Lakshmi Nandakumar
Senior QA Engineer / SDET
Tuesday, 20 June 2023
Could you please introduce yourself?
Hello! 👋 My name is Lakshmi. I currently work as a Senior QA Engineer / SDET at Drvn Solutions in the UK. I've been working in the tech industry for over 14 years now. I'm a quality engineering enthusiast! I like to explore different kinds of testing in order to improve quality...
Whats your background?
I've a degree in Engineering in Information Technology
Whats your current role?
I'm currently working as a Senior QA Engineer / SDET at Drvn Solutions. I'm responsible for building automation frameworks from ground up for a few frontend portals we have. I also do api testing & contract testing. I also research tools in the market & build PoCs.
Why have you decided to learn to code?
Do you think its important to learn to code?
In today's world learning to code is more like a necessity than a luxury. It is extremely important to learn to code. I would encourage everyone to learn a programming language to be able to automate day to day mundane & repetitive tasks you do on your computer. I think it's also important to have a continuous learning mindset to survive in the tech industry. I always suggest Python to beginners as it's the most beginner-friendly language & it has a lot of applications.
Do you feel the tech industry is male dominated? How can we encourage more women into the industry?
It used to be a lot more male-dominated when I started in the industry over 14 years ago. I see a lot of change & a lot more women in the industry now. However, women are still under represented. The best way to encourage women to get into the tech industry is to encourage them to learn coding. Once you understand the joy of coding, it can become a passion! When something becomes your passion you want to do it more on a daily basis, therefore, you'll look for a job in the same industry. I fully understand that it is easier said than done. That's why I support the cause. A lot of the times cost can be a factor, making online courses & bootcamps available for free might encourage more women to take part.
Did you struggle being a woman in the tech industry yourself?
I've struggled with the stigma in the earlier part of my career. I've heard people say that women can't think logically hence they're not going to be good programmers. I started off as a manual tester & moved into more technical roles because I wanted to prove that I can think logically & can code. I was lucky though because I already had an understanding of coding from my University degree.
Whats the most rewarding and most challenging parts of your tech career so far?
The most rewarding part was when I wrote a test automation framework from scratch & the tests started finding bugs. That was a bit win for me as it emphasised the importance of having test automation in place. On a personal level though, I was proving to everyone that I can take on a highly technical role & be a success.
The most challenging part was when the developers in the organisation is biased towards a particular programming language, I found it really hard to introduce a framework in a language that they did not favour! Some languages are easy to pick up while others aren't, each language has it's own purpose. Having said that, I'm more than happy to learn any programming language if I'm forced to select a language that's not my first choice or have no experience with.