Head of Community Markus
Hello, Markus, tell us about yourself, please!
Hey everyone! My name is Markus, and I am leading this great Community team at Test IO. I live just outside of Frankfurt, Germany – A city most people know because of its big airport. Living only minutes away from said airport, it’s particularly easy to travel the world.
My three favorite cuisines are: Thai, Indian, and Mexican! You can probably tell – I like spicy food. I discovered Thai food on my travel to Thailand last year, and I am already planning to visit this beautiful country with my fiancé again soon.
I am also a football fan of the local team Eintracht Frankfurt, love going to their games and love traveling around Europe to see them play in different stadiums from time to time.
After months of rainy weather and cold temperatures, it’s finally motorcycle season again! And this reveals my last hobby, taking my red bike on a ride through the close-by mountains. It’s another level of freedom and you should try it to understand what I mean!
Please tell us about your career on the testIO platform.
I’ll keep it short – promised! In 2013, while I was going to university to pursue a mechanical engineering degree, I started testing at Test IO, a company which was only a bit older than one year at this point. In 2015, I was lucky to become a TL and join a small group of TLs. Over time, I worked closer with the Community team and took over additional responsibilities, such as the tester onboarding, tester support, and TL onboarding. Years went by and here we are: For the last two years, I have been the Head of Community at Test IO. This journey was exciting and I would do it all over again! And while I never started working in the engineering field, this background definitely helps me in my role.
What is the most difficult part of your job for you? What do you like the most?
Our community is large, diverse, and we have a mature product that has been built over many years. Maintaining all of it and managing all activities is definitely challenging, but since the Community team has grown a lot in 2022, I have a great team with different responsibilities that keeps everything under control. This makes my life a lot easier!
I love that every work day is different. I like solving problems, building new processes & resources, and working with the product team to enhance our product. My position allows me to influence everything we do and to move our efforts in the right direction to achieve our goals.
In your opinion, what qualities should a tester have? Please give some advice to newbies.
As a former tester, let me just tell you how I became successful: Before I submitted my first bug, I took the time to carefully read all available material, to make sure I understood the assignment and to provide the best possible quality. Quality really is the key! You want to stand out among all the other testers? Submit reasonable bug reports, document them well, and you can be sure that TLs and the Community team will notice you. What else? Be creative, detail-oriented, customer-focused, and patient – Don’t expect bugs to jump at you (those ones have probably already been discovered). Lastly, good testers at Test IO embrace their role as freelancers and understand how important time management and self-organization is; Nobody will come to you to tell you exactly what needs to be done, when, and how. As a freelancer, you decide which test you get involved in, how much time you spent on it, and when you move on to the next test. (For more details, I recommend our podcast mini-series “Work smarter, not harder”.)
You can do it, too!
Tell us about your ideal day.
My ideal day starts slowly, with breakfast and an espresso, while I watch the outside world for a few minutes. That way, I start my work day relaxed and well-prepared. If, by the end of my work day, I was able to contribute ideas, moved things forward, and completed important to-dos, I can happily close my laptop and be happy with my work. Just maintaining the status quo sounds very unpleasant to me; I need constant improvements and positive changes. After work, spending time with my fiancé, family or friends is the best reward! A good mix of work and leisure time is important to me.
What place on the planet would you like to visit?
There are a few places, but my next destinations are probably New York city, the US west coast, and South America! I watch a lot of documentaries and am always amazed by this continent!
Please write 3 interesting facts about you!
1 Elephants are my favorite animals.
2 Tomatoes are my favorite vegetable, and I recently started growing my own on my balcony.
3 I attended high school in the US for one year and it was one of the best experiences in my life.