Hire Ben Simo!

by | Syndicated

Update: I haz new job. I am no longer seeking work. (12 June 2012)



I resigned this week.  


Therefore, I am now available and looking for new testing work.


I prefer to stay in the Phoenix, Arizona, area but may be willing to move if the opportunity is right. (I dislike the disruption of moving more than I dislike the idea of living elsewhere.)


I am an amphibious time-traveling context-driven cyborg software tester.


What does this mean?


I am amphibious. Although I am a software tester first, I’ve spent much of my career straddling roles and environments. It is common for testers to view me as a very technical person while programmers view me as one more focused on value. I check existing beliefs and test to find new information. I script and I explore. I test to help understand whether the right thing is being done and I check to help verify that what is being done is being done correctly. I’ve often found myself playing the role of liaison between techies and regular people — helping disparate stakeholders understand one another. 


I am a time-traveler. However, my time machine only goes forward. Over 20 years ago, I fell into a testing role with the illustrious title of “data collector”. I was one of a few hired to execute test cases created by others and report the results. However, from day one, things didn’t go as planned. Executing the test cases required deeper understanding than was communicated in the documentation. I quickly learned that testing can be fun and mentally challenging work. In these past 20 years, I’ve seen many technologies and practices come and go, and then come back again. One thing remains constant: the need to test whatever it is that us fallible humans try to create in the virtual worlds inside our machines — virtual worlds that have real impact on real people in the real world.

I am context driven. This means I reject the concept of best practices. Instead, I try to first understand, and then select practices that fit each situation. I adapt my testing techniques and practices to the context. While my context-driven worldview is often at odds with those of others with whom I work, I recognize that people are the most important part of any context, and therefore try to find ways that I can contribute within whatever environment I find myself.

I am a cyborg.  I have both human and artificial parts. No, I am not referring to the hardware used to reconstruct my wrist last year. I like to practice sapient brain-engaged testing and enhance it with automation. Rather than try to replace sapient testing, I use automation to enhance and extend my capabilities as a tester.

I am a tester.  Most of all, I am a tester. While I have many other skills, I generally use them to support my
testing and help others test well. I like to develop software that helps solve testing problems, but I don’t want to spend the majority of my time with code. I like people more than I like code. I enjoy getting to know stakeholders and learning what matters to them. I enjoy exploring software in search of threats to value. I enjoy communicating and helping apply my discoveries to make things better.




View Ben Simo's profile on LinkedIn





Want to know more about me?

  • Check out my profile on Linked In.
  • Read this blog.
  • Read my interview with UTest: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
  • Follow me on Twitter.
  • Send me an email.
  • Check out the experimental mind map below. This highlights some of my experience; and also contains a bunch of details that I typically think of as resume clutter.




Ben Simo
QuestioningSoftware.com