TestBash NYC 2015: A Push in the Right Direction

In 2015 when TestBash came to the United States for the first time, it was to New York. I was living in the city, but I was stuck at a job that wouldn't pay for a ticket. "Ask Rosie if you can volunteer," my mentor/sponsor/benefactor Martin Hynie suggested. Rosie, who I knew only as the lady who'd mailed me Ministry of Testing stickers from England for...no reason at all, obviously let me in.

People ask "can we do it?" instead of asking "should we do it?"

~Keith Klain

I got to crash the speakers dinner. I got to go to Selena Delesie's workshop about leadership and change. At the end of the day, she praised my active participation and thanked me for being in her workshop. I was already confident in my testing skills, but she helped me see myself as a potential leader. In a follow-up coaching session I had with Selena about negotiating a higher salary, she asked me why I wanted more money. I'd recently moved into an apartment by myself, and couldn't think of what I would do with more money. It's something I think about with every job change, every growth in title and responsibility. Realizing I didn't want or need more money was a crucial step on the path to life-changing relocation.

The common denominator in all your dysfunctional relationships is you.

~Keith Klain

During a break between talks the following day, I snuck on stage wearing "the" Ministry of Testing tutu. During another, I wrote a bunch of notes to give a 99-second talk about leaving a closing comment on a story (which I completely forgot about, before later writing on this topic for the Dojo). While waiting on stage behind dozens of people waiting to give their 99-second talks, I improvised one about moonwalking instead.

The 99-second talk I didn't give

I met Helena Jeret-Mäe, Maaret Pyhäjärvi, Dan Ashby, who along with the conference friendships I was just beginning to foster, gave me a vision of what my career could be, and where it could go at a time when I knew I needed something different. Helena saw my talk at Let's Test the following spring, and gave me valuable critical feedback that helped shaped future talks. Maaret introduced me to strong-style pairing, which changed the way I worked with my colleagues to this day. Dan had me on his podcast, reinforcing for me the success of my talk at the following year's TestBash USA.

Write down when you receive a compliment. Maybe it's true.

~Helena Jeret-Mäe

Why am I revisiting my notes from this conference six years later? I might be feeling a bit nostalgic for the seeing-people-in-person events a year into pandemic-induced isolation. I'm also in the middle of reading "Becoming a Technical Leader" by Jerry Weinberg. One of the questions asks you to read an autobiography of someone you admire. It turns out none of the people I shared TestBash NYC with have published autobiographies...yet.