The Software World

Software Development 8 Hours Isn’t Enough for Me

If It Isn’t Passion, I Would Have Given Up

Photo by Avi Richards on Unsplash

As I move to a new country about 7 years ago, I started afresh. Despite being a software development manager once, I just get any job that comes first.

I got into a warehouse job, where I work in the Stock Refill team. My task is to go collect the incoming goods and distribute them in the right place. I push tens of kilo of goods each round. Each day I pushed 20–30 rounds. Hard work.

One thing I am glad of is, right after eight hours, it is done. When I am home, I am really home. It’s 8 hours job. Sharp.

Started as Mobile QA (8 hours work — 4 hours learn)

My background is in Computer Science. I know how to program, but rusty, as I have been in management for many years. Besides, I was in the semiconductor industry but plan to get into the newer trend like mobile development.

Hence while I already got the warehouse job, I still pursue to get back into my field of studies.

With zero industry experience in mobile development, I apply to various mobile development organizations. Obviously, I did not get the job. In one of the organizations I got interviewed for, I passed 2 rounds but failed the last one. I pleaded for an opportunity, even as a trainee, in order to get the job. I was finally granted to be a QA Tester. It’s a good start. I am happy.

From 9 am to 5 pm, I do my job as a QA Personal. Mostly writing test cases, perform some manual tests, and write a little bit of automation test script. The pay wasn’t great, but the job was relatively relaxing. Still 8 hours a day for me.

Learning after hour

My aspiration is to get into mobile development. I am fortunate to work as a QA for mobile development, but my job scope is not to program. I envy the developers as they get to code 8 hours a day. Working while learning, isn’t that great?

I can’t complain much. I get to “peek” and “eavesdrop” on what develops are doing, and hence get an idea what is what’s the latest development technique, tool, etc. This itself gave me much…