talk with strangers about their profession

The text in the box is moved from my other blog!

I guess you remember the article about “skills of doctors + testers“?
I am interviewing at the moment people, which I never met before (Namasté Pradeep :-) ).
If I am sitting somewhere and have some time (because in 5 minutes you can not talk that deep), I start a talk with strangers around me and get to know details on their profession. Of course some people are not willing to talk to strangers, but some are :-)
Reason is: I want to know what I can use for my profession from their profession/experience. Won`t tell you now, what the result is - must still do some more research.

So far I had following professions (sorted alphabetically):

• financial auditor
• innkeeper
• metalworker
• office management assistant
• varnisher

comments

• Pradeep Soundararajan:

Cool, do share the information you gain from different people with us. Everyone does some testing. It would be great if you find out how they do and what can we learn from them which we might be missing or not knowing a way to do it.

reply by me:

Namasté Pradeep,

I definitely will do this.

I would like to share so far just one story which I encountered during these interviews.

I met a federal prosecutor (as you can see, I did not list him in the above list, because we only talked some minutes. But it is very interesting to see, what kind of people you can meet anywhere at any time).

So, back to the federal prosecutor:

guess what, at first he told that prosecutors and testers have not so much in common :-)

I told him one example with specifications and if there are similarities with charges: that charges must be watertight and how he checks for this? I also told from e.g. Cem Kaner (who practices law).

So, this person was not open minded in that matter. Unfortunately there was not much time to continue talking with him. But who knows, perhaps we have now someone who shows some more interest in software testing.

Now I am eager to meet the next person from court - perhaps next time I go for a walk near the court and grab me someone who looks like a federal prosecutor :-)

financial auditor

• Erkan Yilmaz:

Let’s begin with the financial auditor (FA):

(Please take into account for following: this was just a talk with one person – if I talk with more financial auditors, I will add more info!)

Just a very short description what she does (so I can use this as example):

e.g. company A wants a credit from a bank - then the bank hires FA’s company to check if the value of company A given by A is really true.

How does the FA do this - what does the FA need?

- needs good observation skills

- must know the subject / if not, should ask others for help

- intuition skills

- appropriate education

- social skills / management opinion of company A influences FA’s work

- her work influences others life

needs good observation skills

FA told that they once entered the property of a company and her colleague told: “The company has a lot of business” FA asked: “Why?” - colleague answered: “Don’t you see the many trucks?” (Comment by me: could also mean, that the company has no work and therefore the trucks are not on the road :-) )

must know the subject / if not, should ask others for help

FA goes to the company and inspects the books. But this can be tough, since FA has to check everything. So someone at the company A must help FA: she told they go through the inventory and count all (she also said, sometimes they do not count all). But not only FA needs help from inside the company - also sometimes FA does not know the business so deep, then she asks one of her colleagues, if the colleague can have a look on the numbers also. She said, sometimes she knows there is something wrong, but does not see the wood for the trees. E.g. when company A tells: “This year we needed 3 times more of material B.”, FA did not know that also then is needed 3 times more of material C. So, she told it is very important to ask, when you do not know.

intuition skills

She told that it is needed intuition, because if she finds something interesting or which seems for some reason wrong, she digs deeper. But this intuition - she told - comes with experience.

appropriate education

She told she studied business studies. This helps her a lot for analyzing the numbers. People should have knowledge on economics.

social skills / management opinion of company A influences FA’s work

I was told that once the bookkeeper of a company cried because FA asked, what the numbers mean (FA did not even tell that they are wrong, just wanted to get some more info). It seemed the bookkeeper had lots of fear from FA. She then calmed down the bookkeeper to not be afraid. So she also needs some good social skills, otherwise she only would have enemies at the new terrain. FA told, that how management feels towards this checking of FA is very important. It can be a difference if you have to search alone all papers from many file folders or you can ask someone to search for you – this saves time. FA told that most of the times they are seen as the evil (actually this also crossed my mind, when she told me she is working as FA). Well she also told, that if she sees that a bookkeeper is not doing a good job, she also tells the boss :-)

her work influences others life

reason is: Depending on the paper company A gets money or not. Also the boss of FA is liable for the checking with his property, because the boss signs the paper, which goes to the bank. So, not only because of this FA has to do a good job. Unfortunately most of the time FA’s boss does not accompany FA to company A. She has to do it most of the time alone. So - she said - she is also under stress to do everything correct.

Author: Erkan Yilmaz (2007-03-16)

see also

• Blog:Observations/Mit Fremden ueber ihren Beruf sprechen (German version)

notes

— Erkan Yilmaz (talk) • 01:19, 16 March 2007 • no comments