SHIFT Happens Podcast by Romanian Testing Conference

Artificial Intelligence has been around for decades, but the recent surge in generative AItools has accelerated its presence across industries. While AI is evolving rapidly, the human element remains critical—arguably more essential now than ever before. In software development, adopting new technologies means rethinking how we build. The software development lifecycle (SDLC) itself may need to ev...

Humans progress by working together. One of the goals of  Shift Happens Podcast  Season 2 is to help professionals in technology identify and develop the human skills they need in order to become better professionals.  In our 10th episode we discuss with Ashley Hunsberger about how teams and organizations can be empowered through communication or collaborationskills.  Our guest, Ashley Hunsberger,...

We are all very concerned about being protected in the digital world.  In our episode of Shift Happens Podcast, we will discuss about how to find the right balance for ethical and legal aspects when we are trying to help people, but not get too much in their lives with technology. Our guest, Mathias Jansson , works as a legal counsel at a Swedish government agency. He is currently working in proje...

If we want to bring testers and developers together, what better way than through performance testing and performance engineering? Nicole van der Hoeven, the guest of this episode, is a Senior Developer Advocate at Grafana Labs. She’s been in the performance engineering space for more than a decade, most of that time as a consultant, helping teams test distributed systems and make them more reliab...

The topic of this episode is Building Tech Products for Tech People. In this industry, professionals strive to create software designed for humans. This theme is central to the episodes in this season. Aaron Ingram has been a tester for approximately a decade, with a significant part of his career focused on automated testing. He has developed multiple testing products within his agency, enabling...

As a journalist with twenty years of experience in the field, Vitalie Cojocari covers critical and relevant aspects impacting social, political, economical and environmental issues in Romania. He started his career at ProTV Chisinau, he then worked at Pro TV Bucharest and recently he was co-opted by Euronews Romania, where he followed his dream to create his own show "Voices that matter".  "Televi...

Rachel Kibler has been in the testing industry for nine years. Initially a lawyer, Rachel found this profession unfulfilling, and her love for logic and problem-solving led her to pivot into testing, where she discovered her passion for understanding systems and people. "I loved math," she shares, "and math just made sense to me. That’s why I chose testing." Rachel shares her thoughts on AI’s role...

Melissa Tondi is the Director of Technology Enablement at Campminder, a Principal at Disrupt Testing, and a frequent speaker at various conferences, with over 20 years of experience in the testing industry. “I think that a detail-oriented mindset as well as being very curious are the things that made me excel and find a home in software testing” - Melissa reflects on her journey from being highly...

Paul Holland is a software tester and has been in the testing industry for 29 years. He shares how the 4 years of university taught him he doesn’t want to be a developer “I was good at programming, I just didn't enjoy it, I did enjoy software”. This highlights the importance of being honest with yourself, discovering what you truly enjoy, and pursuing it. “If you’re not learning at work, you’r...

Huib Schoots is a Principal Quality Consultant with nearly 30 years of experience in the IT industry. Over the last 10 to 15 years, he has dedicated his expertise to helping organizations and teams enhance their quality processes.
 “How does this work?” As a kid, he was an explorer, always curious and asking questions about everything. This is what led him into the IT domain.
 Huib discusses the i...

Our guest, Grzegorz Niczyporuk, is an Engineering Manager and a Magician. He blends these two seemingly disparate worlds seamlessly. With a passion for both the logical and the mystical, Grzegorz has found innovative ways to integrate the precision of engineering with the wonder of magic. He is one of the few individuals we know who successfully manages to excel in both roles simultaneously, despi...

A new season of the Shift Happens Podcast is (almost) here! We are ready to share valuable techniques and skills from international experts in the IT world  - and more than that: a unique blend of stories, deep dives into tech innovations and expert insights in order to become the best IT professionals. The podcast is hosted by Alex Mocioi , a seasoned expert with 20 years in software engineering....

"Only when you start teaching someone you actually start learning yourself", says Mike. He is a firm believer in the idea that knowledge grows when shared and really believes in his own quote: "It's all about giving back; nothing happens in isolation."   Mike Dolha is a software developer at Nagarro. He has 10 years of experience, and also takes on the role of MC at the Rom...

Rachel is a senior test engineer based in the United Kingdom. We met her at the Romanian Testing Conference (RTC) 2023 and her ideas were worth spreading. So here we are! She enjoys taking part in testing conferences and shares how much she values the knowledge she gains from them. “Having that human feel of learning is my preference” , she manifests a preference for listening to valuable informat...

Hilary Weaver, Senior Quality Engineer, has been in the testing industry for over 16 years. She is now sharing valuable tips, ideas, and information based on her vast experience in this field. ”I needed those rejections to grow further in my career and be able to succeed”. She shares the journey to her dream job. The years of intense learning, how she dealt with and embraced rejection as a valuabl...

Tobias Geyer, Software Tester with over 20 years of experience, shares his opinions on digitalization, the importance of good communication among team members, and more information about his work. “At the end of the day we are talking about humans”, Tobias acknowledges the importance of human connections. Building and maintaining friendly relationships with colleagues. He also emphasizes how good...

Director of Engineering at Trustpilot, based in Copenhagen, with 11 years of experience in software development, leading teams and scaling systems, Dana Aonofriesei answered a lot of (good) questions about testing, AI, IT, productivity. She moved from Romania to Denmark because she was curious to work in a modern company, with progressive mindset, in a company that was building its own product. Hi...

I don’t know how we all got jobs. There were two of us in the team who made sure we all worked, the rest of us were absolute clowns. It was enjoyable, there were really good teams and I learnt a lot there. These days, the budgets for these games are similar with the ones for a Hollywood film, it’s not small money and it is more serious and credible. Vernon Richards shares ideas, memories and infor...

“I bring a deeply human perspective to technical work. I value and I think that we don’t spend enough time thinking about the people that use our tools, that use our software, that experience what we build. So I hope that people would say that I bring a very human perspective and a real concern for the people that use our software”, says Jenna Charlton, software tester and the director of product...

"A professional athlete spends 7-8 hours a day training, identifying the weak points and engaging in deliberate practice to improve their skills. I don’t see that much happening in the IT space”, says Andrei Conțan, our content manager, co-founder and organizer of the Romanian Testing Conference. At Shift Happens Podcast, Andrei shared for the first time how he finds his inspiration in sports...

“A lot of people ask “Is the testing industry dying?” I think testers are the perfect changing enablers. We need to focus on this part. I was a software developer for 11-12 years and I was extremely bored”. Lena switched then to testing.  Lena Nyström shares with us her story about change, career, testing and personal growth with us at Shift Happens podcast. She is the author and creator of “Would...

“I started as a developer and the first 2 months were incredible for me. And then I got really bored. I thought: this is really boring and I need something else. Everybody was telling me this is not the right choice to make because being a developer is so much cooler and it will be worthwhile in the long term. I just knew that I needed to do something else. And I started my testing career. I’ve be...

"For me, it is about giving back now, that’s where I am in my professional journey, it is so important to share the challenges. Everybody likes to share successful stories, but we really learn from failure stories. We put so much pressure on ourselves to make sure everything is perfect. Perfection is something we create for ourselves, it’s not imposed on us. It’s ok to not be perfect", s...