What does your day-to-day work at Moneybox involve?
SALONI
I am the Lead Automation engineer at Moneybox and my work involves defining Automation Strategy and Vision along with automating new features in the app and running scripts regularly to make sure all features are working as expected. My day starts with planning tasks, debugging issues in the last day’s test runs and catching up with the team in case they need my help. Within the QA team, we like to work and have fun together so there is always something exciting planned on Fridays like team games or virtual office – where all of us get together on a video call, work and chat simultaneously like we would in the office.
LUCY
I am a Senior Engineer on the CloudApps functional team at Moneybox. My typical day at Moneybox starts with a good cup of coffee, and then doing a bit of admin (reading and replying to messages on slack and emails) before my daily Mission team’s morning stand-up meeting. At Moneybox, a “Mission” refers to a cross-functional team with dedicated Product Management, Product Design (“UX” “Design”), Mobile, CloudApps and QA specialists. The stand-up meeting typically consists of what everyone in our mission is working on, if they are blocked by anything or if they need help – as well as anything else that is worth sharing. Then I will work closely with my colleagues on getting some new features released.
We do a lot of pair-programming in our Mission, so it is always good fun to bang our heads together and discuss ideas. Between working on new features and getting those released I will also be code reviewing some of the other developers’ work. And of course, there will be the odd meeting that comes up too, which could be a 1:1 with my line manager, orbit planning (which is work that we plan to do on 8-week cycles) or just jumping in on a chat to help someone!
Are there any tools, resources, or organisations that have been useful in your career development?
SALONI
When I was transitioning from a Manual to an Automation Tester, I found it challenging to start coding and building a framework from scratch. Implementing Robot Framework+Selenium using Cucumber for web automation helped me build my confidence as it was easy to understand. I have been primarily reliant on online platforms like Udemy and YouTube tutorials for learning different tools that I use today like Appium, Java, Maven, Jenkins to name a few.
LUCY
I don’t know where to start! I love using Microsoft Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code for development work. Throughout my career I have used GitHub, which meant needing to use the git bash command line. If you’re doing this, then I would recommend installing posh-git – it’s a game changer. Oh and Chocolatey (not the kind you eat); it is a great powershell tool to install programs. I also love using Miro to design how a functionality can work and come together. I also follow a lot of developers on twitter too to keep up to date on what people are talking about. A few of these to name are Kevlin Henney, Kathleen Dollard, Allen Holub, Emma Bostian, Cassidy Williams (and many more). They often share talks they have hosted and conferences too! When I’m learning a new subject, I would search for a course on Pluralsight based on that subject.
How do you personally define career success?
SALONI
Career success for me is learning new things, implementing them, resolving issues in our framework and contributing to people’s growth. It can be a small project, a blocker (which is fixed after a few days of struggling :D) or using a new tool to improve existing processes.
LUCY
If I learn something new and am growing, then to me that’s a success. I like to continuously keep moving forwards and challenging myself. I love learning new things, especially if it means I can put it to practise and share with my colleagues too!
What are the career development opportunities at Moneybox like?
SALONI
A process that sets Moneybox apart is the progression framework for every role that is tied to an individual’s career growth preferences. Every 6 months, your performance is reviewed against the objectives and learning & development goals which were agreed upon by both line manager and line report and new goals are set for the next review period. At Moneybox, every employee has a personal annual learning and development budget which can be spent on anything from online courses, certifications, training to events/conferences that would aid in your role.
LUCY
There are so many opportunities for people to grow at Moneybox. Every little helps this, too. For example, it could be leading a key functionality, planning it from start all the way to delivering it to our customers. Or even having a focus on any new technologies and sharing how they can help us. One thing that is just as important is the structure that Moneybox has in place to ensure that people can achieve their goals and continually grow. For example, they have progression maps, mentoring schemes, pair programming, one-to-ones, regular reviews and much more!
What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve ever received?
SALONI
Mistakes happen, learn from them. Do not make the same mistake twice.
LUCY
Not all failures are bad! It helps you learn and grow to become better (doesn’t practise make perfect? 😉)
