the website are true. Then he asked about claim testing. But I was not aware about claim testing. Ajay mentioned the link http://curioustester.blogspot.in/2009/12/claims-testing.html to read. One of the participants in the session gave another link: http://www.bettertesting.co.uk/content/?p=613  about claim testing. I came to know that anything about the product by the company in the form of advertisement is a claim. Then I tested Trello website. I checked for the actual operation of each button. I did not know what to do in that website. Then I realised that would be used for creating list of our work and we can attach images, add description of the work, etc. https://trello.com/b/BqHGGyFk/claim-testing Here is the link how I tested. It’s interesting to learn testing. Let me try to attend future sessions also. It’s really helpful to learn practically rather only  reading books.

I am BACK

After a long gap, my learning process has restarted. I had a great experience in this meantime. “Everything is an experience” I have heard this mantra from Ajay Balamurugadas and Santhosh Tuppad frequently. Whenever they told this I was getting irritated but still it is true. I have not learnt about testing or any academic subjects in this gap. But I learnt about marriage and its work. This is the first time I was working for a marriage.

It is neither easy nor tough to do. It’s all about planning. Making a plan will not give end result. Execution is important. In this marriage, we had lots of lessons. Everyone says that marriage is a big task. It is very tough to manage all people together and so on. But now I am saying that nothing is a big task. What is big task? Big is not big, all of a sudden. Many small tasks make a big task. There are so many things to note, plan and do. I remember one lesson which I have read in Principles of Management is “Plan-Do-Check-Act”. It was very helpful to me.

The marriage process in Tamil culture is very traditional and interesting. There are so many rituals in this culture and lots of work to do. What we should do is, we have to list the things which we should do first and what should be done next. If we have such list then we will not get confused and also we will not forget the rituals. But most of us miss this part. Everything will be easy if we know the correct way of doing the tasks. I met so many people with different perspective. I think that perception causes confusion between people. Even in between all the confusion, the function got over successfully. I learnt loads of lessons. 

• One should not blame others for doing any work. Everyone has different potential of different works. Helping is good. On the other hand not to disturb someone’s work is very good. 
• We should not give or share our work to others. It might create confusion or that work will be pending. 
• Focus is very important. In our mind different thoughts will be processing but still we have to be focus on what we are doing at present. 
• We have to give equal importance to honoring people and hospitality. 
• Anytime we should have a small hand-book and pen with us. It will be useful to note down what we did and what we kept as pending. 
• One should not ask others to do our work because not everyone will do it as perfectly as we do our work. If we pay them, may be they will do. But everyone is not like that. Nowadays money matters rather than people. 
• So we have to be cautious at all the time to everyone whether they are friends or relatives.  

OnLongLeave - SelfLearning

        I don't know how to start today. Few days before, I was simply idle not to know what to do and all. Now I have to do a lot of things but I am busy with some important responsibility at home. I find it difficult to spend time for my learning. Self learning is new to me. In my school days, I always wanted to teach to someone so that I can learn. In college days, I asked my friends to explain the concepts and I will go through some important points. Luckily I passed all the exams.

        I was very lazy to read. Rather telling lazy, I could not understand English as much. From my childhood, I did not give importance to spoken English. That's because, my English teacher also taught English subject in their native language. The problem started from there itself and I was not even aware till now. In college, I came to know the importance of communicating in English. I did not like to speak in English but I had to. At the same time, I liked those people who talked in English. I was seeing them and thinking that even their grammar was not correct but how they could speak fluently. I thought that for non-native speaker of English, talking in English was a very formal way to convey our thoughts to others. But if we use our native language to express ourselves, we are very excited to tell everything. My thought was totally wrong. And I have one habit that if I want to know something new, then I have to start from the basics of that. But that is not fair to start something new. It won’t be the correct method all the time.

        Why am I telling all these? I am trying to tell how I have changed my learning style.

        After realising that to compete in this world, I have to talk in English fluently. I have asked many of my friends to talk in English with me and only then, I would get fluency. We started well but at certain stage we got diverted. And time doesn’t wait for anyone. Always, I was depending on someone for everything. I did not try on my own.

