User Guide

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Availability: 0000 – 1800 Pacific Time

Channels:

  1. Slack
  2. DM on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nosekbk

Personality

  • I’m very straightforward which can be a blessing and a curse. If I made you feel bad I didn’t mean it, so please call me out on that.
  • I like dark humour. The closer relationship we have, the darker the humour is.
  • Introvert who learned how to be an extrover but with a small social battery.
  • A lot of the times I talk more than I was asked to, and tend to over-explain what I want to say in a fear of miscommunication and things lost in translation.
  • I believe there are no strangers, just friends I haven’t met yet. I usually trust people on the spot, and let them slowly lose that trust with their actions.
  • I am never offended by anything.
  • Whatever I do, I am doing to help others. If you feel like I’m doing something behind someone’s back, please reach out. I’ll be very transparent about why and how I’m doing it.

What I value

Given word. If you promise something - deliver it. Whether it’s a scheduled meeting, or anything else. If something cannot be done or delivered on a promised time, just let me know - be honest. I cannot stand when people break their given words and not say what happened and why. I don’t care if you reach out to me 1 minute before the deadline – if you do that I am grateful for honesty.

Honesty and transparency. If you have something to say - say it. You can’t offend me by your words or actions because I know my value. If you feel like I messed up - tell me that directly. Be straightforward about the problem, and don’t sugarcoat the message.

Passion. If you’re not passionate about what you do you’re not giving 100% of yourself, and the end-product does not have a part of your soul.

Openness. If you need someone to tell about your successes and failures, please feel free to reach out ot me. I am more than happy to help, even if the help is to just listen.

Priorities

  • Family. My daughter, my son, and my wife. My friends.
  • Myself. My well being. My successes and failures. My improvements and downfalls.
  • Work. Only if the above are taken care of I can do 100% at work.

Other info

I’ve recently stumbled across the youtube channel called Yes Theory (https://www.youtube.com/c/YesTheory). Watching the videos I realised a lot of the times I’m saying “no” to a lot of the things in a fear of something standing between me and that goal. I stopped traveling, I stopped being curious about the world around me, I stopped meeting new people or maintaining friendships. I said “no” to many things that used to define me.

Back in 2006 I had an accident which, ultimately, led me to being banned from most of the sports I loved - downhill biking, MTB Street, rollerblades or skateboard in the local skate park, aikido (3rd Kyu), swimming, snowboarding, and more. That also put a huge fear in my head of water. I was training to get a life guard licence, and now I can barely get into the swimming pool. It took me 6 months to get used to a swimming pool before a company retreat in Mexico, but I’m still in fear of getting into the lake, river, sea, or ocean.

That event changed me a little bit, and made the transition to a settled husband and father much easier, but also put me behind the desk. My long-life dream was to visit every country in the world before my last breath – I’m 28 and I’m stuck at 14/195 countries (~7%). Now I don’t think I’ll be able to accomplish it, but I know I’ll do my best to support my kids to visit different countries, and learn about those cultures, if they ever feel like doing so.

Circling back to the Yes Theory channel. I want to be more open to saying “yes” more often. Not everything can be done now that I have a family I have to take care of, but I’d like to really live my life with my family, not just stay a dreamer in a city in Poland.

What I am currently working on

  • Automation. I used to chime in a lot of the times in our Codebase by creating small fixes and things like that. It’s a little late for me to jump on a React train, but when I was introduced to automation tests and had someone show me the approach I should take I really kicked in with automation. I can easily say I loved it!
  • Work / life / health balance. I need to protect my time more and be sure I’m staying healthy and happy.
  • QA Meetups. I’m attending and giving talks at local qa meetups. I want more people to be aware of what quality is, what do we - testers - do at work, and why our work is important.
  • Myself. I never want to stop improving. I want to be more aware of cultural differences and how to avoid those being a problem in communication. I want to be more aware of my own health. I want to be more positive, faster but without losing quality of my work, and say “yes” more often. I want to obtain manager skills not to manage people, but to understand how to manage different situations in a professional way.