        Even if we studied from a famous (or reputed) university, they just give the syllabus for us to study. We have to put effort to study and improve ourselves. Anyone can teach us but we should be aware of what we are taking inside our mind. That is the most important thing. So there is something called self study. We can gather information from everywhere or anybody. It is easy to gather also. Gathering is not important but how we are using it, matters. I was hitting myself and told that you can ask doubt to anyone but no one will come and put efforts on behalf of you. For your mind, you have to feed what it needs. If you are hungry, you have to eat. When you are hungry, no one can eat for your hunger.

Now I am learning four things on my own.

1.     Improving in English fluency and building vocabulary by writing diary, recording my voice about some topic and listening it again and watching some YouTube videos.

2.  Reading Lessons learned in software testing book. I am seeing some technical terms.

3.     Learning Hindi through YouTube videos. Started from simple words and sentences.

4.     Learning Kannada in the same way as Hindi.

        But great lesson I have learned is not to bother about someone told that we don’t know something as really we don’t know. If they are telling like that we have to accept that and we say thank you for them. They are improving us indirectly. If we get angry on them, then we only spoil ourselves. If someone is telling we don’t know something actually we know that, they we have to be calm and let them go away from us.

       

        I am learning myself now. I love learning. But the only thing is I am a slow learner. I am learning to overcome this also.

J Happy learning J

Day-2 learning

        The day-2 started in the park where I was supposed to be reading Testing Computer Software book. While reading the book, I came across many new words. As I had mentioned in my last post about the word-web software to improve vocabulary and pronunciation, I found it useful while reading this book. Whenever I saw new words or I wanted to know the meaning, I used the word-web software. Also, I have installed the mobile app for word-web. I find the app more comfortable to me. Now I can manage both mobile and laptop together. I think, this is called multi-tasking (handling more than one task - Wikipedia Human Multitasking link) . I thought why shouldn't I take the notes of those words. Then I decided to open a new notepad file and saved the file with the title 'new words'. In that file, I put yesterday's date and noted the words and meaning for which I did not know the meaning. 

         

        That time I felt that I learnt something on my own. Then I got confident that I will improve myself if I keep learning like this.

        After that, Santhosh Tuppad has mentioned me to read about Crash course on Reporting Bugs. Through this course, I have learnt how to report a bug, who is the audience of the bug report, what are the reporting elements, significance of a bug, how to draft the bug report, how to publish the bug report and what is the checklist to be followed. Still I find it a bit difficult to understand the technical words. I hope that with regular practice, I will get to understand these terms.

        Later, I was supposed to convey what I read in Crash course on Reporting Bugs to my colleague. I am literally bad at communication and I know that I will improve soon. I tried to tell everything I read. I was not not sure if my colleague understood anything from me. Then, he taught me some keyboard short cuts.

         Before end of the day, Santhosh asked us to present our shared learning. He asked me to summarize. My mind went blank. :|

Snippet from our conversation:

Abinaya Ajay (AA): We should take duplicate copy of bug report.

Santhosh Tuppad (ST): Why? What is the need of it?

AA: Anyone can misuse the bug report.

ST: Why should they misuse? It's a bug report. Your work is to report the bug. You have done. Then why?

AA: I was silent. I could not think of anything.

        

        Then he asked about screen shot. I didn't know how to tell. I told we should take screen shot of every bug. He told that I may give wrong credentials it will not allow to the website. So that we cannot take screen shot. I got confused and asked how can we measure whether it is small bug or big bug. I told him, "If it is big, then we can take video". He replied that in bugs(insects) we can say mosquito is small bug and cockroach is big bug but in testing bug is a bug. I thought to say if it is long bug we cannot take in a single screen shot instead we can take video. He told that he asked me about screen shot and not video. I was blabbering. He taught that one should deliver what one read and not just tell whatever one knows. Then he asked about the image file format we use to save screen shots. I told .png. 

We ended the day by getting homework:

- Test any application and find 10 bugs. We should report our bugs by screen shot only. We are not supposed to write anything about bug.

I am still hunting for bugs... See you in next blog post.